FRANKLIN'S LIBERAL CANDIDATE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 3, Issue 246, 10 November 1914, Page 2

FRANKLIN'S LIBERAL CANDIDATE.

The first shot of the political campaign in the Franklin electorate was tired at Pukekohe on Thursday eveving when Mr A. G. C. Glass, the Liberal candidate, delivered his first address to a fairly large and an orderly meeting of the electors. Mr Glass, as a settler of long standing in the district, chairman of the Waikato River Board, and one-time a very successful organiser of the Farmers' Union, is a well-known figure in places where farmers foregather, and he is, moreover a man who is respected and well liked for his admirable personal equalities. Consequently he was listened to with the respect his standing in the distiict merited. Not so very long ago he was a very ardent supporter of the Reform Party, and the Prime Minister had no more enthusiastic champion at last election than Mr Glass; now he comes before the electorate an avowed opponent of the Reform Party, with the declaration that ho is "out to fight Mr Massey with the gloves oft.'' Naturally there was much local interest in his first public appearance as a Liberal convert, aud in the story of his conversion.

Although perhaps it would be unfair to pass judgment on Mr Glass' ability as a public speaker as displayed on his maiden effort jt must be admitted that he exhibited the great fault of rarely cariying any ono line of thought connectedly to its natural conclusion. This made him hard to follow especially as & disjointed style of speaking is particularly unfortunate in a candidate who has a known change of political front to justify, and who has to c<mvince the audience that the change was made in good faith. Probably it was the feeling that he had to account for his defection from the Reform Party flag that induced Mr Glass to devote himself almost wholly to criticism of the Government. His own platform was contained under the statemeut of Lis attitude towards the Licensing and Bible-in-Schools questions, and the formulation of his scheme for the issue of State debentures ta help small farmers. His proposal to definitely determine the "majority" phase of the prohibition question by a referendum, with the result as a basis for the taking of a soparato novennial poll on the straight-out national issue of Continuance y. NoLicense is something new. It ha* every appearance of being a sane, practical and straight - forwaid method of getting, at a cost, right down to the "will of the people" on a distracting subject, and removing its triennial bitterness from the Parliamentary elections; but it is questionable if this suggestion will commend itself at this stage of the game to the prohibitionists. Mr Glass comes down safely astride the controversial fence on the Bible-in-Schools agitation, believing, as he states, in religious teaching in the schools, but out of school hours and not by State teachers. His State Debenture* proposal is attractive, and worth consideration, but Mr Glass will have to elaborate it beyond the visionary stage in order to convince hard-headed electors that his scheme will sufficiently square with political economy to be brought within the scope of practical politics. What was doubtless intended to be a destructive criticism of the Reform Party's performance in ofhee was held out by Mr Glass as the meat of his address, and the cause of his political change-over. He made a ferved indictment of Mr Massey's neglect of the small settler The Prime Minister, he said, had not only done nothing for the small settler, but he had actually opened the door to the speculator by giving the Laud Boards power to dispense with the residential condition on Crown sections. To our mind, however, this is rather an unfair, sinister twist to give to a genuine effort to help the worker ou the land by allowing him to improve his Crown section iu his spare time while still earuing his liviug elsewhere till the section can support him, especially as it is well-known how ruthlessly the Land Boards sort out the speculator from the bona tide settler. Mr Glass struck out boldly ou the Second Chamber problem but one can surmise Sir Joseph Ward's dismay when he learns tnat the Liberal candidate for Franklin intends to totally abolish the Upper House. The alacrity and length with which Mr Glass responded at question time to an interrogation about the Waikuto River drainage operations seems to be a much more convincing explanation of where he stands in politics, and why, than the whole of his previous speech. One is almost bound to believe that the Whangamarino swamp has a greater bearing on the presont political outlook of Mr Massey's opponent than has any sin of omission or commission on the part of the Reform Party.