The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1921. PATEA BY-ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 14 April 1921, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, APRIL 14, 1921. PATEA BY-ELECTION.

The election of Mr. E. Dixon to tae Patea seat, rendered vacant by the lamented death of Mr. W. D. Powdrell, shows that the feeling of the electorate has not changed since the general election. With 300 votes yet to be counted, Mr. Dixon’s majority is 276 over Mr. Morrison, the Liberal candidate, in a poll of eleven hundred less than on the last occasion. The striking—and gratifying —feature of the election is the smallness of the Labor vote, for, despite the fact that Mr. Mcllvride was early in the field, and had the active support of the whole battalion of Labor members of Parliament, the total Labor vote was only 546, or *BB more than was secured by Mr. Fitzherbert, who came into the field at the eleventh hour in 1919. Most of the Labor votes were recorded in Hawera and Patea, whilst at no fewer than eleven polling booths not a vote was cast for the Labor candidate. This seems to show that the collective political sense of the constituency is sound, and. that, so far as country electorates are concerned, extreme Labor might spare itself the trouble and expense of contesting any election in future. Just how the Labor vote affected that of the Liberal candidate is difficult to say, for many of the extremists have vowed they prefer the Government to the Liberal Party; but it is possible that if the fight had been confined to the Reform and Liberal candidates the decision may have been reversed. In Mr. Dixon, however, Patea has a man who will worthily represent it, and the Dominion one whose commercial training, integrity and sound views will be of considerable service in the difficult reconstruction days ahead. It may be taken for granted that Taranaki’s interests will also be safe in his keeping. We extend to him our hearty congratulations upon his meritorious victory. We also desire to congratulate the Patea electors upon showing so emphatically to the rest of the Dominion that they will have nothing to do with Messrs. Holland, M’Combs, Parry and Co., the Labor extremists, whose avowed object is to capture the political machine, in order to put into force their revolutionary plans.