AUCKLAND ELECTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 834, 4 June 1910, Page 6

AUCKLAND ELECTION.

OPENING THE GAMPAICN. THE LABOUR CANDIDATE. Three candidates, bo far, are otrt for City East, Messrs. A. M. Myers (Independent Liberal), W. Richardson (Prohibitionist), and G. I. M'Knight (Labour). Mr. Myers opens his campaign at the Choral Hall on Monday night. The following night Mr. Richardson opens his campaign. Mr. J. Patterson, who was spoken or as the Government candidate, has decided not to enter the contest, as ue has received intimation from Wellington that the Government do not intend running a candidate against Mr. Myers. A meeting of the supporters of Mr. M'Kuight was held id the Labour party's rooms, in Swanson Street, on Wednesday. Mr. J. A. M'Cullough presided over a good attendance. Short addresses were delivered by Mr. M'Knight and Mr. T. E. Taylor, M.P., and Mr. T. J. M'Bride. A central committee and fire branch committees were appointed, and it was decided to arrange for a public meeting in the Choral Hall at an.early date. The sum of £40 was collected in the room in aid of the expenses fund of the campaign. Mr. G. I. M'Knight, who has been selected to carry the colours of a hopeful Labour party in the contest for the Auckland Bast seat, has long been a student of political questions (says the Auckland "Herald") and a champion of the cause of the workers. A man\ of medium height, and a somewhat slender build that does not betoken an over-vigorous constitution, Mr. M'Knight impresses one as being more of a thinker,'and a quiet unobtrusive worker in the cause of Labour than the noisy agitator so often met with in the ranks of the party. Ho is of middle age, having been born in Liverpool in 1864. The son of a ship's carpenter, Mr. M'Knight became apprenticed to the carpentering trade at an early age. He left England as a lad of 453, and after spending several years in Queensland, where he worked at his trade and took a prominent part in Labour matters, he came to Auckland in 1893, and acted as secretary to Mr. Thomas Tudebope; who contested a seat in the Labour interests in that year. Later on he spent some time on tho co-operative works on the Main Trunk line, and was also engaged on road works in the Hokianga district, where , he was appointed road overseer. He had a dispute with the Department, and, as he alleges, was "Knyvetted out of his position. He was successful in obtaining a Royal Commission to inquire into tho matter, but the inquiry ended practically in "a draw." He also elected to become "a son of the soil," but his experiences as a holder of one of the Punakitore sections in the North were not of the happiest, and he surrendered his holding. Subsequently ho fell into ill-health, and although he recovered from.his ailment, he has been unable to follow laborious work, and has during recent years taken up light factory, and . other employment. .In 1908"Mr. "M'Kriight announced himself as a candidate for the Parnell seat, ,bu't'-o*ingito"'thewant of means he retired before the poll. Mr. M'Knight takes considerable interest in literature, and confesses to being an occasional writer of verse and short stories. He says that he. is "fit for a fight," and is quite confident of being able to give a good account of himself in the coming election.