ME SHEEHANS CANDIDATURE.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1839, 16 May 1885, Page 2

ME SHEEHANS CANDID ATURE.

Tile Post (Wellington) of the 25 inst writes as follows : — lt is currently reported on tho East Coast that Mr William Kelly is the Ministerial candidate for the Tauranga seat, and that the Government influence will be used against the return of Mr Sheehan. We can scarcely believe that the report is correct. There can be no comparison between the qualifications of the two candidates or between their claims on the party at present in power. All that can be said in Mr Kelly's favour is that he is a very respectable tradesman who might make a tolerably good member of a Road 13oard. Neither by education nor natural ability is he at all qualified for a scat in the Legislature of the colony, and the experience of him in that capacity for a short time some years ago was not such as to induce a desire to see him again in the position. Mr Sheehan no doubt has faults, and grave ones, but he is a man of high education, great natural ability, and enormous and varied political and colonial experience. He is one of those men of note whose absence from the House is uumistakably felt. When he pitted himself at the last election against Mr Orinond, general regret was expressed, because one of the two men must be defeated, while both were men whose presence in the Legislature was desirable. It may be that it is in deference to Mr Orinond, who is so well known as a good hater, that the Government desire to see Mr Sheehan excluded from political life ; but if so they make a mistake. Mr Ormond's friendship and support are not to be relied on, while Mr Sheehan's assistance could be, and would certainly prove most valuable, especially in native affairs, on which ho is an undoubted authority. As an old colleague of Messrs Stout and Ballanee, and a staunch and steady supporter of the section of the Liberal party to which Mr Tole belongs, Mr Sheehan certainly might fairly have expected the Government weight to have been given in favour of his candidature, which we hope will be successful whether it is acceptable to the Ministry as a whole or not.