PRESS OPINION'S.

Taranaki Daily News, 20 December 1919, Page 5

PRESS OPINION'S.

In the course of it# fconnneht oat tht result the Dominion says J —''With lift absolute majority in its own right th%: Reform Party is firmly re-established JA power, and, living up to the exprestrf determination of ita Leader ana of m«#jf oi its individual membera to break avMJJ from the evilß of party politic* and «M tablish a broad basis of working unity ta Parliament, it will undoubtedly be aMa to attract a considerable measure of rap*' port from those who stand at present outside its ranks. Indeed, the outcome of the elections is first and foremost a decisive endorsement of the view that the only real political division in Ihif country is between revolutionary extremists and those who are ready to work on MAe lines for progress and to promote the welfare of all sections of the population." The N.Z. Times says: "The Libera* Party, the main hope of the country, is still alive, intact, united. It has auf* fered mainly through the blind blunder" ing of Labor. ... It has lost its chief, who can ill be spared at tike present time. It has lost Sir James Carrol, one of the brightest'aad most helpful intellects of the Dominion. It luta Jott' ifr. Russell and Mr. Buddo, ,onen\of*Crt«j jjnet rank who have done good high places. In overOuwwing them ms handed over the country to,fa implacable enemies. We deplore the low of these leaders -and of the sUßnckLlb-; erato who are thefcewy canities of the battle. We dtgtore ft n< strongly as we condemn the fatuity fl* Labor which has struck snch a. burr* blow, so fatal to the democraiio mljUi being of God's Own Countty. At tSu same time, we accept the TBtdiet of'tbei constituencies. And we point tha mond of the great defeat endnxed by tt»l4b» eral Party. It is that, thanks to * vicious electoral system, thfr B»artlna> ary party is entrenched in the Boa*' of Representatives behind & strong-wqilfri ing majority. There it but oneaißtffidß for the Liberal Party. It is the amend*] ment of the present vicious electoral sys*' tem by the substitution of proportional l ' representation. It is an affair of'tram* 1 bers."