The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1929 SHADOW SPARRING IN THE NORTH

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 631, 6 April 1929, Page 8

The Sun 42 WYNDHAM STREET, AUCKLAND SATURDAY, APRIL 6, 1929 SHADOW SPARRING IN THE NORTH

AWAY up in the North two very earnest gentlemen are waging a fight that is unique among New Zealand by-elections. The solid ground of party support has been taken away from them. Mr. Rushworth is a party in himself, a sitting member who is both the leader of the Country Party and its massed battalions. His party is but a dwarf among parties, and there is no backing of party-secretaries or party organisation for him to call upon. To the lone erusader even the questionable aid of Ministerial stalwarts or pillars of opposition is denied. Mr. Allen Bell, on the other hand, is keeping as clear of parties as he can. The party issue does not appeal to him in the least, and he is side-stepping it with the agility of a trained gymnast. Mr. Bell, in the peculiar circumstances that now exist, does not seek the aid of veteran Reformers who would gladly spring into the fray. Even his neighbour, the ex-prime Minister, is a mere spectator, delightfully aloof. His support at this juncture would he nothing better than an acute embarrassment to a candidate who seems to be doing his best to forget about past ties. The contrast with the last important country byelection —the Raglan contest in which a Labour man captured a Reform stronghold—is pronounced when the energy of the party forces that swept the Raglan territory is recalled. If this strange aloofness of the political big-wigs signifies the establishment of a precedent, so much the better. There is a tradition in England that a Prime Minister never participates in a by-election, and though this tradition has ne\er applied to New Zealand —Sir Joseph Ward knows it, to his cost —it is not too late for a proper conception of a Prime Minister s dignitj to be affirmed and accepted. His brief experience of politics and his brief tenure of a seat among the mighty have taught Mr. Rushworth many things. He has learned why “decent people keep clear of politics. He may also learn as he goes on that it does not pay in politics to he thin-skinned. In the enlightened country where Mr. Rushworth received a liberal education and the training of a gentleman it is the polite custom to make political candidates the targets of invective far more barbed and colourful than the New Zealander is inclined to hurl. Less enlightened peoples, too indolent for politics, sometimes make use of the bullet and bomb in their arguments with politicians. Unpleasant though coarse epithets may he, they are still preferable to lead slugs or knives. So Mr. Rushworth has still a little for which to he thankful. In any ease, the unpleasant aspects of an election campaign are soon forgotten once the haven of Parliament is attained. Like the seasick voyager who has been sadly buffeted,' the candidate who reaches the goal soon forgets the keen edge of his .sufferings in restful contemplation of pleasant surroundings. Among the several charges that have bemused Mr. Rushworth is one alleging him to be a Buddhist. Buddhists may be highly estimable citizens, and if Mr. Rushworth were a candidate for some Indian legislature this singular qualification might stand him in good stead. Though he dislikes the implication of Buddhism, he is more in accord with the charge that he is an idealist, and admits that if idealism he a crime, then he is prepared in that respect to become an habitual and incorrigible criminal. There are one or two ideals, however, that the candidate should shed if he wishes to remain in tune with all phases of New Zealand’s progress and aspirations. He is a free-trader, and a free-trader is an idealist whose principles can unfortunately not he translated into satisfactory results. While Mr. Rushworth is dealing with this doctrine and others, and refuting the charges that he is a Buddhist or a descendant of Eskimos, Mr. Bell is pursuing his steadfast course of pinning his prospects to past performancesto a creed in which the hope of a ReformUnited fusion shines like a beacon, and lastly to the assurance that from the Reform side, at least, no vote of no-confidence will, in any circumstances, be moved against the present Government. With lines of party cleavage so blurred, the two candidates in the Bay of Islands are fighting on a basis of personal qualities. The margin between them at the general election was so narrow that it is impossible to tell which way the result will swing, though theoretically the handful of anti-Reform votes cast for Mr. Hornblow in the main election should sway the balance in Mr. Rushworth’s favour. However, perhaps Mr. Bell may redeem himself. His followers will count it a hopeful sign that no one has yet called that sturdy Caledonian a Buddhist.