The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1892. Wellington Election

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 84, 14 January 1892, Page 2

The Feilding Star. THURSDAY, JANUARY 14, 1892. Wellington Election

» The election which will take place in Wellington to-morrow for the seat in the House of Representatives made vacant by the retirement of Mr Kennedy Macdonald, will be one of the keenest ever fought in that city or even in the colony. In the old days when fierce battles took place in the Empire City between those giants, Featherston and Wakefield, there was something more to fight for than a mere seat in Parliament or Provincial Council. There was a great principle involved. In the present instance there is no such worthy cause. The whole aim and object of the contest appears to be to put one man in and keep the other out, that is all. The Ministry are supporting with all the vast means which their position gives them Mr McLean, who has promised if elected, to give them his blind unquestioning support. They are. assisted by a large number of the proletariat who pose as "alleged Liberals." On the other side is Mr Bell, who may be said to have been brought forward to represent those who are in favor of a Government policy which supports law and order and respects the rights of property. His chances of election can scarcely be said to be level with those of his adversary the " Ministerial Marionnette." His supporters, however influential they may be in other respects, can give but feeble assistance to him as compared with that which Ministers can reader their man. Many of the electors who wish him well will not carry their good feelings so far as to go to the poll for Mr Bell, while the electors on the other side will be brought to the booths to a man. It is therefore almost perfectly safe to assume that if Mr Bell is defeated it will be by those who failed to vote for him, quite as much as by those who voted for Mr McLean. We do not think that the Ministry can gain so much as they appear to think they will by the election of Mr McLean, nor that they would lose so much by his defeat ; but we do think that by their extraordinary eagerness, added to the extreme bad taste they have shown throughout, they have alienated many of their friends in other parts of tho colony. There is one great mistake which has been perpetrated in this contest by the supporters of Mr Bell, which is : that the press of his party have displayed such blind maltgoity against MiMcLean that they have thereby excited a revulsion of feeling, and created a sympathy which will exercise a decided influence in his favor at the poll. The Wellington people have shown on a previous occasion what they will do under like circumstances, and the press should have been on their guard, but that experience seems to have been completely forgotten even by those who have most to gain by its remembrance. For ourselves we think Mr Bell is the better man of the two, and we hope he may be elected, but we fear such hope will not be realised.