The Patea By-election.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 17116, 11 April 1921, Page 6

The Patea By-election.

Although it is not figuring prominently in the news columns of South Island newspapers: the Patea by-election is a very lively one, in which the Govern;ment, the Liberal Opposition, and the Labour. Part; are all actively engaged.*

The Labour candidate in this triangular contest is being assisted by Messrs Holland, Fraser, McCombs, and others; the Liberal nominee has been reinforced by Mr Wilford and six other members of Parliament—the full strength, practically, of the Liberal Party in the Hou3e; and Mr Dixon, the Eeform candidate, has had the assistance of speeches by Mr Massey on one day last week. The parties in Parliament is beyond disturbance by the result of the by-election, whatever it may be, but it is nevertheless a matter for satisfaction that the contest should bo so lively. We wish we could say that the Liberal candidate and his friends were supplying an extra cause for satisfaction by making clear what they are lighting for. The Labour position, of course, is easily enough understood. Mr Holland and liis friends have calculated that the division of the moderate vote between Mr Dixon and the Liberal candidate, Mr Morrison, affords a very good opportunity to Labour to increase by one the strength of the little group which represents in Parliament the extreme revolutionary spirit that haa taken control of the Labour movement. . They are being careful not to alarm tho Patea electors; they are keeping the Red Flag out of sight, and roaring like sucking doves. But we nil know what tEey stand for, and that is something. But what Mr Morrison stands for is not at all clear. The party to which he has presumably given his allegiance has no policy —a fact which Mr Morrison finds very hampering indeed. At WaVerley the other day he opened a speech, which was for the most part a rather tamo criticism of the Government, by declaring that ho would lilte to see the party system abolished, "but having been " chosen as the Liberal candidate he "was doing his best to support the " Party." And he concluded his speech by saying that ''Mr Massey was in need " of stirring up, as he had too many "members with him." These statements will, we think, be taken as sufficient justification for the suggestion that there is really no good reason why the Liberals should contest this seat at all. The by-election serves to show how purposeless and unprofitable is the continuance of the Liberal Party as a disturbing factor in our politics. In tho present case it is probable that the Labour nominee will not win through the splitting of the moderate vote, but in the country as a whole Labour would profit unduly from a division in the ranks of moderate men. If the small remnant of the Liberal Party could establish a claim to tho guardianship of moderate opinion, we could hardly suggest that it should efface itself in the interest of tho nation. But nothing has been moro clearly demonstrated in politics during the past decade than that moderate opinion looks nowadays for guidance to the Reform Party.