THE RAGLAN ELECTION

Hokitika Guardian, 3 October 1927, Page 4

THE RAGLAN ELECTION

LATEST FIGURES.- - • -• HAMILTON; Kept. 30. The complete returns in the Raglan, by-election, with !)7 absentee votes income are:— IV. Lee Martin (Lab.) 2200 A. H. Wining (R.) 2025 T. Barker (L.) ..... 1095 C. A. Magner (CUM 532 ; IV. .1. Taylor (Ind. R.) 198 AUCKLAND, Kept. 30. The Labour victory in Raglan has been very well received in Auckland. As one man put it. “The Government was due for a bat in the eve with a burnt stick." Even in Reform circles j there is no undue lamentation, because it Ims been felt that the Government has got seriously* out of touch with* public opinion, and Raglan’s physic should prove tin* required corrective. Nevertheless the electors’ somersault in less than two years is not easily disposed of, especially in an electorate that has been faithful to Reform since il hist was constituted. The voting call b? analysed in mnnv ways, but perhaps the most impressive, is to place yesterday’s figures side by side with those of 1925 as hereunder Party 1925 1927 Riff. Reform 4470 202 n 24 In Labour Hil l 2200 580 Libera! 905 1095 130 Country 222 532 310 Independent ... The Government can get little comfort from those figures and will look with particularly anxious eve,s on the Country Party vote, which has more than doubled.

The- "Star's” comment to-night is "The Government has lost n scat that before the death of the late member at any rate, was regarded as perfectly safe, and Labour has won it. The Raglan electorate is mainly rural and Kelt nil has been accustomed to regard the farmer as a pocket possession. Clearly the farmer is turning from Kel'orm. Tt was an ominous coincidence that at a conference of farmers’ delegates from various parts ol the Bay ol Islands electorate, held on the day before the election, not one supported the Government. Tf Reform is going to lose the' rural vote what is its future ? The main cause of the decrease ill the Reform vote and the increase in fhe anti-Roform vote was dissatisfaction with the Government. Voters looked hack at the sweeping Reform victory of 11)25 and asked themselves what use had been made of this great opportunity. The result confirms whaf has been said many times in these columns, about the Government s unpopularity with all classes. No one believes that a substantial proportion I of the voters who put in Mr Lee .Marti n are Socialists. Most ol them voted for him, not because they believed 1 in the Socialistic ideals of his part\, i Init because they disliked the Govcrni incut. A few years ago the capture of ! such a seat by Labour would have been regarded as impossible, end Mr I Lee .Martin, a farmer Labourite, may i perhaps lie regarded as a portent, i The Liberal vote shows that. Liberalism is still a force in I lie electorate. i but the lesson is <'<'•••• that il Liber,a I ism is to regain its old position it I must have unity, leadership and a 1 policy. To Reform the result is aplain and highly disagreeable warning. and possibly it will liaye the effect of making the Government less arbitrary and self-satisfied and more considerate of the public’s needs and feelings. We suspect that a good many Reformers will not be really displeased at the result.”

“BETTER MAN WON.” Tlio “New Zealand Herald,” in an oil i tor in I, says : “Raglan has protltu-o-.l a defeat for the Government, dolo.it in a constituency if was entitled heretofore to regard as on.e ot us stiongl’olds. The result can lie attributed to several factors, (tartly to the restiveness and discontent which come in times of economic depression am 1 - incline people to (dace tin* blame directly on the nearest culprit they can fend-— usually, as in Rnglnu. the Government of the day; ’partly to the revulsion against a great Government majority, partly to vote-splitting partly and this is the predominant part to the self-confessed weakness of -li ‘ Government candidate. ft is no reflection on Mr Waring personally f o reach this conclusion. Indeed. hut for his personal qualities tvncl tile high regard they have won him in the community he might have brought the Government a worse reverse than it has suffered, hut at the outset lie admitted ho was a tyro in politics, and demonstrated subsequently that he wtis not closely at grips with many questions of the day. That the issue was really hetwen him and his Labour opponent lias been proved by tho. voting he lost, and it has to ho confessed that the better candidate won. Whether the better party won or not is quite another question, not to he answered in the same way.”

"MAY PROVE BLESSING.” WELLINGTON, Sept. 30. Commenting on the Raglan election, the “Dominion’' says: “Two factors which contributed to the falling of! in the Government candidate’s vote were 0) the prevalent discontent due to the period of depression through which the country is passing; anil (2) the weakness of the candidate politically as compared with his predecessor, the late Hon R. F. Bollard. It was ful'v expected that these factors would militate against the prospects of the Reform Party’s nominee, and the result of the polling bears out these expectations. It was the splitting <*•' votes, however, that gave the seat to the Labour-Socialist Party s candidate.” ’ i

The “Dominion” says that the loss of the seat is not likely to embarrass the Government, but it may prove a blessing in disguise if it brings home to the farming community and moderate voters generally the folly of dividing their forces, and thus enabling Labour Socialists to secure control.