SENATE VACANCY.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 186, 8 August 1935, Page 15

SENATE VACANCY.

POLITICAL LEGACY.

MEMBER'S TRAGIC DEATH. APPEAL FOR DYING FRIEND. (Prom Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 1. The death of Senator L. T. Courtenay under the tragic circumstances that were described a few days ago has left a vacancy in the Upper House. When the State Parliament meets again in September, one of the Government's first duties will be to arrange for the filling of the vacant eeat in accordance with the new constitution by a joint vote of the two Houses. In any ordinary case there would certainly be keen competition for the seat, and already several candidates have been mentioned whose claims will require earnest consideration.

Tlicro is Mr. Guy Aekins, ex-M.LA., once National party Whip, whom Mr. Stevens is said to favour. Mr. Aekins stood, for the Senate at the last election, and as he came next in order to Senator Courtenay at the poll his U.A.P. supporters contend that he is Senator Courtenay's logical successor. There is Mr. Crawford Vaughan, ex-Premier of South Australia, a man of wide political experience. There is Mr. M. Manfred, M.L.C., a member of the U.A.P. executive, wtih strong support in the country districts. There is Mr. D. R. Hall, former State Attorney-General, once friend and colleague of Mr. Holman and Mr. Hughes. There is Sir Charles Rosenthal, the leader of the New South Wales "Diggers," and one of the successful generals that Australia produced during the war. There is Mr. C. V. Potts, president of the Chamber of j Manufactures, who can depend upon a | large amount of city influence to back him. There are several others of less | importance, but I have reserved for I final notice one of the most interesting of all the candidates, Mr. T. D. Mutch. Friends in Labour Movement. Tom Mutch, as everybody here calls him, is not yet 50 years old, but he has seen a great deal of political life, and he seems to have found it highly entertaining. He grew up in the Labour movement, in its old moderate days, along with Lionel Courtenay, and they were fast friends through life. Together they left the movement in 1917, as a result of the controversy over the conscription issue. But though Mutch sacrificed a great deal for the movement, his energy and ability soon took him to the front again. In 1920 he was Minister of Education and Minister of Local Government in the Storey Cabinet, and he was again Minister of Education in 1925-27. He was member for Botany in the State Legislative Assembly for 13 years, also alderman in Rand wick and Mascot Councils. He has not only exceptional intellectual ability, but considerable knowledge of literature, and he has been a trustee of the Public Library and of the Mitchell Library for many years past. This is the man whom Lionel Courtenay, already on his death bed, named as his successor. . Dying Man's AppeaL A few days before the end came Senator Courtenay addressed to the "Telegraph" a letter in which he expressed the earnest desire that his friend of many years might fill the seat that ho was himself about to vacate. He reminded those who might read this appeal of the sacrifice that Mutch made for the sake of principle, spoke of his inside knowledge of local government, of the administrative ability that he had displayed as Minister of Education, and of the varied experience that he had gained by travel in many lands, and by his many contacts with public affairs. He appealed, therefore, for support for Muteh, as a man who, by his sterling character and well-tried ability and long political experience, could not fail to make his mark in Parliament and serve the 'best interests of his country. Needless to say, Mr. Mutch has expressed very high appreciation of the compliment paid him by his dead friend in conferring on him this honourable distinction. Able and ambitious, he would probably in any case have offered himself as a candidate for the vacancy. But the pathetic appeal of the dying man has certainly supplied him with an additional incentive for seizing the opportunity, and no doubt many people who have little personal knowledge of Tom Mutch will be moved to sympathy by the tragic circumstances that have led up to his candidature, and even if they cannot cast a vote in his favour will hope that the last wish of his dead friend may bo fulfilled.