The Star. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14. 1896.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5489, 14 February 1896, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14. 1896.

The Christchurch election has been lost and won, and a Conservative has gained the vacant seat. It would be idle to say that we are not intensely sorry for this result, though at the same time we are perfectly sincere in congratulating our opponents. It is only bare justice to say that they worked splendidly, that their organisation was perfect, that they were full of enthusiasm, and that they left nothing undone that ought to have been done to further the chances of their candidate. And in all this they have •. provided a very valuable object lesson for the Liberals, or perhaps it would be better to say a series of object lessons;.- ,They-had secured, a good candidate; and' they' "ran him for 'all he and' they were worth ; : there was in their case no division of interest; they, were working together as one man, having but one object in view, and they won. The Conservatives all over the country will make much of this victory. They will claim that it is a tremendous blow for the Government, and they will, very likely contend that it presages the downfall of Liberalism and the return of the Conservatives to office. But let us see what are the facts offihe case. That Mr .Lewis has been returned by adventitious aid, even his strongest supporters must admit. To say nothing of the many votes that were specially imported for the occasion from the country districts, a . considerable portion of the Liberal strength was diverted to the Conservative side by the pressure of unfortunate circumstances. There were numbers of men and women who at the last election voted on the Liberal Bide, and who assuredly would haye done so this time, had there been a candidate at all to their liking. The Liberal party, confronted with Hobson's choice, had to take up a candidate who was admittedly weak in the extreme. They had to do this at the eleventh hour, and their organisation was simply no-, where. Their candidate was unpopular, and as we have already indicated, numbers of Liberals absolutely declined to vote for him on personal. grounds. Neither would these people vote for the Prohibitionist, some of whose utterances had utterly disgusted them ; so their support went to the Conservative. There were yet others who voted for Mr Lewis simply because of their strong desire to shut out Mr T. E. Taylor. But supposing that these things were not taken into consideration at all, and that the recorded numbers are taken at precisely their paper value, an examination of the result is interesting. At the last general election there were 14,682 names on the roll, and the large proportion of 12,470 persons recorded treir votes. The roll this time contained 17,559 electors, and the* record of votes, including the informal ones, was 12,474 ; so that almost precisely the same number of people voted this time as on the former occasion, and the proportion of nonvoters was more than doubled. Clearly, then, the degree of interest on this occasion has not been so great. And now we will take the totals of the voting, and again at their paper value. Since Mr T. E. Taylor declared himself to be a Eadical of the Radicals, his polling strength must obviously be added to that of Mr E. M. Taylor; and this gives us a Liberal vote of 7498, against the 4714 recorded for Mr Lewis. By the way, it is worth mentioning that the number recorded by Mr Eeeves, who topped the poll in 1893, was no fewer than 5436. The election has been lost and won, and the question of the moment is this— What are the Liberals going to do about it ? In a few short months a crisis of far greater moment, the General Election, will be upon them, and they will have to vote not for one representative, but for three. Are they going to court disaster by the simple process of doing nothing, or are they going to set to work in earnest to provide the human machinery without which no contest can be safely entered upon ? We strongly urge them to take this matter in hand with all the earnestness of purpose that has characterised them in days gone by, and to do so at once, for " if 'twere well done, then 'twere well it were done quickly." They need a well-selected central body — of men and women combined — who will work steadily and systematically, and strong committees in all parts of the district, with a well defined programme of work to bo done. And another need of the moment is that the question of candidates for the General Election should be taken up now, lest a worse thing befall than has just happened. To sum up the whole matter, there are three things to be done — first, Organise ; second, Organise ; third, Organise.