THE ELECTION PETITION.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 23, Issue 6, 23 January 1912, Page 7

THE ELECTION PETITION.

MR McOALLUM’S REPLY. A COMPLETE DENIAL. Mr MoCalluin is at present in Wellington and, when seen by a New Zealand Times reporter, seemed to treat the petition against his return very lightly. " Against me'personally,” he said, "there cannot possibly be any aocusation'of guilt or of any attempt whatever to commit a breach of the Act in regard to corrupt practices.” He had been concerned in elections right away back to the days of the Stout-Vogel Ministry, which ha supported, and he could say that the 1911 election, so far as he was concerned, was one of the cleanest on record. He had not attempted to influence anybody, either by direct gifts ’or by gifts to sports clubs or otherwise for at least six months prior to the election. He was quite sure, too, that his committee had carried out his instructions, which were, briefly, that no vote that was not freely and voluntarily given should be asked for, He was aware that there had been reports circulated round the district to the effect that he had “ floated in on beer,” but he assured the reporter that from the beginning of the campaign, both he and his committeemen refused to have anything to do with extremists, either on the liquor aide or on the prohibition side. He stood for the middle party of moderates, and would_ have nothing to do with either extreme section. He courted the fullest inquiry into the charges alleged in the petition; and, now that the matter had gone so far as it ,had, would insist on the petition being fully gone into before two Supreme Court judges, so that the character which he had gained during a forty-eight years’ residence in Marlborough should be fully justified. The only thing that appeared to trouble him was that his personal friends outside Marlborough might think that he had been guilty of something wrong, and that, it credence were given to the charges that had been circulated against him throughout tha district in a most industrious fashion, his friends in the temperance or extreme prohibition party might be induced to believe that their confidence in him, as a fair-minded representative, was misplaced.