THE BY-ELECTION AND THE "LIBERALS."

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14842, 6 December 1913, Page 10

THE BY-ELECTION AND THE "LIBERALS."

Perhaps it is not surprising that our "Liberal" friends eHould consider it less troublesome to attack Mr Miller than to search for some good reason why any of his opponents should be elected. For anyone would find it difficult to get up any enthusiasm for tho "Liberal" candidates. Surprising or not, the Opposition critics are devoting all their attention to the Reform candidate, and their attack has taken the line of exceedingly gross misrepresentation of his views, and even of the words of his platform statements. "At Opawa on " Wednesday night," says our local contemporary, "ho said that ho was in " favour of a State bank, a State ferry '.' service, the single tax, under another "name, the payment to workers of all "they earned and a little more, and " implied that he would do his best to "prevent Mr Massey tinkering with "tho Conciliation and Arbitration " Act." On the preceding day, Mr Miller was referred to as having "nn"nounced" that he "is opposed to Mr ' Massey's tinkering with the Concilia- " tion and Arbitration Act." In the report of Mr Miller's speech which appears in the "Liberal" journal, there is not a word about "opposing ,, Mr Massey's "tinkerinC with the Act. Mr Miller merely 6aid "he upheld the " Arbitration Act," and added a word or two to tho effect that employers ignored the little breaches of. it by unions and that the chief trouble was the paid agitator. Not less gross was tho misrepresentation of Mr Miller's views in other respects. He was careful to qualify his approval of a State ferry service with the words, "under "certain conditions.'' Of the single tax, under its own name or any other, there is not a word in his speech. Mr Miller will no doubt take the view, which is the correct one, that this stupid misrepresentation of his views will not injure his prospects, and that the fact that his opponents feel obliged to resort to misrepresentation indicates their fear that he will head the poll.

The election campaign is a very satisfactory one in that there, has been little to turn the public's mind away from the true issues. Perhaps the Opposition will not be so grateful'for this fact as,.if they were straightforward, they ought to be, but it is all to the good that the fact is bo. The " liberal" candidates have given no single reason why the Government should be opposed; when. Sir Joseph Ward and his colleagues cannot think of any/ good reason " themselves,- and have simply given up their search for a policy to justify their existence, we could hardly expect Mesers Laurenson and Radcliffo and Thacker to achieve tho impossible. But they oppose the Government as a Government, and are to that extent championing the forces which hate the Government for securing tho safety'of the community and tho re-establishment of tho trade which tho allies of '-'Liberalism" sought to destroy. These candidates have been instructed, on behalf of the Liberal Party, that "Liberalism" is ninetenths Red Fedism. We may quote again the official declaration on this point, which was made- by tho local organ of tho Opposition: "The Liberals " supported Mr Webb because they " knew that nine-teDths of his policy "was their own." That our "Liberal" friends are for the present leaving this fact unemphasised is natural enough. There is a Rod Fed. candidate *m the field, and an untimely repetition of the fact that "Liberalism" is nine-tenths Red Fedism (the other tenth, we suppose, is ill-humonr) might cause a section of the "Liberal" voters to decide that they may as well come to the point at once and vote for the Red Fed: candidate. These,, however, are little troubles that will not affect the majority of the electors, who realise that the question is whether the Government which has championed the cause of the community in this time of industrial trouble shall triumph, or whether the Lyttelton electors shall present a. scat to tho lawless Federation of Labour.