A DEFEATED CANDIDATE HONOURED.

Otago Witness, Issue 2856, 9 December 1908, Page 29

A DEFEATED CANDIDATE HONOURED.

(Fbou Oub Own Correspondent.) CHRISTCHURCH, December 4.

Mr W. D. Campbell's etiorts on behalf of the Opposition party in contesting the Timaru seat received- gratifying acknowledgment last night, when he was presented by hie supporters with a purse of 150 sovereigns and an illuminated addrefcs. The Assembly Rooms in Timaru were crowded, some of those present having come long distances to do Honour to the young candidate. The speakers included Mr C. A C. Hardy, M.P., Mr W. Jcfferies (Opposition candidate for Geraldine), and .Mr Frank Rolleston, and Mr Campbell's ability and courage in contesting the teat were the subjects of many eulogistic lomarks. Mr Wallace, the chairman of Mr Campbell s committee, in making tbe presentation, said some people had caid when Mr Campbell fast came out that he " had not a hope," but results had proved him to be a very formidable opponent. Mr Wallace said ho hud taken part in election campaigns for the past 25 yens, but he had never before been connected with one in which members of the candidate's committee worked so zealously or so harmoniously. Mr Wallace then handed over, amid great applause, the puree of sovereigns, and lead the address, which stated that Mr Campbell had succeeded in a few weeks in presenting the Opposition party's platform so lucidly and powerfully before the electors as to produce the keenest contest for the seat witnessed for the last 30 years. Mr Hardy, in the course of hie remarks, paid a warm tribute to the Leader of the Opposition as a hard-working, conscientious man, whose aim was to do the best in the interests of all classes, and reminded his hearers that Mr Ma?ioy was a man of the, people, earning his living from, his farm, and largely from his cows. Mr Hardy referred to the people of New Zealand as spoon-fed, and strongly advocated a return to Samuel Smiles's policy of " self help." The present Government bought and sold the people with their own, and it was time that this was stopped. He was himself now getting into the 6ere and yellow kaf, and he

would cay that if they did not want young Campbell for Timaru he would put him in the House as member for Selwyn. — (" No, no.") They wanted such men, men of strong convictions and high ideals, and he hoped to see Mr Campbell in Parliament before very long.