THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1892. THE BRUCE ELECTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2353, 7 May 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, MAY 7, 1892. THE BRUCE ELECTION.

The result of the Bruce election does not alter the position of political parties. Mr Thompson, who recently resigned the seat, belonged to the Opposition; Mr Allen, the newly-elected member, is on the same, side of the House" The Government, therefore, has neither lost nor gained by the change so, far as the present House is concerned, but we must admit it has lost prestige. Mr Lee Smith, the defeated candidate, is certainly a man of ability, energy, and political knowledge. He occupies a good position, and waj in every way what may be termed a strong candidate. He was backed up by the Hon. John Mackenzie, Minister of Lands, and the Hon. R. J, Seddon, Minister of Public Works, who threw the weight of their influence into the scales with him, and made speeches in his favor. Under these circumstances the result of the election must be - looked upon as a defeat of tho Ministry; the;,farmers of the district have apparently pronounced ogainst them, and this,, of course, will be made the most of by their opponents. We notice that the Press and the Otago Daily Times are both very/jubilant over it. The latter paper thinks that the majority would not have been so large only for the interference of Ministers in making speeches in the district, That may be true, but we cannot believe that sensible mem could be influenced by such a reason. Ministers have a right to address meetings anywhere, and more especially in districts wljere the local 1 press is constantly vilifying and slanderthem. In Otago all the papers with the exception pf four small ones, are against the Government; {hey are constantly misrepresenting them, sn4 concocting absolute falsehoods, with tho view of damaging them. In the face of this fact, Ministers wore justified in doing all they can ]t,9 sot themselves right with the country; but, oven if such_ a state of things did not exist it is tfyeir absolute right to assist their own candidates, It is what is always done in England, and surely, as our institutions are modelled on English ones wo may lawfully follow the practices of English party politics. We can scarcely believe, therefore, that tho presence of Ministers lost the election. It is more likely that plural voting had something to do with it. Plural voting is still in vogue in by-elections, *

such as that held at Bruce on last Wednesday, and in reading between the lines we think we can see evidence that the outside vote numbered very strongly. The polling, we are told, was the heaviest ever taken in the district. Out of 2162 electors on the Bruce roll 1613 voted, whereas only 1250 polled at the last general election ; that is, an increase of 363 votes. The general election was conducted on the one-man-one-vote principle, but in this plural voting was admissable, and it appears to us that it is only reasonable to conclude that the increase of 363 electors was composed of outsiders, and as plural voters are generally wealthy, that they voted for Mr Allen. Still that would not account for so large a majority, and we consequently feel that other agencies were at work. Mr Allen is opposed to a grant to Catholic schools; Mr Loo Smith is in favour of it, and we honestly believe this had more to do with Mr Loo Smith’s defeat than anything else. In the Otago Daily Times one day last week, there appeared an article on this subject, in which the point was so cleverly and cunningly put, that on reading it we came to the conclusion it would turn the electiou. In this article it was said that it was not the prestige of Government which would suffer, but the prestige of Bishop Moran. The Bishop, it said, was trying to drive his pigs to market, by forcing Catholic electors to vote for Mr Lee Smith. Bishop Moran was “ bossing ” Catholic electors, and the Pope was “ bossing ” Bishop Moran, and it then called on the Presbyterian constituency of Bruce to resent dictation from that source. Commenting on the result of the election, the Otago Daily Times of Thursday says,;— “ M ever there was a time at which it might he supposed the Catholic block vote would be exercised, that time is the present, for Dr Moran has of late been particularly, active in his appeals to Catholic electors to utterly disregard all other good qualities iu a candidate if he failed to pledge himself to support the claims of the Roman Catholic Church; to a share in the education vote. If the Catholic block vote is represented in the 528 electors who voted for Mr Lee Smith,' then the condemnation of the present Ministry’s policy and of their tactics , in the election is all the more pronounced,” Just' so. This is what lost the election, and what will lose other elections too, but it is now put down as a condemnation of the Government policy.