OCCASIONAL TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 20 October 1933, Page 6

OCCASIONAL TOPICS

THE LABOUR PARTY

REORGANISATION

(Special Correspondent)

WELLINGTON, October 16.

Now that M'i' M. T

Savage, the

member for Auckland West, .and iMr Peter Fraser, the member for Wellington Central, have been promoted to high places in the irnnks of the Labour Party, in the . Hjjuse- -cyf Representatives it is to be expected they, will take •some'' Cate' to' "enfa^g^'“theV activities in thel rural constituencies. Neither the late Mr H. E. Holland--nor the late Mr r J. McCombs, with all his ability and effort was .aide to make much way . for their party in the rural ..constituencies—and there are thirty-three of these, without taking the isolated big towns into account—hut beyond these they made little progress. It i s iu the big cities and their environments that the Labour propagandists make -their' way. At the last general election, that of 1931, the city of Auckland polled ten constituencies and the Labour party with 48,863 votes secured seven of t-hern, while the Coalition party with 44.654 votes -secured only three, and 10,683 stray votes were j wasted. In the city, of Wellington, with six constituencies, 39,426 votes were cast for Labour and 34,632 for Coalition, with .the result that Labour secured five seats a«d Coalition one., With 33.301 votes in Christchurch Labour secured four..seats, while with 31,783 votes Coalition .secured only two. The luck was changed to some extent in Dunedin where with 22,234 votes Coalition captured three seats while Labour with 24,994 vote s secured only two

The public was told iat the week-end' that- Mr M. J. Savage was to be the leader of the'Labour party in succession to the late Mr H. E. Holland. Mr P. Fraser, the member for 1 Wellington ‘Central, was unanimously' elected ■ deputy leader of the party .in place of Mr Savage, and Mr AY. ,T. Jordan. member for Manukau, was to move up to the middle row in the front benches beside Mr E. J. Howard, member for Christchurch South.' Mr Savage has taken the seat previously occupied by his late leader, a nd Mr' Frase r will

move from the bench he has shared wifli Mr 'Howard to sit with .the /.new leader. It looks as if the passing of the late leader ils to be followed by a thorough shuffle of the front benches, without much regard to younger members of the party.

Of course, the members ,of the Labour party know their own business best, but it 'appears to the mere looker-on that the ultimate service would be better achieved by the presence of sixteen (active members "in the country and. eight in the town than by the presence of sixteen in the' town- and eight ' in' the country. The distribution of population 'between town, and country is said to ibe about equally divided the year round, and some city members of ' the -House certainly would be better .occupied ",in making themselves acquainted with the possibilities of the unoccupied country than .in -grazing at the delights of the-cities. In any C‘Tse,. the presence of sixteen members of the La'bouir , party in the cities and only eight in the whole rural parts of the •Dominion suggests that the country’s representation is a li‘tie one-sided. The “professional touch”—home dyeing made ea=y with Fairy Dyes,—Advt.