The Defeated Candidates.

Observer, Issue 780, 9 December 1893, Page 4

The Defeated Candidates.

On the day after the elections the defeated candidates were dead to the world. All of them, however, appear to have taken their gruel very kindly except Mr Kennedy Macdonald, who thus betrays his disappointed feelings in his advertised address to the electors : — • That the citizens of Wellington should have handed over the representation of the City to the Conservative party is to me a matter of deep personal regret. It is not a matter of surprise, for at the Opera Bouse on the 10 ch mst. I warned the Liberal Party that unless they recognised that Liberalism was first and Prohibition second, and some of the Liberal candidates gnt out of the road, the Conservative Party would win the day. My advice was disregarded, and my warning has proved prophetic. The Liberal party in this city has shown its utter weakness — enemies without and traitors within its walls have torn it to pieces. The workers will not combine together to support three candidates and three only, and as a result they are impotent against the powerful combinations brought against them. It is hopeless to continue a struggle in this city for their benefit until they learn wisdom in this respect. Recognising these facts it is not my intention to take any further part in the political life tff the community.' This is charmingly ungenerous. If it was so expedient for some of the Liberal candidates to get out of the road, why did not Kennedy Macdonald set an example of self-sacrifice ? His determination to take no further part in the political Jife of the community will of course cause the community to sit down in saokcloth and ashes until he is pleased to relent. • • » ' The elections all round showed that the women voted the Democratic ticket, but that the predominant influence with them was the temperance sentiment. Couple this with considerations as to the personal oharacter of the candidates and you have the women's mind at once..