PARNELL ELECTION.

Auckland Star, Volume IV, Issue 1203, 1 December 1873, Page 3

PARNELL ELECTION.

To the Editor of the Evening Stab. According to the report of the above in the New Zealand Herald of to-day's date they i say that my standing was simply a pretext to \ show how many careless, indifferent, and J stupid persons were gifted with the franchise. Allow me to ask on what grounds j the writer infers that such was so, as it is : well known that among my supporters were gentlemen of equally good standing in society as the majority of those who voted for the other caixdidates, and having sufficient discrimination to know what they were doing and why. Orisittobeinferred that because thecandidates who only polled half the number of j votes of his opponents were supported only by careless, indifferent, and stupid people ?

Tf the inference is sound then it cannot be very Mattering to those who have supported candidates in the recent elections to know that because they only numbered half as many as those of the opposing party that they were, therefore, careless, indifferent, and stupid people. The inference is rotten. I may say that it was a matter of indifference to me what amount of scurrilous language was used towards me to influence some perhaps against me that did not know me; that is a trick that if often practised at such times, and would have been passed by me with silent contempt. But I cannot allow such a statement to beraade of the electors of 1 arncil who favored me with their support without trying to show the absurdity of the statement made, and it is well known hero that had I determined at an earlier period to have contested the election, " instead of only a day before'poJling," tho results would have been somewhat different to what they were. By inserting the same you will oblige.—l am, &c, C. Wood.