The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1865.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1360, 16 February 1865, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 1865.

A rather violent contest has commenced between two caudidates for a vacant seat in the Provincial Council. Contested elections are common enough in the experience of us all not to excite any extraordinary public enthusiasm; and usually any such excitement is confined, if not to the candidates and their friends alone, at most to the electors within the district. At a first glance 'the Avon election is like others of its sort. There is a candidate belonging to each party, and each is doing his best to win. But whatever may be the result, the State will scarcely gain or lose. The machine of Government may go on, although Mr. Cowlishaw be defeated; and his success will not influence the Maori war or the money market, improve trade, or give employment to Lancashire immigrants. Yet, from the way in which the event is written about by our contemporaries, the friends of Canterbury in the other provinces and in England may be led to suppose that the whole future of this country depends upon the Avon election. We venture to Bay that the eyes of the world are not fixed upon the struggle between Mr Anderson and Mr. Oowlishaw; and that it is rather a mistake to magnify the coming election to the importance of a great political crisis.

The interest which is taken in the contest arises chiefly from the anxiety displayed by the Government to return their own man. The Executive, at the earliest hint of a vacancy, rushed into the arena and challenged all comers to a bout of electioneering. A man need not have Irish blood to fight under provocation; and when the leaders of one party dared the others to a contest, their challenge was accepted at once. The Provincial Secretary was the challenger; he is therefore responsible for all the broken heads that may result; and if his own head or reputation suffers, or the popular sentiment is enlisted against his side in the melee, he may thank himself as the cause. The

Press has helped the fight with a continuous outpouring of vehement partisanship, which would have been enough to provoke opposition if the Government had not taken the burden of provocation on their own shoulders. It must be admitted that the other side accepted the challenge in the same bold spirit in which it was offered. A candidate was found to stand as distinctly on the ground of opposition as the other did on the Ministerial platform. The individual merits of the men were merged at once in those of their respective parties; and the Government and the opposition are now pitted against one another for a most exciting match. The object is something, of course ; the seat to be won stands in the place of a belt to be fought for; but the real interest of the affair' is in the fight itself. For ourselves, we cannot help being amused and interested in the struggle. The little importance which the result can have upon the welfare of Canterbury divests the contest of all real political importance. The question at issue is one essentially for electioneering agents; it has no claim to be discussed as a public question. On the other hand, the sport is of high quality; the contest interests a very large number of the public ; and in the course of the election a great variety of interesting points come up for discussion, which we cannot allow to pass without comment; and, finally, we have just so much interest in the election itself that we hope a defeat in the present attempt will teach the Government a lesson of discretion and behaviour, which it is important that they should learn before gaining any more strength in the Council. Accordingly, while we decline to inflame the passions' of our readers with partisan appeals in favour of either side, we admit the attractiveness of the contest, and only desi/e to see it well fought out. In the interests of fair play we have to protest against an attempt of the Government party to win the election by blackening the character of the opposing candidate. The Press of yesterday tells a story of a horsewhipping given by Mr. Anderson to Mr. Brooke,- who is canvassing on Mr. Cowlishaw's behalf. The writer anticipates all inquiry, and assumes all the facts of the case; and he hurries to make a profit for his party by pronouncing Mr. Anderson guilty of an unprovoked and brutal attack, and .therefore wholly unfit to represent the Avon district.

The case will, of course, come before some judicial tribunal; and we shall therefore decline to imitate the Press in pronouncing a judgment upon its merits ; but we may say that the story which we have heard differs from the one given by that journal exactly in the point which, on its own showing, is of principal importance. "If a man goes about slandering his neighbour, and if there is no doubt that he is doing so, a thrashing may be the most effectual way of silencing such a vagabond." The Press says this, and it could "not Bay otherwise. Then it declares that Mr. Anderson had no such excuse ; and it tries to warp the judgment of the Avon electors, as we have stated. But at last it admits that the story is one-sided, hopes for correction, and trusts that an excuse can be offered !

In any other case than an election we should expect the Press to be more logical than to admit that it may be wrong in the same article in which it pronounces judgment. The want of logic shows a want of strength; and the Government must be very badly off for support if it tries to improve its chance of the election by defaming the opposition candidate, and hurrying the electors to a premature conclusion. The facts may be altogether different, as the Press admits. Mr. Brooke may have foully slandered Mr. Anderson's private character for electioneering purposes; he may have repeated his gross calumnies to dozens of people ; he may have been called to account and denied the charge; he may have been convicted of the slander in the clearest man-; ner ; " the most effectual way of silencing " Mr. Brooke may have been adopted; and Mr. Anderson may be proved to have haved as a gentleman and not as a rowdy, and to be perfectly worthy of the confidence of the Avon electors. This version of the story is at least as like the truth as that given by the Press. The judicial enquiry will perhaps set all dispute as to the facts at rest. But until it is over, we must beg the public to treat with suspicion any attempt like that of the Press to prejudice one of the candidates in the minds of the electors.