The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published. Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1896.

Feilding Star, Volume XVII, Issue 190, 14 February 1896, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazette. Published. Daily. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1896.

THE TURN OF THE TIDE. Notwithstanding the strenuous exertions made by Ministers to influence the Christchurch election their candidate, " Sydenham " Taylor, appears at the bottom of the list. This must prove a bitter disappointment to the Premier who had set his heart on retaining fhis seat — made vacant by the appointment .qf Mr Reeves as AgentGeneral — and we £.1.1 know that Mr Seddon hates to be defeated.. The positions of Mr Lewis and Mr T. PPs. s lEj^.Jor at the poll may be accepted as an .indHfjftij^o/i that not only has the Opposition party /.a Christchurch gained" strength \ but 'the of tbe .supporters of 'Prpliibition' are also )

increasing, because Mr T. E. Taylor, who had claimed their suffaages is only a few hundred votes behind Mr Lewis. That Mr T. E. Taylor will sit in the next Parliament may now be accepted as a foregone conclusion, but he will not sit on the present Government side of the House. The numbers show that if Ministers had run hi_ against Mr Lewis, and dropped " Sydenham " altogether, the victory would have been theirs, but apparently they held a hope that the votes would be split, and their man would slip in between, but " the best laid schemes of mice ancl men gang aft agley." The moral of this decider! victory is that in the General Elections which are now so close at hand the Opposition party in the various electorates will have greater confidence than they possessed at the last contest, when the voting power on the other side was so overwhelming against them that victory seemed impossible. That idea must also have been present in the minds of Ministers when they made such sacrifices to secure the election of such a supporter as " Sydenham " Taylor. The consequent loss of prestige must carry serious conse-