AT VARIANCE

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIX, Issue 20102, 8 May 1935, Page 10

AT VARIANCE

CANDIDATES FOR MAYORALTY

MR PATERSON REPLIES

A further stage in the dispute between Mr A. M. Paterson and Mr G. T Koller, candidates for the Mavoral election was reached last night when Mr Paterson at his meeting at Cullmanntown Hall replied to charges made by Mr Koller concerning a telegram Mr Paterson claimed to have received concerning his candidature Mr Paterson said that on the eve of the election a friend of his had introduced a subject which seemed rather unfair to him. Mr G. T. Koller and Mr F. a. Hilton had issued a challenge concerning a particular telegram he had received. They doubted the existence of the telegram in his possession, although Mr Hilton actuallyhandled the telegram and read it at the speaker's home, after which Mr Hilton passed it on to two of his friends who were also present. After reading it they were all satisfied that he was justified in taking the action he had in entering the field as an Independent against Mr Koller. They now claimed that the telegram was not from the National Executive of the Labour Party, but from an individual who happened to be attending the Labour conference at the time. Not Concocted Mr Paterson explained that he did not know the address of Mr J. Thorn, secretary of the Labour Party, and he had only one and a-half days to communicate with the executive before nominations for the elections closed. Knowing a person attending the conference, he asked him to act as intermediary between the conference and himself, and as a result the telegram was sent to him. Mr Hilton and his friends knew that he took that action as the quickest way of getting in touch with headquarters. They now suggested that the telegram was from a private individual—that his intermediary had concocted the telegram. That was preposterous and not true. He knew the names of members of the executive his intermediary had discussed the matter with. Supposing that the intermediary did concoct the telegram, did that incriminate the speaker? Sot in the slightest degree. The telegram was an absolutely bona fide message from the National Executive through his intermediary to him, and at the very time that he received it Mr Koller and Mr Hilton were made aware of the contents. Why did they leave it until the last minute before starting to make a song about it? That was for the public to judge. Mr Koller had also said that the speaker pretended to be an official Labour candidate, but Mr Koller knew the reasons why he had entered the field, Mr Koller refusing to stand down when he knew that he had no chance of succeeding. Mr Koller was representing the Labour Party, which had only 40 financial members locally, while he stood as the representative of the anti-Satterthwaite vote of the town. Was he not performing a better service to the Labour movement than Mr Koller? "Absurd” Threat Mr Paterson characterised the threat by Mr Koller and Mr Hilton as absurd. “\®iy should Mr Koller come along now and call me a traitor? He knows that he cannot win, and perhaps ihe thinks that he can drag his old friend down.” Mr Koller and he had been friends for a quarter of a century, and he never thought that Mr Koller would desert him • simply because he came into the contest to keep intact the vote against the present Mayor. Mr Koller had written to Mr Thorn, who was not one of the members that his intermediary had seen, although he had seen Mr M. J. Savage, Mr Peter Fraser and others. Mr Thom, however, did not know about the matter and he had replied to Mr Koller that there was no truth in the statement that the executive had sent the speaker a telegram. If necessary, said Mr Paterson, he would publish the telegram. Mr Paterson reiterated the opinion that Mr W. Nash, the president of the Party, had no right to send a special telegram of best wishes to Mr Koller. Mr Koller had said that the speaker was unworthy to unfasten Mr Nash’s bootlaces. He was not blaming Mr Nash for what he did at his end. but Mr Koller for treating the telegram, which was a general one, in the light that he had.