Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1922. CONCENTRATE AND VOTE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 2513, 2 December 1922, Page 2

Manawatu Herald SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1922. CONCENTRATE AND VOTE.

NEXT Thursday electors will he called upon to elect a Parliament for the ensuing three year*. The recording of their votes is a duty which none should neglect. In this electorate there will he a triangular contest and the three candidates represent Reform. Liberal-Labour nnd Labour. By public utterance and through the press ample opportunity has been afforded to form an intelligent opinion as to the merit of the Party best fitted to carry on the responsible duties of government. When the questions of a State Bank and proportional representation "are eliminated from the Liberal policy there is little that separates them from the Reform Government Imt a wide gulf opens between them and the Labour Party.

VOTE REFORM. WE refuse to believe that intelligent wage-earners of this constituency intend to assist in creating a political Frankenstein which, if given the breath of political life, would ultimately bring misery and discontent upon them. The socialisation of hind and the means of production is outside the realms of prncitenl thought —a mere chimera. It would kill individual initiative and driving force and create a much worse state of affnrs than is at present conceivable. This it ever struck the reader that those who advocate such drastic changes are, in the main, men who have never made a success of any private enterprise they have entered upon? Is it not a fact that the most inefficient worker is the greatest agitator who envies the success of the man whose industry, thrift, foresight and ingenuity hits been suitably rewarded. The man who believes that a Labour Government is going to bring about the millennia] is fooling with a bauble. What is needed for the next three years is a stable government and every elector who hits the welfare of the Dominion and its people at heart should vote Reform.

A CAUSTIC’ CRITIC. -WHEN I led the Australian Labour Parly.” said Premier Hughes in ;t recent speech in Sydney, “if was loyal. It was established to ,hiil with existing circumstances. Now it is impregnated with the foul doctrines of Bolshevism. It would seek to govern the country by the least lit instead of the most tit. I hat is one test by which to compare the Labour Parly of to-day with that „f l'fl-I. There is another way to prove the change. The people who now run the Labour Party are quite different. Whom did they drive out? Was it not ;tII those in the party who were loyal? I stood for the Empire: that was my only offence. I would not stand for stabbing Britain in the hack. (Cheers.) I hat is where we differ to-day. Now, where do the electors stand in the matter?" continued the Prime Minister. “We appealed to you in I DI7, and vou decided that we were tight and the Labour I’arty was wrong. To what extent did you decide the, matter? I was the leader of a Labour Party of 72 members. T came out with 25. 1 appealed to the people. They sent me hack with 72,. and Labour with 25.” (Applause.) AN IMPORTANT ISSUE. LAST night’s Wellington Post in referring to the political issue says: “Labour is on its very best behaviour, and, instead of wrecking the meetings of rival candidates and flit anting its anti-national gospels, is studiously disseminating the idea that it is not really as red as it Inis been painted but merely a harmless pink. But just as the fear that Red

Labour might hold the balance of power prevented it from doing so three years ago, so now the assumption that there is no such danger may give Red Labour its chance. The noint is one which should lie carefully considered. Mr Massey and Mr Will'ord have both failed to indicate any clear ground of principle that keeps their parties apart: hut Mr Massey is surely right when he declares the practical question beside which till others sink into insignificance to be: “Is the present Government going to he a party with a working majority in the House?” )