THE CITY ELECTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3485, 24 April 1874, Page 3

THE CITY ELECTION.

• To the Editor. —Now 'that the election is over, I wish to make known, through the Press, an incident of the contest, which appears so discreditable to the parties concerned that public attention ought to be called to it. 1 stated in my address at the hustings that I had been one of the first promoters of the eight hours movement in Melbourne. In contradiction of that statement, Mr Pyke (who was in Melbourne at that time, and who is well known to have been acquainted with all the parties concerned, and whose statements would therefore be likely to be received as trustworthy by the public) admitted into the columns of his paper, the ‘Southern Mercury,’a letter in the following terms : THE EIGHT HOURS’ MOVEMENT. To the Editor of the Southern Mercury. —As an old friend and associate of Mr Thomas Loader, of Melbourne (formerly must P rotest against his being robbed or the honors due to him. At the nomination on Monday, Mr Barton told us that the eight hours movement was first begun by Charles Don, the celebrated legislator, who boasted that he “hammered the bluestone all the day, and the squatters all the night.” Now sir, I am in a position to assert that to Thomas Loader all the credit is duo, and this long before Don was ever heard of. As to Pater Sherwin, he was in Adelaida at the time. Both he and Don came on to the scene later: and Mr Barton much later still.—l am, &c., t\ A Victorian. Dunedin, April 15. The statements in this letter are entirely false, and Mr Pyke must have known that they are so. Mr Thomas Loader was then a partner Williams, the coachbuilder, who had the railway carriage contracts from the Government, and who had refused to accede to the eight hours movement on the part of his men. Then there was a strike at the workshops for the eight hours. Mr Loader went bo far as to deliver a lecture against the movement, and so for <a time at all events lost his influence in the democratic party, Mr Sydney James, who was at that time a partner of Mr Loader in the wholesale saddlery business, called on me yesterday (polling day), and apologised to me for having made a statement similar to Mr Pyke. Of course this private apology so made was <>f no use to counteract the evil effects of Mr Pyke’s letter, and the letter in the Stab to a similar effect, and I believe that through the statements remaining uncontradicted I have losT the election. Mr James will, I believe, satisfy any person who desires to know the truth of this matter respecting Mr Loader, and will say that my statements are, to his knowledge, strictly correct. The result of the election has been against me, but I think no right minded man will for one moment say that it is fair, during an election, for parties to resort to such slanders to secure victory. I have never throughout the election condescended to say a disparaging word of either of my opponents, or to vilify any man’s character to secure the object I had in view,—l am, &c,, George Elliott Barton.