THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIII, Issue 1930, 18 November 1884, Page 2

THE MAYORAL ELECTION.

TO THU KDirOR. Sir, — There seems to be some little misapprehension on the above matter, if I may judge by the arguments used to me to-day, why I should vote for the present holder of the office. I was told that he had been placed in a false portion, that some months ago, when Mr Graham was spoken of as a candidate, Mr Peat interviewed him, asking him if he was coming forward as mayor, for that if he was, he, Mr Peat, would not do so. Mr Graham is stated to have said that he had no such idea, and that the matter ended. Now, Mr Peat's supporters say that an unfair advantage has been taken of him, I cannot see that this is the case. Mr Graham had no such intention, but he could do nothing else but accede to the wish of so largely signed a requisition representing all classes and shades of political opinion in Hamilton. If Mr Peat has been placed in a false position the act is his own. It was not known whether he would be a candidate or not until his advertisement appeared, in the Times of Tuesday, the 1 lth in&t., the same day that the requisition to Mr Graham was published ; but Mr Peat must have been well aware that this requisition was being numerously signed, and thatit was publicly stated that Mr Graham had said lie would comply with its wishes on the previous Saturday, and it was also announced in the Auckland Herald of Monday, the 10th inst., that more than seventy burgesses had signed it up to the previous Saturday evening. Therefore, I say that by hastening to announce his candidature on the Tuesday, Mr Peat placed himself in the false position his friends assume for him. I, for one, quite agree with them that he is in a talse position, but for other reasons. He claims that he has done nothing during the past year to forfeit the qonffd.en.ee of the burgesses. I deny that he ever possessed it. It will be recollected how one after another of the more fitting burgesses were waited upon and asked to become candidates for the mayoralty last year, how in one case a refusal was given to a numerously-signed requisition. Not one of them would consent, and the election went by default. Mr Peat was elected, not because he had the confidence of the burgesses, but because those who had, one after another .refused to accept the office. Of Mr feat's q ualiflqations I say nothing. " Our acts our angels are, or good or ill, Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.'' — I am, &c, BUKGKSS. Hamilton, Nov. 17th, 1884.