LYTTELTON BYE-ELECTION.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVII, Issue 85, 10 December 1913, Page 4

LYTTELTON BYE-ELECTION.

Though certainly disappointing it is by no means surprising to find Mi McCombs at the bead of the ; poll in the bye-election of yesterday, hut that does not necessarily mean that ho will win the seat. We frankly hope he will not, and consider any one of the other four candidates would have been infinitely preferable at this stage in the industrial affairs'of New’ Zealand, and, of course entirely apart from the many good qualities Mr McCombs is stated to possess. Mr McCombs received the solid support oi labor agitators and extremists, gentlemen who appear to be thickly sprinkled throughout the Lyttelton electorate. In a pen portrait of the man who at the first ballot lias topped the poll, the “Press” says: “It is true that Mr McCombs, like Mr Mills, of Milwaukee, is a recent convert to the Red Feds., and we suspect that ho went over to them for pretty much the same reasons. It would seem from some of his recent remarks that he is prepared to leave them again just as lightly and jauntily when Ju deems the time is ripe. According to a correspondent, Mr McCombs ha? lately shown a disposition to hedge. He calls himself a Social Democrat —which perhaps sounds a little less revolutionary than a Red Fed., hut means precisely the same thing. It is, in fact, the official title which the Red Feds, have invented for themselves for official use in political contests. Mr McCombs has throughout the labor trouble been on the side of the agitators, lias appeared on

their platforms, and has done all in his

e power to stir up class strife. He s was selected by the lied Feds, as theii ' official candidate, and lie told them I that if he was elected it would be t a victory for the Federation of La--1 bar. That is perfectly true—perhaps t the truest thing Mr McCombs has

■ said iu this campaign. If he is re- > turned, the electors will have set theii 1 seal-of approval upon tile Federation : and all its works—upon its policy o' ■ broken agreements, o! mob violence of sabotage, and of incitements t< ' crime.” The nearest candidate t( ‘ .Mr- MeConil is is Mr Millar, a rathei I weak supporter of the Government. ' The late member’s brother (who represented the Opposition and was ex

peeled to receive a large sympathetic vote 1 ) was a had third, and the othei two candidates do not appear to have been taken seriously. The second ballot will therefore decide whethoi Mr McCombs or Mr Millar gains the scat. It' ever there was a time when Party feeling should he buried, and the solid support of those who voted for the candidates who have fallen out, should he transferred to the Government candidate it is now; not because iu» is the Government candidate, hut because the other is a supporter of the discredited lied Federation.