THE BALLOT.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2119, 19 February 1870, Page 2

THE BALLOT.

To the Editor of the Evening Star. I am persuaded your two leaders on the above subject must have caused the ejectors of Duned’h to ask themselves the question— Is intimidation exercised to such an extent among thevarioussocioties of Dunedin, as was alleged bv Dr Buchanan in his place in the House of Lords in Wellington? Is it true that tho Caledonian Society and the other Benefit Societies of Dunedin have become so tyrannical and despotic that they can influence an election by coercing their members to act and vote contrary to their sober convictions, through pressure brought to bear by tbe more sanguine and intellectual members of those bodies on their weaker brethren ? If such assertions be true, then indeed the ballot is the only panacea to redress such wrongs and to place independence within the reach of the most vacillating and timorous. But, sir, 1 take exception to tho remarks of Dr Buchanan as levelled at a class of men who in intelligence and probity are equal, if not superior to many of those dignitaries with whom the patrician Dr. is in the habit of associating. To malign the action of such men, because they belong to certain institutions which have for their aim and object benevolence in the broadest and widest sense, is a stretch of hardihood and ignorance which should not pass uncontradicted. In this City, composed mostly of workers, there being no room for idle men, nearly tho whole of our adult male population belong to benefit societies, and consequently tho statement made by Dr Buchanan is a reflection on almost the whole state of society. It would be well, before such assertions are hazarded, that those making them should inquire into the working and character of tho men who compose our various benefit societies. Methinks it would astonish Dr Buchanan to be confronted by a majority of those men, and more especially would it astonish the Dr should he venture to dictate fur whom they should vote. Sir, I believe in the ballot, and so do all the thinking men of Otago ; and were it not for the opposition given to it in the very House which the Dr has the honor to hold a seat in, tho ballot woxdd ere now have been the law of the land iu New Zealand.—l am, kc. Ballot.