INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22563, 6 May 1935, Page 28

INDEPENDENT CANDIDATES

! TO THE EDITOR Sir,—The letter from Mr C. A. Wilson in your issue of Saturday shows clearly that he does not, nor do his supporters, really grasp the gravity of the issues involved in the forthcoming election, and it is surprising to find intelligent and responsible citizens failing to realise the position. In this election important principles are involved, and the personal aspect should not enter into the matter at all. It is well known that the citizens' ticket was completed: before there was the slightest hint that Mr Wilson intended to be a candidate for the City Council, and he is fully aware of this. Now he is determined to place his personal ambitions before the public welfare. It is quite clear that, in the circumstances of this election, no independent candidate has any chance of being elected, and, by persisting in his candidature, Mr Wilson is virtually assisting the Labour candidates and the establishment of Trades Hall rule in municipal affairs in Dunedin. Mr J. S. Douglas, another independent candidate, who was also nominated for the City Council, realised the danger of vote-splitting, and, to his credit, decided to withdraw. It has to be remembered that the election of a Labour Mayor and five Labour councillors would be sufficient to institute Trades Hall rule in the Town Hall for the next three years, and Mr Wilson and his supporters, by splitting votes,_ are going to assist in this deplorable direction.—l am, etc.. Watchman. May 4. TO THE,EDITOR Sir.—As a, candidate with air open mind fas regards municipal affairs, I appeal to the ratepayers to resent the imnlication that an independent candidate has no business to stand, and that he should net out of the road.—l am, etc., H. A. Hamer.