TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3255, 7 December 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1881.

It is almost needless to remind electors that the day after to-morrow is the polling day throughout the colony for the election of members for the new Parliament. Upon the character of those members ; upon the wisdom displayed by the people in the selection of their representatives, will depend the legislation of tbe next three years. Until after the polling day it is impossible to say in what way the electors have exercised their privileges ; is is impossible to say whether those in whom the greatest share of electoral power rests have shown that they are well qualified to discriminate wisely in the choice of fittinsr representatives from out of the candidates who have presented themselves for their favor. The present general elections are the first that have taken place in this colony under manhood suffrage, and the result will be watched for with tbe utmost interest, not alone in this country, but in those neighboring colonies which have not gone the length to which Victoria and New Zealand have reached in the liberality of their electoral laws. A heavy responsioility therefore rests upon those who for the first time are now called upon to exercise the franchise entrusted them, and the question that is of the gravest importance is, will they justify the confidence reposed in them ? Happily, io the districts in which our readers are more especially interested, the candidates, in two of the electorates at least—those of Napier and Waipawa —so widely differ from each other in most of the qualifications that are looked for in a member of Parliament, that there should be no difficulty in coming to a determination as to which is the best man. It is no disparagement of Mr Smith to say that he is oot to be compared with Mr Ormond. The one is a thoroughly experienced statesman; the other has had no experience whatever. No one will deuy that Mr Ormond is now fifty per cent a better representative man than he was when he first entered Parliament ; so that supposing all other things beiug equal Mr Smith cannot be placed oa a level with his opponent. We can scarcely understand how any one pretending to a feeling of loyally to his district could deliberately choose the worst of two candidates for his representative. Personal feeliog—the likes and dislikes of individuals—should not be allowed to play any part in an electioneering contest, and wedocotthinktbatany man with a well-regulated mind would permit mere prejudice to stand in the way of giving an intelligent vote. But, unfortunately, the majority of men are not endowed with such well-balanced minds as to enable them to discard their predilections, and likes and dislikes often arise from the most trivial causes. We have heard it stated that one candidate lost two supporters because it did not occur to him to ask those two electors to have a drink when be happeoed to meet them in the neighborhood of a public house. But it is to be hoped that the workingmen of New Zealand are above being guided to their convictions by such a paltry consideration. What they should ask themselves is this — I which of the candidates is likely to be the most influential man in Parliament ? It is undeniably true that the workingmen and the small-farm settlers have taken a deeper interest in these elections than any other classes—they have filled the halls to listen to the public utterances of the several candidates, they have put the most intelligent queries to those who seek to represent them, and we have no reason to think that, at tbe polling booth, they will stultify themselves by voting for the wcrst man. Turning to the candidates whose ambition it is to represent Napier we find as wide a difference between Mr Buchanan and his two opponents as there is between Mr Ormond and Mr Smith. It is true that Mr Buchanan has never had a seat in Parliament, but it is a fact that his knowledge of politics and of parliamentary procedure is equal to that possessed by any person in New Zealand. He is one whose private means place him above the suspicion of seeking a seat in the House for pecuniary ends; while his age prevents us from supposing that he desires the position for the gratification of either vanity or ambition. Nor, if elected, would he enter Parliament as a stranger to the statesmen of New Zealand ; rather, those who knew him not themselves would be unknown. And the friendship of men of influence gives influence, and the power to do good to those represented. Again, there is a great deal more in social position than many people care to acknowledge ; now, we are not saying a word against either Mr M'Dougall or Mr McSweeney when we assert that fwe think it would take them very many years of their lives before they would be regarded as the social equals of the ladies aud gentlemen composing the most influential political circles at the seat of government. We have no wish to give any offence, but it is folly to shut one's eves to that one qualification alone. We want a representative to work for the welfare of this constituency, and everybody knows that the work which is required is not accomplished by pouring out platitudes, like water out of an artesian well, on the floor of the House. As a rule the power to talk is the power to do mischief not good to a constituency, and we can call to mind no mere talker, who lacked social position, in the two last Parliaments, who did an atom of good for anyone, not even for himself. We do not, however, think for one moment that it is at all desirable for the House of Representatives to be solely composed of gentlemen by birth, education, and social position _ but we do think this, that when a working man enters Parliament it should be because of his special knowledge or experience of the working of laws in relation to those questions in which he and his class are more particularly interested. In that lies the usefulness of the working man in Parliament, and in that lies his pjwer to command respect and attention. We do not think that the working men candidates now before the electors possess any special knowledge or experience that may have been denied to other settlers, and, therefore, we fail to see the advantage of sending them to Parliament.