POSITION OF REFORM PARTY.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1337, 17 December 1914, Page 2

POSITION OF REFORM PARTY.

STATEMENT BY THE PRIME

MINISTER.

“Naturally, I should have liked to have had a larger majority,” said the Price Minister, in an interview with a Dominion reporter on Tuesday, “but we have the satisfaction of knowing that the Reform Party in Parliament is as solid as a stone wall. And when we look back and think of the forces and the weapons that were used against us, the wonder is that we did so well, No statement was too wild, no slander too vile, to be hurled at Government candidates. Fortunately, most of them have been answered by the votes of the electors where the positions were understood, but by a great many electors the falsehoods were believed. Franklin replied to the ostrich farm story by giving me a majority of nearly 3,000, the largest in New Zealand, and this practically without canvassing on my part. Raglan, where Huntly is situated, has replied to the Huntly fable in the same way, by giving Mr Bollard, the Reform member, a majority of over 1,400. “Then there was the unholy alliance of Waidites and Red Feds and their sympathisers, and their tactics in the way of disturbing public meetings and intimidating the more easily frightened. Nothing so disgraceful in the political history of this country has occurred as that which took place at my Ponsouby meeting, where Miss Braduey, daughter of the exmember for the district, was injured, and where, owing to the lighting apparatus being tampered with, a stampede which ' might, have caused serious loss of life, was only very narrowly averted. These things speak for themselves, and make the dividing line between the Reform Party and its opponents clear and plain. “Since polling day I have had quite a number of .expressions of regret from people who say they were misled, and recorded their votes against the Government, and who now wish for another opportunity to put the matter right. It is possible they may get what they wish for, but iu the meantime we are going on with the business of the country, confident in the loyalty of the party, confident that the country already recognises the narrow escape it has had from political chaos, and confident that when the time comes, be it sooner or later, the Reform Party will again increase the number of votes recorded in its favour as compared with those of last week, and of three years ago. Politics iu this country have now resolved themselves into a struggle between the Moderates and the Extremists, and it is for the people of New Zealand to say which they will choose. “At the same time, I wish to express ray sympathy with those of my supporters who have fallen in the fight—men who with unswerving loyalty have worked shoulder to shoulder with me in the past for the welfare of New Zealand and of the Empire. To the few men who have come forward in the cause of Reform, but have not succeeded on this occasion, I have to express my grati- , tude and my thanks. They are men who would have been a credit to the party and to the Parliament. They have fought a good fight, and most of them, I feel sure, will one day yet find a place in the Parliament of New Zealand.”