THE BY-ELECTION

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14838, 2 December 1913, Page 6

THE BY-ELECTION

The first of tho "Liberal" candidates for tho Lyttelton seat, and the nomineo of tho Ited Feds., opened their platform campaigns last night. Of Mr Radcliffe it is perhaps unnecessary to say much more than • that his speech was as.excellent a bundle of inconsistencies and confused ideas as it is proper to expect in a "Liberal." In spito of all this, Mr Radcliffe was not burdened by tho great disadvantage of having to speak as the strictly fettered advocate of a party adopted for the occasion. Tnis was the, position of poor Mr McCombs, and perhaps we ought to take up tho attitude that many good-natured people will adopt, and make a very generous allowance for the difficulties of a gentleman who was onco an "Independent Liberal," but who is now the least independent person in sight. "Independence" did not bring Mr McCombs much luck in politics; in fact, it brought him none at all. And as he is adaptable and teachable, it is natural that he should try the other extreme, place oven his right to stand in the hands of "Professor" Mills's littlo caucus, and take his solemn oath to expound, if not to understand, tho Red Fed. programme and mako it look as littlo like nonsense as possible. Tho Red Feds, have been telling us that the employers are aiming at the destruction of unionism, . but Mr McCombs says that the employers aro not opposed to unionism. Mr McCombs is quite right, but Mr McCombs will be reminded by his masters that being quite right is not what he should aim at, and we have little doubt that he will repair his lapse into accuracy. Ho thinks that preference to unionists is "evil," but he favours it because ho has heard that preference to non-unionists is worse. This may be made quite intelligible in tho brief which has been given to-Mr McCombs; as Mr McCombs puts it, it is far from clear. His views on taxation appear, indeed, to indicate that his new bonds have had a numbing effect upon his mind, for he contrasts the 3. millions of customs taxation with the three-quarter million derived from land taxes, failing to see that tho land taxes aro merely an extra burden upon a class who pay their full share of the 3| millions. In his old days of independence, too, Mr McCombs may sometimes have dimly realised that the State, which he now blames for spending more on "tho higher classes" than on primary education- could not well

spend more on primary education unless it taught the children twice over. The ono good idea in the speech is the suggestion of State education for adults in need of it, and we approve tho suggestion none the less warmly because it is Mr McCombs and his new friends who would most profit from the scheme. But wo may let the public read the speech for themselves. They should remember, in reading it, that when they think anj- sentiment moro than ordinarily pernicious or absurd, it is, as the candidate himself indicated, less the statement of a free and independent, or even "independent," candidate than the sentiment of a mechanical and strictly-bound advocate of Red Fed. principles. In tho circumstances the candidate might easily havo made a much poorer show-