THE OROUA ELECTORATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18702, 7 May 1924, Page 8

THE OROUA ELECTORATE.

REFORM COMMITTEE'S CHOICE

PROTEST BY ASPIRANT.

[BE TELEGRAPH.—OWN COXBXt&OimXBT.] "WELLINGTON. Tuesday, r &ome trouble has arisen over the selection of a Reform candidate for the Oroua electorate, for which , seat the Hon. Mr. Guthrie, who contemplates retiring from politics, will not again be ,a.[ candidate. The local Reform organisation recently selected Mr. Gordon Elliott as its candidate is stated: by a majority, of one vote. Mr. Hugh Mclntyre, who y also sought to obtain the . Reform hall-mark, has now sent a letter to the local' Reform committee protesting against what he calls the peculiar methods employed. When approached by officials of the committee, he says it was stated that : a selection would be made by a committee the whole personnel of which was read to him. He agreed to abide by the decision of the members of that committee, but was astonished to learn that additional members had been added, as late as the evening the selection was "made. This obviously violated the original conditions laid down; and as it afforded an opportunity for political manipulation and underground engineering, to say nothing of . the hole ;■ and corner methods ■; against which the , Reform Party had strenuously set its face, he was not bound "by the decision, and held himself free to take such steps as the best interests of the Reform Party might warrant, and should he see fit to do so to appeal to the wider constituency of the electors at large.