AN ELECTION PETITION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1095, 18 January 1912, Page 3

AN ELECTION PETITION.

SERIOUS ALLEGATIONS AGAINST AN M.P.

Blenheim, This Day

A petition was lodged to-day against Mr R. McCallum’s election for Wairau.

In reference to the above, the Dunedid Star, in a recent issue says:—

‘‘Now there has been no laud transaction of any sort —certainly nothing of the kind that prompted the Hine charges. But something has been allowed to transpire about a dramatic discovery of a transaction in which the names of three men who sat in the last Parliament are unpleasantly handled. There is one of them who is still entitled to write ‘ M.P.’ after his name. The transaction with which his name has been associated is said to have arisen in connection with the passage of the Mining Act of last session ; but whether or not there has been ‘ graft ’ —for that, nakedly, is the averment against the trio —is a matter unquestionably for searching investigation at the proper time and in the constitutional way, for the honour of Parliament seems to be involved.”

The paper adds: “The allegation cannot be passed over in silence ; it must either be formulated and proved or .it must be shown to have been concocted for a sinister purpose. But, in justice to the Parliamentarian whose name has been associated with the allegation, it must be said that he has given a most emphatic denial to the story impeaching his personal honour and courts the amplest possible enquiry. The matter is certainly too serious to rest where it does at present, but the next move in the face ot that positive denial must come irom those who are said to be in possession of the alleged incriminatory evidence. Developments will certainly be awaited with the utmost curosity.”