NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2143, 8 May 1914, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

, — i THB Reform Government is paying . the. penalty-of its popularity in the matter of candidates for the coming ; General Elections. \Yhereas in past years the party at times- experienced difficulty in securing candidates to carry the llefynn banner, they are. now being embarrassed wit# jthei abundance of the offers received froi.ii would-be M.IVs. The outcome may' be awkward divisions of votes in biio or two electorates, but- on tho whole Ministers and their supporters have occasion to be Well pleased with the strong array of candidates which will take the field od tho side of Reform. In tho electorates now held by Government supporters the sitting members will,- in nearly, ail casts, again come forward. Wei* lirigton Suburbs is an exception. Mr. W. H. D. Bbu> will not reek re-elec-tion, and probably Mb. J. P.' Luke will be the Reform candidate. There is said tojbe soma likelihood of a split at- Palmerston North, Ma. J. A. Nash, the. Mayor, boing mentioned as a possible rival to Mil BtftCK, the sitting member. The Wardists naturally hope to sec! a division of Reform votes in this electorate, and trust thereby to win-the seat, but Mr- BuicX and his friends ate confident of the outcome. In the Marlborough district Mi*. Dtwfcur, who lost tie sent at the last election to Mu. H'Omaum, is regarded ns certain to regain it- Mk. M ! OAi,t,uii lias proved' n even to his friends, and it is generally reeogiik-od that he may be written down as one of the political failures. On th» West Coast of lh<> 8011 th Island candidates will be forthcoming for'ftll the seats, and there are encouraging signs 'of a big turn,-over of political feeling in that quarter, to the advantage of the Government. Mr. Db Lautowß, who put up a vigorous fight for the Bay of Plenty soat last.election, will this time contest the Oisborne seat; while Mb. K. §. WiiWAJta will contest the Bay of

Plenty witSi Mii. Mactionals. A strong candidate in the person of ; Mr. P. H. Kelly is announced for 1 Napier, while for- Wanganui that 1 political stalwart, Mr. "F. Pirani, ; can be relied on to make things merry ' for his opponents whoever they may ■ be. In Canterbury the position is : perhaps less favourable -at the mo- , menfc than in any other part of the : Dominion. K 7 o Reform candidates ; have yet been announced for the i Chri-stcburelj City seats,, but Mn. Miluit will .again eome forward for Lyt-telton, and in the country districts Mu. D. Jones has been selected for Kaiapoi, and Colokbi. HayHuttst for Teoutka, Of tho Otago > seats at present held by opponents of the Government, Mr. Dowxie Stewart is regarded as likely to capture Dunedin West, while Wallace, Dune din South, aiul Invcrcargili arc also anything but "strongholds" of "Liberalism" just iiow. It is. of course too early yc : t to write with confidence of some of the seats, but the outlook generally speaking very cheerful.for the- supporters' of .Reform—infinitely more so than has been the case at any time during the past twenty years. one of his resent -speeches in the North, Me. Herdjian touched on the "pigeon-hole" argument which some of the Wardists are fp-ad of using. When the customary stock criticism of the Government is -exhausted some of tho energetic gentlemen now touring the country in the interests of Wardism seek to impress their audiences with the excessive virtue of the Ward and Mackeszvk Governments by asserting that members of the Massey Government have not- been able to .find, any scandals stored away in the pigeon-holes of ■the Ministerial offices. It is hardly likely that any intelligent body of politicians would leave.- records of scandalous transactions lying round, either in pigeon-holes or anywhere else, for their successors to alight on ■ but perhaps there are pec-ple who ?eo some merit in the argument. Mr. Herman's answer to it was characteristic, Ministers, he -said, had quite enough to do in the administration of their Departments and in the preparation of legislation for tho benefit of the country as a whole without searching pigco-n-'bolcs for political scandals, They preferred to base their appeal for the • confidence of the poopk upon the merits of their own policy and administration, As a matter of fact so"much is already known of the- sho-rtCGiti-ings of Wardisin that it is quite itnliQCess&ry for Ministers to engage in detective work, even if they wei'c so inclined, merely for the pur-pose -of "piling on the agony."' Last evening the Social Democrats turned their energies towards capturing control of the local schools by running "tickets" at the school committee- elections. While it is a good thing to see citizens of * all classes interesting themselves in school management it i.s tin-desirable that political and class conflicts should be introduced into these elections,, as unfortunately seems to hare been the purpose of tho Social Democrats. One of their circulars issued. in connection with last night's dec-., tiofts read as follows :•*- Social Democratic Party. • Wellington Branch. T-o Members and Friends,— '"hi," year tho atevc Party has dsj- . cided to pArticipatf? in the Election #f the various .School Committees thtfeu-sh-* out this City, and we aglj you to make it ■a point to attend til® meeting ill yoto (iis'tf-ict, and vote for our candidates, tour residence is in tho —«— School District, and the election mtefcing is iifc the Clyde Quay oil Thursday, .May 8> at 8 p.m. Our candidates tor the above- Sejiool Committee are —-. Every householder, wives of hGiisoliold* c-rs, and sab-tenaufe who pay 45M or aver yearly rental are entitled to .vote s and II dur niem'be'rs do their duty by attending the meeting and. voting, we shtill hft-vo no di.;!ic-itliy in gettiag our candidates elected. Give one. vote to each of the above candidates, and do not' vfcte for any othew; otherwise you cancel the vote cast for us. In view of some of the eveftts of last year, when a school in «j wealthy -ijuarter iv-as ailowed to Jiold its examination, before the other schools, thereby allowing its pupils to get into free places before scholars in poorer quartets.; aud ia «n----stiiw school the pu.pils were sent home and the wheel turned into a barracks for speoioi constables, we thiak you will ngteo that it is time the- workers- twit steps to bo more directly represented on .- these bodies than is tho case at present. Therefore, do not fail, to attend the above meet; ing, and go early to make sure of gcttiug m ' , J, GLpyiiPv, Chairman. ■ It will be seen front this that an effort was made to create, the impression that the children of "the. workers" and "t-ho. 'poorer classes" are placed at a- disadvantage in the State schools, and that the Social Democratic Party is seeking to remedy this. It is a deliberate and mis-, ehievon? attempt to promote, cla-s-s feeling., with the object of furthering the ends of the so-called Social Democratic Party. Having been routed in their efforts in -other directions the loaders of the warty sought in this new fieldi where they were unlikely to meet with organised resistance-. to -spring a surprise . on the public,, and by means of their own organisation secure control of the State School Committees in the City. Happily they were again frustrated in their designs.