THE APPROACHING ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, 11 October 1922, Page 3

THE APPROACHING ELECTION.

OPENING THE CAMPAIGN. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Oct. 4. The Prime Minister, supported by a large body of Reform members of Parliament, was at Levin last night firing the first shot in the election campaign. The ostensible reason for the gathering of the party forces was the “farewelling” of Mr. W. H. Field, the member -for Otaki, who has been deprived of the northern part of his constituency by the Boundary Commission, and consequently will have to move perilously near to the city and the haunts of the wicked Socialists for the comfortable majority he has enjoyed in the paat. Mr. Field is not a very impressive figure in Parliament, being a politician of the loaves ami fishes order, but he is a courteous, kindly gentleman, a persistent lobbyist, and a master of the smaller arts of electioneering. His opponent in the approaching contest will be Mr. C 4. M. McClure, the late Commissioner for Crown Lands for the Wellington district, who has retired from the public service while still a comparatively young man with all his energy and enthusiasm unabated. “THE ISSUE.” Probably it was a timely recognition of the nature of this particular contest which induced Mr. Massey, in responding to the toast of his health, which was received with the utmost enthusiasm, to stress his belief that the December election would be a trial of strength between the Reform Party and the forces of disorder. The Labor Party, he told his sympathetic audience, was ready to help the Liberals put the Reform Government out of office, but the Labor extremists were then to dictate the policy of '.a Liberal Government. This is the story that has grown out of the negotiations between the Liberal and Labor Parties with a view to avoiding vote splitting, and in the circumstances it is not surprising to find Mr. Massey anxious to give it the widest possible publicity. But it is due to the Liberals to say that at the last general election it was their party that dared to enter the lists against extreme Labor, and so, as it happened, secured for the Reformers a number of seats they otherwise might not have won. In Christchurch the Reform newspaper openly urged the Reform electors to vote for Labor candidates rather than for Liberal candidates, and the result is seen in the representation of the southern city in Parliament to-day. There is at jimes a good deal of humbug about the party politicians’ denunciation of the “Red Feds.” “INDEPENDENCE.” This point is aptly illustrated by the number of Independent Reformers and Independent Liberals that are announcing themselves as candidates for Parliament just now. most of them, cf course, pledged to vote with the Government on a no-confidence motion. Ev?n that once Liberal stalwart. Mr. Leonard Isitt, the successor of the late Mr. T. E. Taylor in the representation of Christchurch North, has become sufficiently ‘‘independent” to satisfy all the requirements of Mr. Massey and to secure the bulk of the Reform votes in his constituency. He declares himself as staunch a Liberal as ever he was, and as ready to labor and suffer for the great Liberal principles he espoused in the days of his political youth, but he will not follow the Liberal leader in the new Parliament, whoever he may be, unless he is absolutely independent of support from the Labor Party. This inevitably makes Christchurch North a safe vote for Mr. Massey on everything that really matters. The growth of the Labor sentiment—mbst of it, happily, sane—has made it impossible to satisfy Mr. Isitt’s demands, and no one is likely to attempt the task. TIMARU. Mr. Craigie’s announcement of his impending retirement from the Timaru seat was quite unexpected here, and is being widely and sincerely regretted by his fellow members. Mr. Craigie is not one of the big figures in the House of Representatives—of which, by the way, there are very few in these days —but he always is an interesting one. Sadly distraught at times by philosophic doubts concerning the soundness of some of his earlier beliefs and ideals, he still holds tenaciously to the basic principles of Liberalism, and concedes nothing to mere expediency. Taken all, in all he has served his constituency and his country well. It was reported yesterday that Sir Joseph Ward had been invited to contest the seat at the general election, and that he had promised to consider the proposition, but the prompt appearance of Mr. T. J. Rolleston, a son of the late Hon. William Rolleston, in the field, suggests that the local Reformers have other ideas as to their representation.