THE ELECTIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3028, 27 October 1908, Page 6

THE ELECTIONS.

MrH. D. Bedfori will positively not be a candidate for any ssat. Mr John Hunter will address the electors of Mangaraahoe on Thursday evening. Strong pressure has been brought to bear to induce Mr J. Loudon to resume the campaign for Bruce, tie has not yet decided what action he will take. ! For Taieri seat, Mr Thos. Mackenzie has a single opponent in Mr J. J. Johnston, who may, or may not, see the fight to the finish. A meeting of Opposition supporters held at Dannevirke last night, states a Press Association telegram, unanimously selected Mr Geo. Hunter to contest the Waipawa seat. According to a return made up to September 30th, there were then 498,654 names on the electoral rolls of New Zealand, as compared with 483,081 at the date of last election. Three candidates are announced for the Chalmers seat—Messrs E. G.

Allen (the sitting member), J. Barr, and E. H. Clark, but the return of the present member is practically A deputation of Oppositionists will await upon Mr B. P. Anderson, editor of the "Mataura Ensign," today, to formally ask h ; m to contest the Mataura seat against the Hon. ! R. McNab, states a Press Association telegram. Acceptance of the requisition is assured. Intense surprise was expressed at Mr C. A. 0. Hardy's n,uMethven when it was announce d Mr W. J. Dickie, the Government candidate intended to retire from the contest. Mr Hardy has now no opponent. Mr Dickie has retired from the contest on account of shortness of -notice of the General Election preventing him getting round the district. "The Government has gore back on the freehold," said Mr L. R. Phillipps, the Opposition candidate for the Waitemata seat, speaking at Devonport the other night. "For a Government supporter to support the freehold now would' be just like a confirmed Mohammedan to claim that he is a Christian." The audience recognised the simile as an aDt one. Dunedin South, formerly Caversham, has three aspirants, Messrs T. K. Sidey, R. R. Douglas, and W. Fleming. All three aspire for the Labour vote, and all three claim to have it. Public opinion favours the sitting member, Mr Sidey, but Mr Douglas, who is the nominee of the Political Labour League, it is considered, will poll fairly well.

In Dunedin West, the Hon. J. A. Millar has but one opponent in Mr J. W. Munro, the nominee of the Political Labour League. The Labour party is quite confident that the pitting of Mr Munro against the Minister for Labour will, if nothing else, serve the purpose of giving Labour an opportunity of voicing its protest against the recent labour administration. Limited interest is being evinced in the forthcoming contests in the four Dunedin electoral districts, the reason which may be found in the fact that the sitting members in every instance have every chance of being returned. In Dunedin North, Mr A. R. Barclay has opposed to him Messrs G. W. Thomson and J. Green, but it is not thought that the new aspirants for political honours will trouble the present representa tive seriously. Speaking at Waitara, Mr W. T. Jennings, who is seeking re-election as candidate for TaumaruDui, expressed strong disapproval of a law that made the honorarium for a man who bad to travel 1,500 square miles of territory the same as the man in the city, who could go about his business and attend to his Parliamentary duties at the same time, while his travelling expenses were nil. There should, he said, be equality of sacrifice. A large and enthusiastic meeting of Mr A. W. Hogg's Election Committee Vvas held last evening at the Drill Hall. Various detail arrangements for work on election day were made, and other business attended to. It was decided that for the future the ladies of the committee should hold separate meetings in the day time, and report from time to time to the General Committee. The next meeting of the General Committee will be held at 8 p.m. on Saturday next in the Drill Hall. A number of candidates are criticising the regulation requiring applicants for sections on resumed estates to have at least three years' rent. Mrßowell, a Government candidate for Ellesmere, said, the other night, that every class was enabled to compete at the ballots except farm labourers with limited capital. He valued a man's experience more than his money when he proposed going on the land. The farm labourer with £SO was more likely to make a success than the city clerk with his £I,OOO. The following question is being put to candidates by the Christchurch Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals:—"Seeing that the prevention of cruelty to animals is much more effectively carried on by organisations specially devoted to the work, apart from the police, and that the whole of the fines are retained by the Government, are you in favour of a subsidy being granted to the societies formed for the purpose of protecting dumb animals?" In most cases it is stated that candidates have answered in the affirmative. The hoary old question regarding the advisableness of a tax on bachelors was put to Mr C. A. C. Hardy, M.P. for Selwyn, at Rakaia. He replied that he did not believe in the tax. There should be plenty of dances to bring the young people together. If that did not work, ata x would not prove effective. The question again made its appearance at Mr Phillips' meeting at Devonport on Thursday evening, but the candidate was quite equal to the occasion. With a smile he promptly replied, "I think a bachelor is sufficiently taxed by his folly in not getting married." For Dunedin Central, Mr J. Arnold has a somewhat belated opponent in Mr J. McDonald, Mayor of Dunedin City. Although Mr Arnold has been at logger-heads with theOtago Trades and Labour Council over his attitude in the House on the amendments to the Arbitration Bill, still it is pretty certain that he will retain a big precentage of the Labour vote, added to which he will iave certain No-License votes, and,

further, an authority states that the employers generally will be very much more disposed to give hitfi their votes in preference to Mr McDonald.