"A DUTY NEARER HOME."

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10480, 19 October 1899, Page 3

"A DUTY NEARER HOME."

to tub irorrou ov the thess. Sir.—Your article under the above heading deserves more than paMng notice from the Opposition supporters. As a party we are apt to. place too litt!» importance on the f.-i:icoaie oi interests idtsvu, a ; wuh ~u r own. You say . . . • "if the electors showed t any readiness to meet the importance of the ' issues of State halfway, men of ability and position would be found to come forward, eyen though, financially, the losers by k, and undertake Parliamentary duties." Let mc ask you how best the electors can ask those men of ability to, meet them half way? It is an open secret that men of ability and position have been invited to come forward, and that they have definitely i declined, owing, principally to being finan- I cially losers by doing so. Your argument on this head is thus knocked out. You go on to say that you would like to see, especially in the South Island, more and better—l emphasise better—candidates, etc. Quite so. Most of the Opposition supporters agree with you. But the better candidates stand aloof. Why? They would, financially, be losers in standirig for Parliamentary honours. Summed up, it appears to mo that we must face the. inevitable, and work, without fire, for mea who have not a ghost of a chance of being returned.' Methinks the supporters of the Opposition will hesitate in doing any such foolhardy thing. Never, in my opinion, was time more opportune to return three Opposition candidates for Christchurch, but unfortunately men of "ability and position" : prefer to let things remain as they were.— Yours, etc., OUTSPOKEN.