LABOUR’S CHOICE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 665, 18 October 1933, Page 4

LABOUR’S CHOICE

Although members of the Hol•land family have declined to shoulder the burdens of public responsibility laid down by their late father, the Buller seat should be safe for Labour. It is hardly surprising that the executive of the party has selected. Mr. P. C. Webb to Gontest the seat. Mr. Webb is an old campaigner though withal, not a very successful one. He has had. two 'terms in the House as member for Grey, his first venture in politics being terminated by the

inglorious incident when he refused to take uniform during the war and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment. More recently he was defeated in the Motueka by-election following the death of the late Mr. G. C. Black. Mr. Webb is well-known as a union leader and a champion of the coal miners' cause; he is fighting in his own territory and with the mana of the .late Labour leader behind him. The result, in a pronounced Labour stronghold, should be practically a foregone conclusion. It is doubtful, however, whether Mr. Webb as a new member would contribute much beyond the partisan oratory which could so well be dispensed with in the deliberations of the country's legislators. The late Mr. H. E. Holland held the same views with regard to military service as Mr. Webb, but he expressed them in a manner which did not earn him the same antagonism. Mr. Holland was unquestionably a man of much b'rbader outlook than his proposed successor and although Mr. Webb will undoubtedly make a very active Labour representative, it can be very safely predicted that he will never fill the gap in the ranks of his party that has been created through the death of its late leader. Unless Mr. Webb's viewshave suffered considerable-modi-fication during recent years, his election will widen rather than assist to bridge the gap between Labour and the other sections of the House.