WELLINGTON TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, 3 December 1919, Page 3

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE ELECTION CAMPAIGN. WELLINGTON INCIDENTS. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, Dec. 1. One of the surprises of the local election campaign is the very successful debut made by Mr. H. Oakley Browne, the I Liberal candidate for Wellington North, on Wednesday evening. For six or seven years, Mr. Browne was private secretary to Sir Joseph Ward, and quite recently resigned that position to take charge of the Liberal organisation. For some reaI son or another, private secretaries in this country hitherto have not cut very brilliant figures when they have mounted the platform themselves, but Mr. Browfoe | showed himself at once quite au fait at j the. business. The Labour camp followers | who came to heckle the candidate femained to listen, and even to applaud. Mr. Browne is not merely an echo of his old chief. He had ideas and aspirations of his own which he states clearly and con vincingly. Previously his candidature had been taken scarcely seriously, but now he is right in the running for the 3eat. WELLINGTON CENTRAL, The position in Wellington Central is scarcely so encouraging for the Liberals. Their candidate, Mr. Pirani, is engaged in nightly bouts with the Labor sharpshooters, and though he meets them with all the skill and fire of an experienced campaigner, they manage to maintain a running fire of interruptions that must be extremely disconcerting, even to an old ; band. A day or two ago a proposal was | put forward that Mr. Carr, a well-known commercial gentleman who presided with I admirable tact at Mr. Browne's meeting, "should take Mr. Pirani's place, but naflurally there were objections to'changing j horses at this stage in the campaign, and I Mr. Pirani, full of optimism and deteri mination as he is, insisted upo implet- | ing his task. Of course, if the .Reform|Crs unanimously threw in their lot with | the Liberals against Labor, his success would be assured, but that would be rather too much to expect in these times. WELLINGTON SOUTH. In Wellington South, Mr. Robert Sem- , pie and Colonel Mitchell are engaged in what promises to be a very close fight I The sitting member is seen to greater | advantage on the public platform than he was in the House, and he is sure to poll considerably more votes than he did at the by-election which gave him the seat. But the returned soldier—returned with many war honors—is a very worthy op- : ponent. He has a good grasp of politics, an easy manner of speech, and a charming personality. Here, again, the result i will depend largely upon the attitude of ithe Reformers and the unofficial *Labor- | ites. Colonel Mitchell inclines strongly | towards the doctrine of independence, and I if party feeling is not too strong for himj I he will win. OTHER CONSTITUENCIES. Dr. Newman, another of the "old dogs" proverbially well adapted for the compass of a hard road, looks much less hardly nressed than he wife at the election of 1914. Though loyal to his party, so far as the occupancy of the Treasury Benches is concerned, he criticises Mr* Massey quite as freely as he does Sir Joseph Ward, and for years .past has voted in the House as his convictions carry him. In Wellington Suburbs, Mr. R. A. Wright is opposed by a very vigorous and capable Liberal, with some Labor tendencies in Mr. Dunbar Sloane, and though tin' odds are in his favor, his opponent is occasioning his friends some anxiety. Mr. T. M, Wilford has a strong hold on the seilt > tlle result of family traditions and long association, but he is encountering a young, active opponent, and is sure to be run fairly close.

LABOR'S MISTAKES.

'Bad advocates of a good policy" was the laconic reply of a former pillar of the Labor Party when he was asked this morning for his opinion of the men who had succeeded him and his colleagues in the leadership of the workers' forces. "We had hoped for the absorption of all the progressive elements into our party," he went on to say, "but not by the methods now being employed bv the so-called Social-Democrats." The immediate cause of his lament was the discreditable demonstration made by the followers of Mr. 11. E. Holland and Mr. ; Semple, presumably at the instigation of their chiefs, at Mr. J. P. Luke's meeting in Wellington North. "It is not playing the game." this veteran insisted, both in sorrow and in anger, "to howl down your opponents, and it is not helping the cause of Labor. It is bail tactics every time and can only estrange electors that ought to be won to the side of progress." No fair-minded person watching the course of events in Wellington will be likely to quarrel with this judgment. THE LEADERS' RESPONSIBILITY. The leaders of the official Labor Party have not disclaimed responsibility for the Regrettable behaviour of their followers, and speaking in Wellington North 011 Tuesday evening Mr. Peter Eraser practically gave it the stamp of bis approval. There s wcre searcelv thirty people at his own meeting, which, like all other meetings of the Labor candidates, was allowed to pass off without the slightest interruption, and in explaining the sparseness of the attendance the candidate said most of his friends were at Mr. Pirani's meeting "putting a few questions to the Liberal candidate." He would have liked to be there himself, but it would not, "have been considered good form for him to have joined in the heckling. That is the pass to which the Social-Democrats have brought electioneering in the capital city, under the very shadow of Parliament House, and it is little wonder they have lost ground in the estimation of manv people who at one time were disposed to look kindly upon their policy. THE OTHER PARTIES. The general opinion here is that the Reform and Liberal parties will be so closely balanced in the new Parliament that the tip of the scale will depend upon the votes of the Labor members. But the Labor members are not at all likely, to be a united party, indeed, Mr. Veitch and Mr Smith have definitely declined to associate themselves with the Social-Democrats, and it is highly improbable the" extremists will obtain any accession of strength at the polls. The popular prediction is that the beßt they can reasonably expect is to remain a party of five, with Mr. McCombs and jtr, Walker exersiiing so much indt<

pendenee as to be unreliable in any attempt to force the hands of either of the old parties. It is accepted as certain, however, that three or four additional independent Labor candidates will make their way into the House and that with these will rest largeiy the responsibility of determining the fate of leaders. INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES. Never before have so many "Indedependent" candidates appeared on the hustings as are appearing in the present election campaign. There are Independent Reformers, independent Liberals, and Independent Labourites. < Whether thenmultitude is due to a revolt against the narrowing ties of party, or to a desire to stand as well as May be with all the conflicting elements it is hard to say. Pernaps both these factors have had something to do with a development of a state of affairs that is proving very embarrassing to the Party leaders. But whatever the cause it is certain the presence of an army of Independents in the field is going to materially affect the result of the approaching election. Independent is a sweet-sounding phrase that tickles the ears of people unacquainted with the game of politics, and in the present contest it will contribute largely to the vote-splitting that is menacing both the older parties, to the substantial advantage, df course, of the Labor Party. MENTAL RESERVATIGNISTS. In addition to the frankly avowed independence of a considerable number of candidates, there is the mental reservation of other candidates which will en-, able them to cross the floor of the House should such a course appear necessary to save the country from the expense and unrest of another appeal to the electors. At least one candidate for a rural constituency in Wellington province has announced this as his intention, and his friends appear to be taking no exception to his light regard for his party obligations. There are indeed many other candidates who have expressed themselves to much the same effect in demanding that in the event of the two older parties being closely balanced at the polls the occupancy of the Treasury Benches shall not be left to the determination of a little group of extremists. There must be a strong Government from one side or the other, they insist, and minor party differences must not stop the way. PARTY. Meanwhile the party spirit, so far as the great mass of the electors is concerned, is much less pronounced than it was in the days before the war. Some of the active participants in the fight, and most of the party newspapers, are doing their best to revive the old bad methods, but outside the official Labor Party they are achieving little success. The Social Democrats, incongruous as it may seem side by side with their demands for fair play, freedom of speech and the rest, seem to think it good tactics to harass Reform and Liberal candidates, especially Liberal candidates, in every way they can, and already have managed to prevent several of tlieir opponents getting a heawng. Their object appears to be to drive the two older parties into some sort of coalition, but they, and other people, who have been dreaming of a development of this kind, may as well dismiss their fond delusion at once. The Reformers and the Liberals, by the deliberate choice of their leaders, are now as far apart as they ever have been. THE LIQUOR QUESTION. Tf the parliamentary contest is arousing little general interest, trie liquor poll is arousing less. The agents of the conflicting parties are busy in searching the rolls and distributing literature, but the public for all the enthusiasm it is displaying about the issue might be utterly indifferent to the result. Notwithstanding this apparent apathy among the people who are to decide the question, however, both parties profess to he confident of the result coming their way. The prohibitiorists count upon polling a largely increased soldiers' vote, and the moderates upon the electors accepting the recent referendum as the last word on the subject. As far as may be judged from the attitude of the mail in the street this is a fairly accurate diagnosis of the position. Ho I does not wish to be worried about the matter again.