HUTT SEAT.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1302, 4 December 1911, Page 8

HUTT SEAT.

MR. SHORT'S CANDIDATURE. Statements having been made that Mr. R. W. Short Ls not the Reform Party candidate for the Hutt seat, he desires to ;nake public the following letter, which is self-explanatory:— House of Representatives, August 23, 1911. K. W. Short, Esq., l'etone. Dear Sir,—Some residents in the Hutt Vailcy have requested me to see you about your proposed candidature for that district. I am very busy in the Parliamentary Buildings at present, but would bo very glad indeed if you. could find au hour or two to come along and look me up, and if you go on with your candidature, I may be able to give you some assistance which will prove useful in connection therewith. ' Yours sincerely, W. F. MASSEY. Mr. Short explains that he had an interview with Atr. Afassey on August' :!4, and that a* an outcome his candidature was accepted. He has since been in frequent communication with Air. Masssy and with the Reform Party organiser lilr. Martin). • ADDRESS BY AIR. .SHORT. Air. R. W. Short, Opposition candidate for the Hutt, addressed the electors at St. James's Hall on Fridav.evening. Air. Baldwin was in the chair. Questioners were much in evidence, and were particularly eager for light on the land question. Replying to a question asking whether the candidate would favour the acquisition by the State for public works of at least a portion of the unearned increment, Air. Short said that when a man put the best part of his years in the back country carving a horns for himself out of the bush, he deserved all he got, though it might bo the unearned increment which his friend in the audience viewed askance. At the conclusion of his address the candidate was accorded a vote of thanks and confidence, amid some dissension, on the motion of Mr. B. C. Warncs, seconded by Mr. M-Lachlan. MR. Al. J. REARDON AT UPPER HUTT. At the Upper Hutt on Saturday evening Air. Jl. J. Reardon set out to show the manner in which one of his opponents had helped the labouring man. Initially the candidate stated that a special pleader had been attacking him in the local paper, challenging him to prove that Air. Wilford had not been the best Atayor that Wellington had ever had. That perhaps would not bo a very - difficult matter to prove, but as the Labour candidate he would tell tnem how Afr. Wilford had, as Mayor, assisted the labouring man, and bo traversed the recent negotiations l>et.ween the Labourers' Union and the City Council (at which Air. Wilford presided). The candidate said that to begin with Air. Wilford refused to hear any evidence as to the domestic difficulties of the labouring class except in the presence of the press, thus throwing tho private family matters of witnesses open to comment and possibly ridicule. On that account the negotiations fell through, and later the Labour representative on the council suggested a rise of one shilling per day, which motion was not accepted. Subsequently negotiations were reopened, the representatives of the union agreeing to any conditions imposed by tho Afayor The result of that was that tho evidepei of witnesses on their private domestic affairs was ridiculed in the correspondence columns of the papers, and by others. As soon as those negotiations were reopened Afr. AVilford doctanvl fVit '••■ <■ " not make up his thind if 83. «. day wm sufficient to enable a ■ married . .. x . live upon, and once more negotiations were broken off Subsequently Air. Al'Laren gave notice of motion to increase the wages of corporation labourers by Is. a day, and after a hard fight an increase of 6d. a day only was secured. That is the way Air. IVifford as Afayor has assisted the labourers. At tho conclusion of his address Alt. Reardon wae given a vote of thanks and confidence.