The Hastings Standard Published Daily MONDAY, SEPT. 13, 1897. THE AWARUA ELECTION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 424, 13 September 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

MONDAY, SEPT. 13, 1897. THE AWARUA ELECTION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance. For the future in the distance. And the good that we can do.

Mr Cowan and his friends have, it is stated, abandoned the intention to contest the validity of Mr Ward's return before the Election Petition Court. According to the Southland Times the chief reasons that have induced the supporters of constitutional procedure to adopt the course indicated are : first, that the question at issue is neither a local nor a personal one. It affects a fundamenfol principle of constitutional law. Consequently the onus of instituting proceedings, and the cost of carrying these through the Court, should not be thrown upon any individual or particular number of individuals. It is really from a patriotic standpoint as much the interest of one political Party as another to have the question involved set at rest by the highest authority in the land. A second consideration that weighed with the Party in Invercargill was that inseparable from the successful candidate's financial position. P>efore an election petition can be prosecuted the petitioner has to find security, in cash or bond, for £2OO. No such obligation is, nor can be, imposed upon the respondent; and in the present case, owing to the pecuniary circumstances referred to, the petitioner would have his own costs to pay, even if he gained kis case. This places Mr Cowan at a serious disadvantage. Had his opponent been solvent, petitioner and respondent would have stood upou equal terms ; and the former, confident of his position, might have waived the consideration of the question being a national one, and gone on with the case on his own responsibility. As things are, however, it is really " everything against nothing," and the odds are of course entirely unreasonable and unfaii?, We think the attitude taken up by Mr Cowan is justified, although at first we were inclined to believe that Mr Ward should be challenged in the Election Court to defend his position. It is better, seeing the grave principle involved, that the highest Court in the land should decide the matter. It is as yet difficult to say what will be the attitude of the Government on the matter, but we do know that some of the members of the Party are entirely opposed to Mr Ward taking his seat while yet an undischarged bankrupt. Some members of jhe Ministry have no doubt in a measure compremissa themselves and will be found supporting the elect of Awarua, but vve ape inclined to believe that Mr Seddon will stand in with the majority of ithe Party and vote against Mi' V» arcl. This is not a Party matter, aud we hops fco see it kept clear of all Party considerations and the matter approached from the standpoint of conserving the dignity of Parliament. Under previous Acts it would have been impossible for Mr Ward to have placed himself in the position he is in now, and we do not think the loose wording of the last Act is a sufficient pretext of breaking through the manifest intention of th« Legislature. Mr Ward has been so terribly headstrong in this matter, and has been so ill-advised, that apart from all other considerations we should like to see liim unseated by Parliament

itself. This will form the first subject of debate when Parliament meets, and it will go a long way to exhibiting the true moral tone of the House.