Eve of Battle

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 633, 9 April 1929, Page 1

Eve of Battle

BAY OF ISLANDS ELECTION Seven Weeks’ Campaign (THE SUN’S Special RepresentativeJ OHAEAWAI. To-day. THE keenest election tight ever waged in the Ear North will be decided to-morrow, when Mr. H. M. Rushworth. representing largely the farming interests, and Mr. Allan Bell, a long-standing sympathiser with the Reform Government and member for the Bay of Islands electorate for some years, will face the constituents for the second time in five months.

voting was registered by

tliese two candidates at the General Election, and the subsequent voiding of the election after Mr. Rushworth had been in Parliament for a mouth has stimulated political enthusiasm here to an unprecedented degree, and as the combatants draw closer together geographically in the final appeal to the people, they leave behind them seven weeks’ campaigning with a record of over 120 addresses delivered to meetings from Hikurangi to the North Cape. The absence from both men of the party seal intensifies the interest and makes the election unique here. HONOURS EVEN SO FAR Both have enjoyed good meetings to date and so far as the political pulse can be registered, it is beating in a close division of sympathy between the two men. In bad weather here this evening Mr. Rushworth spoke to over 100 people and advanced a vigorous plea for a vote of the backblocks man, stressing his desire to remove the county rates indirectly by abolishing the tax upon the necessities of life. The primary producer had finally to bear the burden of most of the increased taxes, he said. One of Mr. Rushworth’s most difficult tasks here is to explain away the achievements of Mr. Bell as member for the district and advocate of good roads, up-to-date bridges and progressive public works. This he does by asserting that subsidies and grants to local bodies would have been secured upon a percentage basis, no matter who was representing the district. MR. RUSHWORTH AND THE UNiTEDS Mr, Rushworth is prepared, he says, to pledge himself to support the United Party only so far as it is “producing the goods” with its legislation. But if Sir Joseph Ward and his followers allowed the country to relapse into its former state df stag-

nation and despair he reserved the right to do his duty by the country. Mr. Bell also continues to have good meetings. He speaks al Kawakawa this evening after a hurried tornthrough the districts further North. His achievements for the district are quoted liberally by his workers and from his platform he is also promising Sir Joseph Ward support on progressive legislation. In view of his past associations. Reform stalwarts are naturally watching Mr. Bell's candidature, while the active presence of Mr. A. E. Robinson, secretary of the Farmers’ Union, is accounted for by the partial Free-trade policy of Mr. Rushworth, and his general advocacy of the farmers’ interests. PERSONALITIES Personal qualities and local needs, rather than general politics, loom large in this campaign, and as both men have a good personality and an acceptable manner of approach, wavering electors are having to do some hard thinking on Wednesday. Answering a criticism of himself, Mr. Rushworth said this evening that he had been accused of being an idealist. His reply was that philosophical, scientific and Scriptural authority substantiated his view and he believed it was time a little Idealism and vision and vigour were applied to politics. INCREASE IN VOTERS A notable factor in this fight is the alteration in the voting strength of the electorate since the General Election. There will be 350 votes polled by Mr. Hornblow at the General Elec - tion to be allocated, while the roll itself has changed by a net addition of about 400 electors, over 600 being added and about 200 disfranchised in the recent post-election trouble. This means that over 700 votes are yet t,o be allocated to these two candidates, and while a big majority for either is not expected, the election on Wednesday, it is generally anticipated, will at least be decisive. There are about 9,000 votes in the electorate and just on 8,000 voted in November