THE LAST OF REES-CADMAN.

Auckland Star, Volume XXIV, Issue 187, 9 August 1893, Page 8

THE LAST OF REES-CADMAN.

Referring to the result of the CadmanRees contest, the New Zealand " Times " says: "This time the name of Cadman comes out far ahead. Mr Cadman went pluckily into his enemy's stronghold to tight him. Albeit well-known in his own constituency of the Thames, he was almost a abranger in the constituency of Mr Rees. Moreover, be went into his fight without any particular fluency of speech — hia voice - power, we may mention, was quite unable on one occasion to carry all over ono of the largo halla of the district. He had, of course, a large and influential section of the party in Auckland who upheld his cause as a former ■ member of the Governmenb. So much mast fairly be admitted. . On the other hand he had in Mr Rees a prominent Liberal, one who had been elected by this very constituency. Mr Rees is besides one of the strongestplatform speakers in New Zealand ; and he had on bis side the facb that a law Court had awarded his opponent very small damages. That fact and the fact bhab. hewas the attacking party gave him the advantage -in a popular contest. Yeb in the face of this and the superiority of the platform oratory, Mr Cadman has won bhe victory by a relatively enormous majority. A poll of 3,000 in such a constituency is of coarse a low poll, it may be accounted for on the supposition thab the polls are always less in Auckland than in other large centres, and it is undeniable that the weather was frightful. On the other hand, it is urged, we understand, that the.smillness of the poll is due to the entire, abstention of the Conservative Party, in the true spirit cf fair play. We are glad to hear ib, bub we are sorry for th 6 Conservative Party, which is thus found to be reduced to 900 or 1,000 electois. The upshot remains that a very large majority of the citizens of Auckland have declared, after hearing both sides, that Mr Cadman is worthy of bheir confidence. For the Governmenb the result is especially gratifying, as this is the fourth bye-election of the year. Of these four, in widely different localities—lnangahua, Wanganui, Auckland, Thames—three have resulted in enormous majorities for tbe Government, and the fourth has given bbem a seat wibh. out a contest. It is an important quadruple sign of the trend of public opinion.1