Election, which was necessitated by the Hon. Harry Lawson, Unionist, succeeding to the Peerage, is signi ficant inasmuch as over sixteen hundred electors cast their votes against the candidate who supported the Coalition. The constituency is small, but the majority are working class people and they are practically evenly divided between the Unionist and Liberal parties. The large vote cast for an independent candidate therefore shows that the people are scarcely satisfied with the manner in which the Government is prosecuting the war. There is little doubt that a certain number would be influenced by their dislike of the drink orders, but, considering the patience with which these orders everywhere been submitted to, it it that this number w: proportion of the total polled against Mr. Brookes. On the other hand all classes have been agitating for a more vigorous prosecution of the war, and once the British workman gets it into his head that the exercise of more force is needed, nothing will convince him that it is false strategy. Instead of the Government regarding the election asatriumph it must be taken rather as a warning, for perhaps not s few of the small Coalition majority were only restrained from fear of giving encouragement to the enemy.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.