THE election to fill the seat so long occupied by Mr Downward is exciting an extraordinary amount of interest. The reason is on the surface.
Mr Downward, in allying himself with the Labor Party to defeat the Government, lost the support of a great body of electors.
Of those electors some were Nationalists, some were supporters of the Country Party, most were men and women with no respect for the wirepullers, paid organisers and touts of any party organisation.
All were, however, agreed on a few simple points.
They want a Government which will develop the resources of the State as a whole and of this district in particular, on sound lines, squandering no money, pandering to no class.
They want, further, to choose their own parliamentary representative, and to give him his mandate.
That being so, they were righteously indignant when they found that a coterie in Melbourne had selected Mr W. S. Cook, not as the candidate of the clique, but as the candidate for whom the people of Frankston, Somerville, Hastings, Wonthaggi and of other parts of the electorate were to vote.
For this attempt to drive us like a flock of sheep there is absolutely no justification. It is a piece of gratuitous impertinence, a piece of impertinence resented by all thoughtful men and women from end to end of the electorate.
Of Mr Cook there is no unkind word to be said. He is a cultured, upright citizen; he is not old, but he has passed the age at which a man should enter on a parliamentary apprenticeship.
But even were he an experienced parliamentarian in the very prime of life, the electors would say “No”, when a little group of anonymous wirepullers in a Melbourne office dare to foist him on a constituency they had not so much as condescended to consult.
As the “Age” has pointed out, it is the meek acceptance of this offensive dictation of cliques, which has brought our political life to its present sorry level.
Happily, however, we are still free. An obscure coterie can lay the snare full in our sight, but we need not walk into it.
Mr Sambell, aware though he is that party organisations are powerful, has courage to assert his own independence; to say that he will make his appeal, not to a group of unknown despots in Melbourne, but to the great body of electors in the constituency.
The sole question is, whether we, as electors, are going to return the man who asks for our votes, the man whom we called on to fight the battle, or are we going to desert him, and return one for whom Melbourne orders us to vote.
Mr Sambell is in the prime of life; he knows the roads and the waters, the requirements of the district, as only one who has been actively engaged in local matters can know them.
He lives in the part of the electorate where he can be most readily reached by the majority of the electors, whether they travel from Stony Point or from Moorooduc.
The seat has been held by a Mornington man for very many years, and no exception has been taken to Mr Downward on that ground; but the seat must not be regarded as belonging to Mornington.
The people of the electorate as a whole want things done.
Mr Sambell is an energetic man, an engineer, who will speak with authority on local requirements on the matters which affect our comfort and our incomes.
As to the good government of the State, there isn’t a brass farthing to choose between Cook and Sambell; that being clear, it would be simple madness to choose a lawyer who is entitled to enjoy ease with dignity, when we are offered the services of an engineer who is just entering on his best years as regards intellectual life and vigor.
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A SMOKE social was held at Mr Macafee’s residence on Tuesday evening, the occasion being a send off to Constable Dyball, who has been stationed here for the past three years and has now been removed to Kiewa to take charge of that station.
The chair was occupied by Mr P. Wheeler, who spoke eulogistically of the guest of the evening, both as a private citizen and as a constable.
Other speakers followed, and thoroughly endorsed the remarks of the chairman.
During the evening a presentation was made of a handsome travelling rug and suitcase, on behalf of a few friends, and a smoker’s outfit from the Gazeka and Humming Birds.
Constable Dyball feelingly responded and thanked them for their expressions of regard and useful gifts.
Various other toasts were proposed and responded to, a pleasant evening terminating with Auld Lang Syne and God Save the King.
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THE friends of Mr Edward Sage will regret to hear that he is still very seriously ill, his medical adviser holding out no hope of his recovery.
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LIEUT H. V. Mays, who, at the last elections, acted as campaign secretary to the Hon. A. Downward in the Mornington Electorate, has been selected to oppose the Mayor of Carrum (Mr Frank Groves) for the Dandenong seat in the Country Party’s interests.
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CR David White, of Mordialloc, has been elected President of the Victorian Protestant Federation in succession to the Rev. G. A. Judkins, who recently visited Frankston.
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MR John Robertson, the well known Carrum estate agent, was at one time foremost in Scottish concert circles throughout New South Wales and Victoria.
It was he who had most to do with the formation of the old Caledonian Society at Richmond.
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MR W. S. Cook, the Nationalist candidate for the Mornington electorate, will speak at Frankston tonight.
A comprehensive report will be published in “The Standard” next issue.
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MR and Mrs R. Sprigg, of Sth Yarra, were amongst the visitors to Frankston on Sunday last.
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MRS Mary Anne Ward, wife of Mr Ernest S. Ward, late of Hastings, died at Rippon Lea on Sunday last at the age of 44 years.
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THE Government statistics state that there has been a decreased output of potatoes in the Mornington county for the past season – 14,241 acres giving 33,473 tons as against 46,125 tons from 13,227 acres the year before.
There was 3,985 tons of onions and 42,077 bushels of maize produced last season in this county.
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THERE is a shortage of vegetables in the Melbourne market.
The Dandenong and Carrum supplies are nearly exhausted, and supplies from Westernport, Dalmore and Somerville are not expected before Xmas.
Carrum was once an extensive vegetable gardening district, and one of the chief sources of supply for Melbourne, but the district is being rapidly populated by dairy farmers.
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THE Commercial Travellers’ Association presented Mr. J. B. Jolly, of Frankston, with a costly piece of silver-plate on Saturday last.
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From the pages of the Frankston and Somerville Standard, 19 August 1921
