THE "GOOD OLD DAYS”

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29384, 10 December 1960, Page 10

THE "GOOD OLD DAYS”

An Election Of Eighty Years Ago [Specially written for “The Press” by EDMUND BOHAN] AT this time, with the final results before us, our thoughts are still centred on politics and elections. The recent general election was a fairly colourless affair, and polling day itself was very orderly and respectable. For colonial New Zealand, however, elections were never dull and anything was likely to happen, and usually, did.

On September 10, 1879, the citizens *f Christchurch went to the polls to elect three members for what was then called Christchurch City. This area included the centre inside the four belts. Also, it included Sydenham, already slowly becoming an industrial suburb though with scattered small farms as one got nearer the hills: Phillipstown, another small farming area; Knightstown, a crowded and poor part around Edgeware road; the quite fashionable districts of Merivale, St. Albans, Linwood and Bingsland (now Richmond); and the railway workshop part of Addington. Five candidates had just concluded a month-long battle, and a battle it had truly been. The meetings had been violent; the personal and ill-defined party feelings were much more bitter than we have been accustomed to; and newspapers and public had been thoroughly stirred up to considerable states of excitement. All of the candidates were interesting personalities. The most famous was Sir George Grey, the Premier of the last two years, whose defeat in Parliament had actually brought about this election. This was his last desperate bid to keep office, for he had failed to pass several promised reforms, and he had failed to keep any semblance of harmony inside his own Cabinet. However, he had formed for this election the first constituency party in our history. In Christchurch this organisation called itself the Canterbury Liberal Association. Its members adored Grey with what can only be described as heroworship. In spite of this, Grey’s efforts to woo Christchurch were made against a long-standing Canterbury dislike of him. At his first meeting, he was greeted by howls of derision when he rose to speak, and the countercheers of his supporters only made matters worse in the overcrowded hall. No sooner had the Mayor called for order than someone jumped up on the platform and called for three cheers, which made confusion worse confounded. One of Grey’s opponents, E. C. J. Stevens, vainly shouted for quietness but was barely heard in the din. Nor was another opponent, Edward Richardson, any more successful. After a while Grey did proceed and declared that truth would ever prevail and that he was waging an heroic struggle for freedom. In the circumstances this was very apt. Unruly Meeting ' The uproar began again and this time a rush was made towards the platform after Grey had made rather derogatory remarks about some of Canterbury’s most trusted leaders, Sir John Hall, in particular. The mob seemed so intent on blood that the newspaper reporters left their table and retreated to safety and the Mayor suggested that they all adjourn to the larger Drill Hall. Dr. Turnbull, the wooden-legged president of the local Liberal Association, then climbed on to the table to make the required announcement, but Grey refused to move. He had never run away in his life, he declared, from Zulus or Maoris, and no Canterbury crowd would make him do so. So stay he did, and eventually the meeting staggered on its violent way. “The Press" remarked: “It was a humiliating sight to see the Premier of New Zealand, and a man of Sir George Grey’s age,

position, and ability vainly trying to get that large audience to listen to him while he proceeded to vilify the character of some of Canterbury's most trusted men.”

Grey’s running partner, S. P. Andrews, was a plasterer, a Patriarch of the Sons of Temperance and the local Chief Templar of that order. He had been a member of the Provincial Council and was now one of the chief men of the Liberal Association. However, in spite of all this, he attacked Grey’s native policy and taxation policy, and promised his support to Sir William Fox, the Leader of, the Opposition, if Grey happened to be defeated. Andrews was thus a generous person, but such generosity did not extend to higher education and university professors, both of which he wanted to abolish. “The Press” urged his removal to the Canterbury Museum because of these rather old - fashioned opinions.

The third of those called “Greyites” was the most eccentric of all. He was J. W. Treadwell, a well-meaning person with very definite views on finance and economics, who seemed to use the election to publish his interpretation of the history of land laws since Gothic times in the Ukraine, 2400 years before. By and large, he was ignored by the other candidates, the newspaper editors, and by most of the voters. Oppositinon to Grey came from two very prominent Canterbury men. One was E. C. J. Stevens, the other Edward Richardson. Although the place of Stevens in politics was that of skilful planning and organising, the main attention that he attracted at this time could be the fact that he was qualified to vote in at least eight of Canterbury’s 12 electorates, as he held sections of land all over the province. His colleague, Richardson, was the engineer who completed the Lyttelton railway tunnel. Stevens and Richardson each had his own electoral committee. Richardson had been a Cabinet Minister, and was to be one again; Stevens was to become one also.

On September 10, Christchurch was placarded, and all its cabs were taken over by one or other side. Grey and Andrews left people in no doubt about which were their cabs by having large name signs attached. Richardson’s committee used the same method but Stevens scorned such vulgar publicity and his cabs carried the general title “Christchurch Election.” All through what proved to be a warm and wearying day the canvassers emerged from the various committee rooms and actively looked for votes. Treadwell, having no committee at all. simply placed himself in front of the main polling booth at the Oddfellows Hall, Lichfield street, where the oddness of his white hat and blue veil (the latter presumably to keep the sun out of his eyes) attracted for him considerable attention if few votes. High-Spirited Crowds The other candidates were less conspicuous, although Richardson was seen at intervals and seemed to wear what was quaintly described as “an anxious expression of countenance.’’ Stevens visited his rooms in Cathedral square from time to time, but left all to his very capable supporters, who included some of the leading city businessmen of the day. About noon, Grey and the Hon. J. T. Fisher (member for Heathcote) and William Montgomery (member for Akaroa), both of whom had already been returned a few days before, drove up to the Liberal* Association’s rooms in Hereford street and were met by a very sick-looking Mr Andrews.

As the day drew on the crowds increased both in numbers and high spirits—in fact Christchurch took on an air of fiesta. The thronging voters and non-voters cheered their favourites when they appeared, booed those they didn’t favour, and laughed at the topical political cartoons posted on shop windows and walls. Then, as now. Christchurch had its street louts, and they threw flour and Chinese crackers at their more respectable fellow citizens, and abused with great heat and violence the forces of the law sent against them under Inspector Hickson. A bookmaker enlivened the scene still more bylaying odds: three to one against "Landshark" (Stevens), five to one against Richardson, five to one in favour of Grey, and three to one for “Le Plastereur,” Andrews.

After 3 p.m., everyone’s excitement rose, for the polls closed at 4 and the canvassers redoubled their efforts with determination born from the realisation that time was running out. Some larrikins now turned their full attention to using the police for missile targets, and the police retaliated bycarrying off a live prisoner after a devastating counter-attack made with swinging truncheons.

The results were not to be published until after 7 p.m.: but. from the closing of the polls, crowds soon estimated at 2000 gathered outside the Oddfellows Hall. There, as darkness fell, the larrikins appeared again with their flour and crackers. At 7.25 p.m. the crush outside the hall was so great that the door could pot be opened for an official to go out with the results. The hall-porter was therefore obliged to lean out of a window and bellow the news that Grey had headed the poll, closely followed by Andrews and Stevens, who were accordingly elected.

A. few weeks later, Grey was unseated, because he had, previous to the 10th, been returned unopposed at Thames, and Richardson regained his seat. But noone could know that yet, and only 88 votes separated Grey and Richardson, with Treadwell about 700 votes behind them all. Doubly Jubilant After enthusiastic cheers had greeted the announcement, the cry, “To . Coker's!” was raised. Thereupon the crowd poured ..>- wards Coker’s Hotel, where Gsey addressed them from an open window. He was doubly jubilant because one of his Auckland followers —Speight, the leader of the Good Templars there—had defeated Sir Frederick Whitaker, one of the Grey Government’s most prominent opponents. Apologies were made for Andrews's absence. The excitement had been too much and he was too ill to be present at his own triumph. The Liberal Association then met in Coker’s reception room. Among those present were Dr. J. S. Turnbull, the well-known doctor and chemist (in the chair), the Rev. Charles Fraser, of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, James Gammaek, the wealthy and philanthropic Ellesmere farmer, R. L. L. Higgins, a squatter and landholder from North Canterbury, Grey, and many others. There they drank each others’ healths and made numerous congratulatory speeches to each other until .well into the next morning. After this gathering had dispersed some of the hardier members visited the ailing Andrews and expressed their delight at his election by hearty and persistent cheering. Whether this aided Andrews’s recovery or not is hard to say. In another part of the town larrikins had meanwhile invaded the Oddfellows’ Hall, where a visiting opera company was tq perform. Needless to say, those freethinking and freeacting citizens did not bother to pay. The police reappeared and, after a struggle, the interlopers were ejected. Then another clash developed, but after 13 arrests' had been made by the police, the crowd slowly dispersed. The Christchurch election for 1879 was over.