THE BAY OF PLENTY SEAT

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 4, Issue 183, 21 November 1941, Page 4

THE BAY OF PLENTY SEAT

Sir, —Mr Holland's announcement . that the National Party will officially contest the "Bay" seat will be received with surprise in view of the political truce that was arranged between the major parties. The manner in which the Leader of the Opposition rushed into the electorate to precipitate this announcement lacked reverence and a sense of propriety in view of the sad circumstances pf the vacancy. I am not interested or concerned with Mr Holland's comments to say that the "truce" w&s j stand in respect to soldier members serving with the forces and his point in regard to the Auckland West and . Waipawa by-elections had no signi- 1 ficance in view of the fact that these ■' vacancies occurred in the ordinary ", way. If Mr Holland's interpretation is correct it only goes to strengthen the point I desire to make—and that is that political parties exceed their constitutional rights when they influentially meddle with the repre- „ sentative rights of the people. Mr Holland's contention that the arrangement that all vacancies occurring during the present Parliament came under the "truce"—if agreed to —constitutes an influential- ■y interference with the people's representative rights. Mr Holland fur- . ther suggested that the 'truce' had no value because Independents obtruded in certain contests and which indicated that he relied on the trilce being observed and the objective

the parties to avoid an election being respected by influencing their respective followers to abstain from nominating or voting in what should be a free contest under the constitution. I am not only opposed to any interference or influence being used in respect to our constitutional rights and privileges, but I feel that the electorates concerned have suffered and are suffering an unjustifiable interference with the public business aspects of the respective areas. We can have nothing but admiration for our soldier members who at the call of duty volunteered to serve in the forces, but in doing so they must bow to the electoral laws of the •country in the ordinary course. The sacrifice could be quite easily recognised by an amendment of the law to provide on the return from overseas for a by-election to enable these members to recontest the seats. This course would result that not leaving the seats unrepresented. It Avas surely obvious that this war—when entered upon—was likely to be a very serious and lengthy matter and in these circumstances it has resulted in a large number of electorates being left unrepresented.

The extensive rural electorates of Matawai, Waitemata, Mid-Canter-bury, Awarua, Miotueka, Hauralci, Rotorua and Bay of Plenty together with the city electorates of Christ-» church North and Wanganui are the areas left unrepresented. Where does John Citizen come in? In other words the action of the legislature has disfranchised these large and important areas not for days or weeks but for years which—apart from the constitutional aspect—is a very serious matter for the many public requirements of these important and exclusive districts and I repeat constitutes an unjustifiable meddling and undemocratic interference by Parliament to which all parties are responsible. The people are also necessarily concerned with the economic aspect. These absent soldier members—many being officers of high rank—are quite probably draw ing military pay and family allowances in addition to Parliamentary salaries which in itself aggregates some £5000 per annum and for which emolument in consequence of enforced absence they are unable to render any service in respect to Parliamentary duties.

Any attempt to interfere with representative rights either by Statute or party truce should be stoutly sisted. If the National Part}'- had been sincere in their desire of a National or Coalition Government they would have divided the House and fought to- the last ditch on the vital principle mooted in the prolongation of Parliament and the constitutional issue involved and at the same time nailed their colours to the mast in regard to the principal involved in regard to Mr Holland's last minute move to throw overboard a solemn truce to secure a "Party" advantage.

Yours etc.,

C. H. BURNETT,