ELECTION NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5716, 7 November 1896, Page 7

ELECTION NOTES.

Christchurch does not enjoy a monopoly of candidates who show a plenteous lack of political knowledge. A candidate for Parliamentary honours up north was asked : " What is your opinion of the Truck Act?" His reply was: "Well, I'd leave that to the Railway Department."

What is Sir Robert Stout's position before the country? He is disowned by the Liberal Party, and apparently the Conservatives will have none of him. Not a single candidate for Parliament has so far promised to follow him. Mr Praser, the Conservative candidate for Wakatipu, was especially candid on this subject at a recent meeting. He was asked by a gentleman, who afterwards moved a vote of confidence in him if, in the event of the Government being defeated and Sir Robert Stout being made Premier, he would follow the latter gentleman ? His reply was : " No ; .Sir Robert had no following in the House, and it was not likely that he would become Premier."

The question for the electors to decide on the approaching polling day is, as was clearly put by Major Steward the other day : " Are they going to continue this Government or to put in a Conservative one ? He asked that the issue should be a clear one — Conservative versus Liberal. If they wanted Conservative they would vote so, ,if Liberal, let them vote Liberal. It was no use them saying they were Liberals and voting Conservative. There was no disgrace in.beinga Conservative, but he wanted a straight issue." The champion of the Elective Executive is no friend of Party Government ; but he sees clearly enough that while that form of government prevails, elections must be fought out on tfelldeflned party line 3.

A good deal is made in some quarters of the Premier's determination to maintain lis connection with the Anglo-Continental Mining Syndicate; but Mr Fiatman, in the course of his speech at Temuka, turned the tables by asking: "Must Ministers give up their private means of living when they join the Ministry ? Did anyone call on Sir F. Whitaker to resign the chairmanship of the Directors of the Bank of New Zealand when he was Premier ? No." He enforced his argument by this illustration : — " Supposing, 17r instance, Mr Ehodes became Colonial Treasurer, as his friends fondly hope, would he give up money-lending? Would he call in all his mortgages, and lend no more money ? I do not think he would, and I do not think anyone would ask him to do so, and yet he would be in a more objectionable position than the Premier can possibly be in as an advocate of a mining syndicate."

Mr M'Keague, one of the candidates for Ashburton, has a vivid way of appealing to the electors. Part of the peroration of his opening address ran thus : — " The Conservative picture sets before you the ghastly misery and social wretchedness of the toiling masses whenever and wherever the monopolist has had sway; the idle capitalist who is the only true and genuine "loafer" living in ease and luxury on the wealth produced by the sweat of the other men's brows; the pinched labourer who produces plenty by his toil for the support of himself and of those depending on him, and who gets but a small share of what he produces; the struggling farmer who also has to part with a large proportion of what he produces to various similar gods. The same picture shows you the private ownership of large tracts of land laying the foundation for an exactly similar state of society here as prevails in England, with all its real misery and degradation and serfdom. When you are able to gather figs off thorn bushes you may expect legislation beneficial to the struggling masses from the Conservative

party."

Mr Arthur Withy, who is contesting the Parnell seat, describes himself as "an Elective Executive Eadical," and supports all the advanced Liberal proposals. He timeously reminds the public that the agitation for making the Cabinet elective has not arisen because of the acts of the present Government. He says: — "Those who remember Sir Harry Atkinson's * hob-nailed boots' and 'stockwhip,' know that autocracy did not originate with Mr Seddon." Further on he says: — "I should endeavour to abolish party government altogether, and substitute the elective Executive ; but if . I found that that was impossible— if 1 found that the only practical choice lay between Captain Eussell and the National Association on the one hand, and Mr Seddon and the Liberal Party on the other — I would most certainly support Mr Seddon." It is much to be desired that some Christchurch candidates would give an equally straightout pledge as to the leader they would be prepared to follow. Party Government is not yet abolished, and candidates must still be prepared to give a decided answer to the question : " Under which King ?"