EDEN SEAT.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXIII, 19 March 1926, Page 8

EDEN SEAT.

MISS MELVILLE OBDURATE. UNQUALIFIED REFUSAL TO WITHDRAW. By T#les:raph—Press Association. AUCKLAND, March 18. A request from a large deputation of women that she should reconsider her decision to stand as an Independent Reform candidate for the Eden seat met with an unqualified refusal from Miss Ellen Melville to-day. Tho deputation contended that Miss Melville had broken a pledge not to .stand in opposition to the selected Reform candidate. Miss Melville, in reply, gave it clearly to be Understood that she had not the least intention of withdrawing from her position. She liad not, in fact, given any pledge. What she had given was an understanding—it was a contract between two parties—and when broken by one side, it was not binding on the other. The Reform Party, in the first place, liad not kept faith with her. She believed everything that transpired in tho delegates' room on the night of the selection was in order, but she alleged that there were grave irregularities preceding that date. .She intended to make these irregularities public at her approaching meeting. Members of the deputation held a meeting afterwards, and expressed the opinion that if Miss Melville persisted in her present attitude they could not be associated with 'her in any way in the future, and further, they thought it only right to make public the subject matter of their decision.