THE CONTROVERSY.

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 91, 17 April 1923, Page 4

THE CONTROVERSY.

Alluding at his meeting at Island Bay last evening to the agreement he alleged was made two years ago in respect to candidature for the Mayoralty, Mr. L. M'Kenzie said that the sub-committees of the candidates then standing had agreed to a proposal that the candidate chosen at the ballot should be asked to Btand down at the next election in favour of one of the unselected candidates. Before leaving home that evening, he said, he had received a telephone message from Mr. Alexander Macintosh,. Mr. Maointoeh said that the statement made by Mr. M'Kenzie at Khandallah that the Hon. J. G. W. Aitken was approached by Mr. Wright's committee to wait upon Mr. M'Kenzie prior to the 1921 election was incorrect. It was not Mr. Aitken, but another gentleman. The candidate said he accepted Mr. Macintosh's statement as the correot one. Mr. Wright's committee had denied that it had approached anyone to wait on him. In reply to thai* he asserted that,' in the presence of Mr. G. Mitchell, the Rev. J. Paterson ' and Mr. John . Kirkcaldio had waited upon hiri, the latter stating ha ha 3 been asked to do so by a member of Mr. Wright's committeo, and he had accepted the assurance of those two gentlemen that such was the case. That, said Mr. M'Kenzie, was the reason for the statement he had made. It could he verified by Mr. Mitchell and the two others he had named. In conclusion, Mr. M'Kenzie said he had no wish to continue the controversy, with Mr. Wright any further; he sincerely hoped he would be left alone to continue his campaign. The candidate was accorded a unanimous, vote of thanks.