LUCKY OR NOT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 638, 16 September 1933, Page 4

LUCKY OR NOT

The Lyttelton by-election was held on an unlucky date — September 13. The Coalition may consider that the ill-luck was all on their side and Labour may consider that political virtue has had its very just reward. It remains to be seen, however, as to whether the ill-luck has been with the Coalition or with Labour or with the country at large. That implies no reflection upon New" Zealand's first woman member of Parliament. On the contrary, the legislature has gained a member who is better qualified to participate in its affairs than fifty per cent of its male member s. It would be ill-advised for the Labour party to allow the jubilation of victory to lead it into unjustified self-confidence. It would also be ill-advised for the Coalition to ignore the significant warning that has been given it through the medium of the electors of Lyttelton, and it would be ill-advised for the country to jump to the conclusion that the Lyttelton by-elec-tion has proved either one of these parties right or wrong! The election cannot be fairly dismissed with a wave of the hand as an unimportant sideissue in which sympathy played more than its proportionate part. This has already been done by a section of the partisan Government press which has at the j same time remained discreetly I silent regarding the prominence j it accorded the recent Govern- ! ment victory in Motueka where the issues were considerably less significant. On the other hand the Labour Party has quite naturally made a capital out of the victory and since party war- j fare is ever an irrational thing, has exaggerated the importance of its win beyond its merits. There is no doubt that after the j attention lavished upon the Lyt- j telton electorate by the acting- j Prime Minister and other Cabinet Ministers that the Government has received a very defin- j ite snubbing; on the other hand • it is equally certain that the opinion of the electors of one electorate with Labour inclinations does not represent the opinion of the people of New Zealand as a whole. The Labour victory, as we 'have already stated, may be taken not so much as a Government reverse as a Government warning and an expression of the general dissatisfaction with the prevailing conditions. Some of these conditions are not of the Government's making and it is unfair to lay the responsibility for them upon the Government's shoulders; others have been contributed to, not so much by the present Government, but by its predecessors in office who had not been taught the virtues of necessity. If the result of the Lyttelton by-election has the effect of stimulating the Government to activity where activity is needed and in discouraging it from the , error of self-sufficiency, 1 September 13-will have been a for- | tunate day for Ne'W Zealand. On : the other hand, if it lulls the country into a belief that the inviting panacea for its financial ills which was proferred by the Labour Party is the "open sesame" to good fortune, the number 13 wiill probably be found to have its full significance. In the meantime, the legislature has gained an excellent member, the Government has received an impetus to stir it into activity, and the Labour Party has received sufficient encouragement to maintain its aggressiveness and keep the Government upon the qui vive. *