THE Bay of Plenty Times AND THAMES VALLEY WARDEN.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume XIV, Issue 1840, 19 May 1885, Page 2

THE Bay of Plenty Times AND THAMES VALLEY WARDEN.

11 The Spirit of the Times shall teach me speed.' — KIKQ JOHN, ACT IV.

TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1885

THE CANDIDATES. Thebe must of necessity "be a margin left for fireworks at election times, and a deal of effervescence is part and parcel of the preliminary proceedings, but underlying all that is the solid grit and that is the real test when the moment arrives for the evidence of the ballot-box. A great deal has been said about the "local man" and still more has been hinted about the opposing candidate. Mr Kelly believes that the cry of "local man" is the true loadstone and that there is no room left for argument in that plea. Mr Sheehan urges that the local man must be to a great extent limited in his views and his influence in the House of Assembly is circumscribed thereby. Mr Kelly and his friends have raised the cry that Mr Sheehan has never faced his constituents a Becond time, but they have avoided the reason. Mr Sheehan has supplied them with the deficiency in their own argument, and has not only satisfactorily explained his position but exposed the attempt of his adversaries to blacken his political character. f l'he weakness of the Kelly party is now thoroughly manifest, and a reaction in favour of Mr Sheehan is setting in. The address by Mr Sheehan at thej nomination will be read throughout the colony and therein is found the j true secret of his strength as a candidate. He has shown himself indispensable to that party in the House of which he is a moving spirit whether he is possessed of a portfolio or not. Mr Sheehan is too well trained in the practice of politics to hold out such shallow arguments as his present political opponent, and threaten the Government that he will not support them unless he gets what he wants ! That sort of argument is more in keeping with a schoolboy in a pet, than the evidence of fitness in a candidate to represent the interests of intelligent men. Mr Kelly will represent large interests — if he gets in, — those interests when defined really mean a land ring and their manipulator, "W. Kelly himseli, or to put it in another way, the Kelly policy. >is not to open^up lands for

of speculators. So much then for the cry of "local man." Mr Sheehan's advent into the House will be an Went in the history of the colony no matter what constituency he represents, and the electorate that rejects him deliberately invites a calamity. Of the two men, speaking of them in their political standing, Mr Kelly has no recommendations, he has neither the ability nor the knowledge to develope into a statesman, the other candidate is a born politician, and haa more know-! ledge of the colony than any man. «£ i his own standing. What T&uranga wants is to be heard, and Ho local man will have a voice equal to our requirements. Sheehan asks our suffrages on the ground of ability and status "m the House. He has taken his -stand on this two-fold ground 5 on great questions he votes as «, Colonial representative, on local requirements he fights for his constituents. With Captain Morris in the Upper House w-e want a Cabinet minister "in waiting" for Tauranga and now we have the opportunity to get one. With Kelly in the House we may sit down, yield to a cruel fate; with Sheehan we have the first opportunity of being brought out of the rear ranks.