THE WAITEMATA ELECTION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9480, 9 April 1894, Page 4

THE WAITEMATA ELECTION.

The Waitemata election takes place to-day* There are a large number of polling-places in the district, and although the telegraph offices are to be kept open to a late hour, all the returns may not be in to-night, as several of the polling-places are a considerable distance from any telegraph station. In all probability, however, the returns which will be received will settle the election. There is now scarcely any argument as to which is the better of the candidates. The Ministerial demand is, " Elect Mr. Jackson Palmer so as to please Mr. Seddon, and secure him another obedient follower" Such is the pass to which the free and enlightened electors of the colony have now come. According to the Government " barraokers," the Ministry will look at nothing in dealing with a constituency, but simply whether they have sent a man who will vote as an automaton. As a matter of fact, this is a mere pretence. The Ministry will be glad enough to get a man elected whose vote will be always at their command, but the constituency will receive no benefit. Ministers have an obedient follower. He is tied to them, and on no occasion can he vote otherwise than as they direct. If he revolted on any occasion whatever, the Ministerial Whip, who is now doing the speechifying for the candidate, would tell him that he was put in as a Ministerial nominee, that he owed his election, not to any claims or qualifications of his own, but to the fact that he was a Ministerial nominee. He -would be told that he had been made by the breath of Mr. Seddon, and that at any moment Mr. Seddon could unmake him. It is absurd to represent Mr. Massey as a member of the Opposition. Unfortunately for the colony it is in the unwholesome and dangerous position of having no Parliamentary Opposition at all. But Mr. Massey is an independent man, and will be an independent member. Anyone who knows anything ot Parliamentary workinar will know that such a man is certain to obtain more for his constituents than one who is bound neck and crop to a Ministry. He is at all events at liberty to urge their claims on the Ministry and on Parliament. Mr. Jackson Palmer would not even be able to do that. Mr. Palmer was only a few months ago rejected by Waitemata by a substantial majority. The electors then had his whole career before them. But they would have none of him. Will they take him now to their bosom, and hold him up to the world as their choice ? What has taken place in the interval to change their determination ? His great achievements have been the election petition and the calamitous Gum Commission.