MANUKAU BY-ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 22443, 14 September 1936, Page 8

MANUKAU BY-ELECTION.

It is a pity that the Nationalist executive was not successful in obtaining a more typical member of the party as a candidate fox’ the Manukau seat, which was rendered vacant by the appointment of Mr W. J. Jordan as High Commissioner for New Zealand. By no stretch of imagination can Mr F. W. Doidge be described as a representative Nationalist. In the early General Election developments he was closely associated with the Democrats. Not being selected by them to carry the party banner, he stood as an Independent for the Rotorua seat, which was won by Labour. He was second at the poll, with the Nationalist third. During the campaign Mr Doidg© was very sevex-e on the Coalition Government. Like the Democrat leader, he considered Mr Forbes and Mr Coates quite incapable of directing the affaii's of the country in a satisfactory way. An apostle of Lord Beaverbrook, he has adopted without reserve policies that are not likely to appeal to many people in this Dominion either by their practicability or their wisdom. Now Mr Doidge is fighting a battle for the Nationalists. His excuse, if he wanted one, would no doubt be his consistent opposition to the Socialistic aims of the Labour Government. He shows courage in entering the fray for the Manukau contest, which area is a Labour stronghold. At the election in November last Mr Jordan had a majority of more than five thousand rotes over National and De-

mocrat candidates combined. In the General Election of 1928 Mr Jordan received 6,567 votes against 5,565 cast for the United and Reform candidates. The effects of Labour’s policy on the welfare of the country are not yet revealed. The Government still has the prestige of its great victory in November, so the difficulty of obtaining a suitable Nationalist candidate for the electorate can be understood. In his opening address at Ellerslie last week, Mr Doidge had to face a continuous fire of interjections. His vociferous hecklers showed a total disregard of fair play, and he had no easy task in completing his speech. Ignoring Beaverbrook theories, he declared that he stood as the representative of a newparty, with a new leader and new ideals. Its policy was simple and straightforward, its aim the progress and prosperity of the State, its ideal the preservation of the Empire and its institutions, its care the health and happiness of the people. It is difficult to see anything new in the ideals thus expressed. They are those of the late Government, which translated them into' action with considerable success, Mr Doidge directed vigorous fire at Mr Savage and his Ministers. He said theirs was a policy which sapped the vitality of the nation. It aimed at the suppression of individual effort, “ The Prime Minister’s ideal,” he said, “ is that ,New Zealand should become a paradise for parasites, but there are not sufficient potential human parasites in this country for Mr Savage to succeed,”

The difference between promise and fulfilment was emphasised by the candidate, who declared that the Government was faced by a disillusioned and angry people. The simple faith of the dairy farmer was destroyed, and the town dweller was deceived with the assurance that all the amenities of an American millionaire would be his. As ammunition he cited the Prime Minister’s promise that there would be no increase in taxation, the failure to repeal the sales tax and to reduce the exchange rate, the vague talk about costless credit, and other visionary schemes that had their origin in the theory of State Socialism, which Mr Doidge unequivocably denounced. His assertion that there is no diminution in the army of the jobless is borne out by the latest issue of the official Abstract of Statistics, which shows that the total number of unemployed in the Dominion on August 1 was greater than on the corresponding date in 1935. Mr Doidge’s candidature may appear to be a forlorn hope, but it has the merit of focusing attention on the Government’s failures.