LOCAL ELECTIONS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 14 May 1938, Page 8

LOCAL ELECTIONS

PRIME MINISTER’S NAME IN ADVERTISEMENTS CITIZEN’S URGED TO VOTE LABOUR. PUBLICATION IN AUCKLAND. (By Telegraph—Press Association.) AUCKLAND, May 13. Advertisements published in both Auckland newspapers this week in support of Labour candidates for Auckland local bodies contained statements attributed to the Prime Minister, the Rt Hon M. J. Savage, soliciting support for Labour. The following was published on the Monday under Mr Savage's name: — “The approaching Municipal Elections will provide another opportunity for the progressive forces to make common cause at the Ballot Box.

“The Object of the Labour Movement is to make life worth living for all by extending the people’s right to govern in every sphere. “My four years as a member of the Auckland City Council, and twelve years as a member of the Auckland Hospital and Charitable Aid Board convinced me that Labour’s Policy is the only policy which can result in so ordering our local affairs, by co-oper-ating nationally with Labour’s Policy in Parliament, that a fuller life and a higher standard of living for the people can be assured.

“Today we have a Labour Majority on the London County Council, the' greatest municipality in the World; the achievements of the Labour Council are famous and respected throughout Great Britain, and indeed throughout the world.

“Citizen’s are urged, therefore, not to be misled by old parties with new names, but to WORK and VOTE for all Labour Candidates.”

In Tuesday’s paper the first and third paragraphs of the above were again published under the caption, “Remember the Prime Minister’s Message.”

INTERVENTION DENIED. MR SAVAGE INTERVIEWED. WELLINGTON, This Day. Strong exception to an Auckland newspaper’s statement that he had intervened in the local body elections with direct instructions to vote for all Labour candidates, was taken by the

Prime Minister, the Rt Hon M. J. Savage, in an interview last evening. “I give an emphatic denial to the accusation that I butted-in to a local body election anywhere,” said the Prime Minister.

The statement to which Mr Savage took exception was part of an editorial in the “New Zealand Herald” on Thursday commenting on the results of the local body elections held in Auckland the previous day. The extract appeared in a message from Auckland reading as follows: “Electors have registered their resentment at the intrusion of factional political issues into local community affairs. That intrusion went to the unprecedented length of intervention by the Prime Minister with direct instructions to vote for all Labour candidates. Mr Savage may not be pleased at the result, but Auckland has correctly asserted its right to manage its own local affairs.”

“I kept out of local body politics,” said Mr Savage, “and in that I have the backing of the national executive of the Labour Party, which considers it undesirable for Ministers to take part in municipal politics, unless, of course, they happen to be candidates. I am given the credit of having asked local body electors to vote for Labour candidates and blamed for their defeat. When I was an ordinary member of Parliament I took an active part in Auckland municipal elections, but it is not my job now to interfere in local politics.” Mr Savage said he had made no mention of local body politics in his address at the annual conference of the Labour Party at Easter, nor had he referred to the subject in his public address in the Wellington Town Hall on April 20. “I deny having intervened in local body elections anywhere,” added the Prime Minister. “I received numerous requests for messages in support of Labour tickets and also many similar requests from individual Labour candidates, but I studiously refrained from complying with any of them.”