The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Nov. 25. THE ELECTIONS.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 35, 25 November 1893, Page 8

The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Nov. 25. THE ELECTIONS.

Tuesday next, 28th inst., will be a memorable day in the annals of New Zealand, For the first time in its history the women of the colory will be called upon to exercise the electoral franchise, and will enable an expectant world to judge whether out recent legislative “ leap in the dark” has been for good or ill. The effect of the change, from a numerical point of view alone, will be great, the extension oi voting rights meaning the addition of rather over 140,000 names to the old rolls. At the last general elections, held in 1890, there were 183,171 electors entitled to vote, and of this number 150,025 went to the polls —this out of a total population, adult and juvenile, of 573,557. Since then there has been a considerable access of population and to the number of persons eligible to vote, so that the number on the rolls for the coming election will probably exceed 300,000. These “ free and independents ” have, it must be confessed, a puzzling task before them. Sir Robert Stout’s wish, expressed in the House, that all side issues should be got rid of before the elections, has not been realised, and politically everything is at “ sixes and sevens.” We find Oppositionists with the Government on some points, and Ministerialists disagreeing withtheir party’s programme, while telegrams are continually aj)pearing’ to the effect

that this man is to have the Catholic vote, another the support of. the licensed victuallers ; a third the. votes of the prohibitionists ; a fourth the backing of the Labour party, and so bn. The country is, in fact, split up into so many camps, and in many cases a candidate’s chances of success will depend on his adroitness in capturing one or other of these block votes. As for the Government and Opposition, it can scarcely be said that either has done much for the education and enlightenment of the electors. Their leaders have been mainly occupied in the unprofitable game of the pot and kettle. “ The present administration is bad,” cry the Opposition. “The late one was worse,” respond the occupants of the Ministerial benches, and botfi sides try to make good their words. And so the weary warfare of assertion and rejoinder goes on. We have had far too much of party and too little of policy, of late, and the sooner it ceases to be made the fetish it now is the better will it be for the colony. Into the merits or demerits of the various candidates it is not our intention to enter. They have given the electors abundant opportunity to judge of their qualifications, and will be dealt with accordingly. Honesty of purpose, and the possession of plenty of backbone, were never more desiderated in our legislators than at the present juncture, and unless we misjudge the electors these qualities will tell on Tuesday next.