GREY ELECTION RESULT.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 381, 7 June 1918, Page 2

GREY ELECTION RESULT.

The result of the Grey election last week is to be regretted from a national point ot view. The attitude of the miners In returning Mr Holland as their parliamentary representative is almost incomprehensible by reason of the fact that, in consequence of the essential aature of their occupation, they are exempted from military service. While other men are called upon to endure the hardships and face the dangers of the battle front, the miners are privileged to stay at home and carry on in peaceful and prosperous security the work to which they have set their hands. Surely, then, they should be among the last to lend themselves to a partisan movement calculated to hamper the Government in the performance of the arduous and responsible duties associated with the war. The least that might have been expected of them was that they should strive to strengthen the hands of the Government and render Parliament more competent to deal with the weighty problems which the war has created. The two out-standing facts by which the verdict ot the West Coast miners msut be judged are these : (1) Their ex-raember, Mr P. C. Webb, is undergoing a term of imprisonment because he refused to do his duty as a soldier ; (2) their new member, whom they have seen fit to place In Mr Webb's seat, is a man who went out of his way to use his utmost endeavours to help in persuading the people of Australia to " turn down " compulsory military service These two facts should have been sufficient to ensure his rejection by any patriotic British community : but apparently the miners of the (ireyare not of that opinion.