THE BY-ELECTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12533, 21 June 1901, Page 4

THE BY-ELECTION.

We must; confess to being a little surprised that the Trades and Labour Council should commence its campaign on behalf of Mr Charles Taylor by accusing us of having kept that gentleman out of Parliament on a previous occasion. The tribute to our influence with 'the electors is rather spoilt by the suggestion thalb we used our power in an improper way. " We ascribe our.defeat at the last general election," the Secretary of. the Council Fays, in a letter appearing in another column, "to your articles which were published a few days prior to the ballot of the electors, which we had no time to reply to, and in which you stated that Mr C. the Labour candidate, could not expect to be returned, practically informing the electors net to vote for the Labour candidate." Mr Woods must have written witiout taking any trouble to refresh his as P* -yhafc occjffic«4 iusfc before

the last general election, in Christchureh. We certainly said nothing about Mr Charles Taylor that could not have been easily answered by has friends in, ample time to prevent any misunderstanding. Our last allusion to the Labour candidate was made forty-eight hours before the polling commenced, and was certainly not calculated to prejudice that gentleman in the eyes of the electors. "Mr Charles Taylor, who is standing as a Labour candidate, has," we wrote, "rapidly gained ground since his preliminary address to the electors, and Ms friends will have no reason, to feel discouraged if he should fail to succeed on his first attempt against the very strong opposition by which he is confronted. Fortunately, their particular interests will be as well looked after by Mr Ell and Mr Collins as by their own nominee, and if they are careful to avoid ' plumping,' and to distribute their votes between, these three candidates, they will be certain to secure at least cue very capable representative an ihe new Parlia* ■ ment." The matter is not of much ini-' portance, except in so far as it illustrates the readiness of some of our Labour friends to jump to conclusions that are not justified by the facts. But we need not go back to the last general election to find illustrations of this tendency. In the letter we publish this morning the writer quite gratuitously assumes that our suggestion that' the Labour Party should) define its position, "is an inference that the workers are not entitled to select a Labour candidate for the forthcoming election." We hope that we are not imbecile enough to infer anything of ih.Q kind. The workers are perfectly entitled to'select a dozen candidates if they think that is the way to win the seat for their party. We only wished to remind them that the process of splitting the- Liberal vote might be carried to a length at which it would ensure the success of their opponents. By the time the Government Liberals, the Labour Liberals, the Prohibition Liberals and the Independent Liberals 'have divided the strength of the party iSnt> Conservatives will istand a very good chance of triumphing over them all.