FREEZING HIM OUT

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 64, 9 December 1919, Page 7

FREEZING HIM OUT

STRANGE STORY OF A LIBERAL CANDIDATE

CURIOUS METHODS OF

SELECTION

Mr. Alfred Oldham, the "straight-out" Liberal cjmdidato for Eotonia, has withdrawn froni the contest, because, he s'<iys in effect,.he 'lias been frozen out. "liven my.competitors have acknowledged.that ,Hiy chance of election was second to none, and my withdrawal was a rare stroke of luck, for the Jieform Party," ho fays. "Well, I can hardly grudge it to them, for in Uio selection of their candidate they openly consulted tho olectors and their decision was clean and above, board. On. our side it was different. I was asked to attend a meeting of candidates to discuss in a friendly way tbo possibility of reducing tho number going to tho poll. Tho meotiug was presided over by a Mr. Cracroffc Wilson, of Wellington. To my surprise there we-ro present only three possible candidates, and threw others—Messrs. Pnrnta, Fnlloona, and Keane. Such a meeting wns not what I had looked for, but on request I signed a paper, leaving to tho party lenders the final selection of a candidate. I signed in ,good faith, naturally expecting taut somo satisfactory process of selection would follow. The paper wont to Wellington, and no official return was made> for over a week, but lonjr before that I was privately informed in liotonm that I was "out of politics." As far as I can gather none of my supporters were consulted, nor was any attempt .made to gather electors together for true information. ... It transpired that tho selection was made as the result of telegrams forwarded from Rotorua. 1 hold that. I (and the electors, too) have a right to know what was in those- telegrams and who sent them."

The reason, for. this autocratic d'smissal o? a candidate/ which aroused in Mr. Oldhii.ni "feelings' of indignation," may l>o found in the prefatory statement of his poli tire (says the Auckland "Herald"). "Everybody ' knows that for month', while others were posing as 'Independent' or 'not declared,' I was a straight-out Liberal candidate.' , says Mr. Oldhfuu. "I am not a narrow party man —never have ibeen—but I hate a railsitter, for one never knows whose paddock he will jump into, and the uolitical opportunist is worso still, for his a\m is limited to hnnging around for a chancn to profit by another's j.'ianjs work. I had worked- with the aii> of securing for the district a local reDreiontative in Parliament, familiar with local needs, cinabta of. voicing them, in accord with Liberal measurement, and sound practical progress, nnd up to the. time of s'gning that fatal paper had ,116 cause to complain of. the progress of the campaign." As political .opportunism and narrow partisanshin are the distinctive characteristics of the numerous Liberal liblic'ep. Mr. Oldbairi was obviously illfitted to receive-the official. Liberal coupon.