WELLINGTON CITY Electioneering Gossip.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 125, 22 November 1902, Page 13

WELLINGTON CITY

Electioneering Gossip.

On Tuesday next the suspense will be over, and the world will know to whom New Zealand is to look for political guidance during the next three years. ♦ » * Dr. Fmdlay on his return to this city, left no one in doubt as to his nolitioal platform. He said he was heavily handicapped, but he carries weight, does the legal luminary, and, for a political tyro, his case for the Government was a clincher, leaving no point untouched. The Doctor's merry, easy style has "caught on," and his meetings have had large audiences ♦ * * Mr. E. G. Jel'icoe, of fighting fame, is in the lists, and fch^e lawyer in him leads him. to warn people in his preliminary announcement that canvassing is penal. If we are able to judge by Mr. Jellicoe's asr<rressive polioy m court and elsewhere, this candidate, should he happen to take to the stump, won't let his audience fall asleep. ♦ « * Mr. George Fisher has been seen m his barouche, with a red flower in his button-hole. This is George's dang-er-signal. Having a day or two in which to overtake all other candidates in the field, Mr. Fisher may be considered to be ready to finish desperately. His coachman, by the way. wears a white flower, as a set-off to the danger-signal

Labour member D. McLaren hates "hen-roost politicians." The convictions that are in the wiry David are bound to hubble out, and his workingmen friends would "have a quid on his dbanoe" if the Electoral Act would permit it. Now that Allan Orr has retired from the conflict, of course David's chances have "-one up several points Although he is not a "hen-roost politician," he still ha© a feather to fly with. • » • Mr. J. G. W. Aitken is stall pe^o-ing away. What with his n^ayoral duties, the Presbyterian Assembly, the political arena and business, how he manages to be on time is a mystery. No one ever saw His Worship go out of a slow stroll, but he "gets there just the same," although whether this will apply in a political sense is not yet obvious. • * * Mr. John Duthie has passed a fairly quiet week, but on Wednesday n ghthe took his little kitful of figures and bomb-shells for the Government to the Choral Hall, and fired them off. He defended himself against that "political tyro," Dr. Fuidlay, and fired off a regular park of artillery against that irreverent young man, who will persist m cracking jokes at other people's expense. Mr. Duthie's careful diagnosis of the state of this bleeding country, which he remarked once before was financially sound, was on the same lines as usual.

Mi*. A. H. Atkinson, with the help of has committees, a biting tongue, and a good deal of ink, is leaving no stone unturned under which he may find a scorpion to sting the Government. He is up betimes, is A. R., and, in a new suit of black, a small brief-bag, and other accessories of the political craft, may be seen, as far afield as Torystreet, ready at any moment to launch a thunderbolt for any person who blames the Government for being so bad as to allow the phenomenal prosperity of this country to go unchecked. * * * Mr. P. J. O'Regan, the recipient of floral tributes, and the distributor of flowers 1 of graceful eloquence, has been t&uehmg on land questions, Customs, and the Civil Service. P. J. has crammed in his legal examination somehow durinw the rush for the spoil, and Tom Lynch of single-tax views, has 1 filled the breach. P. J. is going very strong, and is not only a good finisher, but a consistent runner. » * * Mr. G-odber, gaining confidence with the success of his meetings, and the reception of his views, is smiling blandly through his spectacles at the people and his chances. The confectioner, calmly following a choice cigar down. Cubastreet, and the politician going into figures of vast magnitude, in a levelheaded manner, are the one person, but they don't seem so. There are evidences that the menial Godber does not fear the poll.