WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 13 November 1931, Page 2

WELLINGTON TOPICS

GENERAL ELECTION MARSHALLING FORCES (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, Nov. 10. On paper the Coalition Government's array of candidates for the approaching general election is progressing very well indeed, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes and the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates having approved on Saturday of fifty-one fitting members and fourteen new aspirants for seats' in 'the House. Among the beginners in the adventure is Mr R. Darrock, the Secretary-Treasurer, as announced, of the New Zealand branch oi the British Empire Cancer Campaign Society, who has had the hardihood tb throw down the gauntlet to Mr Peter Fraser, the sitting Labour member for Wellington Central, who at the general election of 1928 secured 7,353 votes, while Sir Joseph Ward with 7,309 and Sir Thomas Wilford with 7,283 votes were the only other candidates'to reach the seven thousand mark. The candidates who opposed Mr Fraser on that occasion were a Reformer who polled 380-5 votes and an Independent (a lady) who polled 843 votes. It is expected that next month Mr Fraser will encounter more formidable opposition. PERILS OF DOUET

It is understod that nearly -as possible the United and Reform membership will be, evenly balanced in the new Parliament ; but, of course, Mr Forbes and Mr Coates wiU not have the whole say in the distribution of the old members nor the new. Though the great bulk .of the United and Reform electors will realise the importance of standing by the Coalition Gevernment in the present cris.s there will be disgruntled. folk who will not approve of Reform votes being given to United candidates nor United votes given to Reform candidates. This sort of thing is inevitable. It may go to the .length of maintaining the Labour Party at its present numerical strength, which would be tolerable but not conducive towards the speedy adjustment of the affairs of the Dominion. The speeches Mr H. E. Holland and his colleagues are delivering about the country, can but divert the attention of unthinking electors from grave difficulties that beset the whole community. FACING LABOUR

The Coalition Government in good time has turned its face resolutely s to the Labour assault. Whether it was necessary for it to deal harshly 'with the “Independent” members for Bay of Islands and Egmont has been questioned; but the member for Rangitikei can scarcely have expected to remain* within the fold. It is pleasant to find laemberw, fpr*i Wairau on the list, with the various episodes in connection" with the con- 1 pletion of the South Island Trunk Railway forgiven and forgotten. There are so few Irishmen in the House at the present time that the loss of one of them would have, ben a catastrophe:; As for Labour, viewed in the the Home election, .it- looks as if at might be overtaken by a very grave rebuff at the polling next- month At the election in the Mother Country the other day the Labour Party and its allies polled, roughly, one-third of the Votes recorded, and yet secured . little more than one-ten-th of the available seats.

HOW LONG P Though both the older parties in the House of Representatives have now accepted tho measure of “fusion” popularly kjiown as “Coalition” this expedient is not likely to endure beyond. the definite return of the Dominion’s .financial stability. The public already is beginning to look with more or less suspicion upon a Parliament practically established by a handful of politicians, and as time progre? ses it will demand much more definitely than it is doing to-day the possession of a potent voice in the affairs of the country. At the moment we have the spectacle of Mr Forbes and. Mr Coates, two gentlemen for whom we all have the utmost regard, personally and politically, decreeing that thi s ! candidate shall'follow another particular path. The present system of ministerial -selection of candidates is not producing the best results from a national point of view and care must' be taken when normal conditions return io see [that it is not permanently saddled upon a long suffering community.