WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 14 November 1928, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE GENERAL ELECTION. CONTINUED APATHY. (Special to “ Guardian ”.) WELLINGTON, Nov. 12. With only one dear day before the opening of the polling booths, the average Wellington citizen seems to be as apathetic about the general election as be was six months ago and as be bias remained ever since. IT be does not stir himself into activity and interest during the next twenty-four hours it is certain that the proportion of electors exercising their votes within the city will be smaller than it lias been at any other time since the institution of women’s suffrage, thirty-five years ago. The cause of this general lack of interest in an event which must determine the political welfare of the Dominion during the next three years is the subject of much varied speculation. The most frequent interpretation of the problem is that the parties and the politidans of the present day arouse little real enthusiasm and that one is so much like another that a choice between them is scarcely worth making. The newspapers appear to he (.lie only lookers-on taking a keo" interest in the contest and even their demonstrations are onlv entertaining.

THE PARTIED The Prime Minister, inspired b,v the warm applause of the local morning paper, is hearing almost alone the burden of the Reform campaign. Mr Coates’s colleagues, it would seem, still are too closelv attached to their constituencies to give their chief aw personal assistance in other parts of the country. The Minister oi Bands made a flying visit to Upper Hurt at the week-end by way of assisting the member for Otaki—who, even with the vote splitting on the other side, does not appear to be particularly comfortable about his seat —hut lie was hack in the Wairarapa district at day-break on the following day and p-obably will remain there until the eventful day is over. Other Ministers nre devoting tlio major part of their time and attention to their own seals and will not he seen in town fill after the polling. Labour which has been wooing tlio country districts assiduously since tlio prorogation of Parliament is now taking up its resneetivo ■quarters in the cities with high expectations of success. DIFFERENT POINTS OF VIEW. Since Sir Joseph Ward’s speech in Invercargill there lias been a distinct rise in United “stock” and to-day an independent observer gave it as his opinion that the veteran Libeial loader would have twelve or fourteen followers in the new House of Representatives. Should the judgment of this authority he justified the United Party will hold both the other parties at its mercy, unless Reform scores much heavier than is now expected and Labour much, less. Mr Coates himself still talks of securing a majority equal in numbers to the one thrust upon him three years ago. but. | O , S s sanguine members of his pmt\ declare they will he well satisfied if their advantage is only halved. Ml Holland is-still confident—or at any rate expresses himself as confident —of increasing the strength of his party to twenty-five, and if lie accomplishes MS much as that the Government will he in a parlous position. It is still a fairly safe prediction, however, that Reform will return from the constituencies with a reduced majority.

UNINTENDED AID. Perhaps the most cheering feature in the campaign for the personal friends and political supporters of Sir Joseph Ward is the persistency with which the loss chivalrous Reformers are belittling and denouncing the leader of the United Party. The offenders in this respect are not necessarily candidates for- Parliament, and, it is scarcely necessary to say. arc not custodians of the old Reform traditions: hut they persist in their tactics and are apparently unashamed. Added to all this is the unusual system adopted by some of the newspapers in carrying disparagement of their political opponents into their news columns. The public will find some difficulty in reconciling itself to this kind of campaigning, and already it has brought warm words of appreciation to newspapers like the “Evening Post,” and others that could he mentioned, which even at (lection time maintain the traditions and dignity of journalism. Sir Joseph Ward, of course, is not the only candidate in the field subject*to attack in this respect, but by some means or other ho appears to have aroused the displeasure of critics who might have been expected to retort with less asperity. That he in all probability has profited by their discourtesy is no excuse for their lapse.