PREPARING FOR THE ELECTIONS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7821, 28 July 1896, Page 2

PREPARING FOR THE ELECTIONS.

[w___tNGT«? CORBBSPOND-Hl.]

The ingenious meana by which the rough paths of an electioneering contest are made smooth for a candidate of tho right color are v/orthy of admiration by all democrats. Making roads out of unauthorized expenditure, and flooding au Opposition dittrioi with co-operative navvies who do not cooperate, are effective, bu'„- old-fashioned. i-iaietera like to be up-to-date, or even to ante-date their blessings in benighted districts which return Opposition members. Here is a case in point. A woman, Honors Saunders, was aent to gaol at Stratford for being too free with her tongue. The Magistrate gave her three months, and as her children ran wild, and the people in the district considered the punishment heavy, they, to the number of about seventy, took a short out to remedy the greater nuisance of the vagrant brats by petitioning the Minister for Jußtico to release tho lesa objectionable mother. Their request waa refused.

Then the member for the distriot, Mr F. M'Guire, tried hia influence, which was equally ineffectual. Had tho gentle Honora resided in the neighboring electorate, whioh Sir K. M. Smith holds in the hollow of his hands, matters might have been looked ou more favorably, for after all profanity is not exclusively an Opposition failing. It waa on Juno 2*6 th that Mr M'Guire was courteously informed by the Minister that he saw no reason to reaait the lady's sentence.

On that same day Mr Syine, the Seddoniau candidate who hopea to displace Mr M'Uuire, also wrote aßking for the prisoner . release, and it woe immediately granted. Now, it must be patent to everybody about (Stratford that Oodlin'a the friend, not Short, and that when the prison door can be opened by Codlin Syme, while Short M'Guire has nothing of the vieiting angel about him, that Syme ia the man for Galway at the next elections.

Another recent instance ia that of Mr Bolton, ex-chairman of the Pahiatua County Council, who wrote to that influential legislator Mr A.'"W. Hogg, eonoernin_ some necessary works ia tho district he represents, and further asked him to consult Mr Hall, who is member {or tho adjoining district. Those two worthies conferred together, and apparently took the Premier into thoir confidence as well, if one may judge by the tone of the answer, in which the following delicious advice ia givon to Mr Bolton :—" We consider it inadvisable, while the present administration is in power, that their (the constituents) requiromeuta should bo urged through the medium of a gentleman who ia endeavoring to identify himself wiih a Conservative body, called tho N Z. National Association."

There is no half and half squeamishnesa about this. It says plainly that Mr Bolton and all otuera who daro to endeavor—mark that - -oadeavor to identify thomaelvoa with poopin wlmare not Suddonites will not bo listened to if thoy waui roada made. They will havo to pay rates aud taxes to support the present beloved administration, and aa any further roada will have to be made out of borrowed money—lor the Budget saya fo in very plain language—that money will be (spent among tho people who properly appreciate tho powers that be.

At the same time, Mr Boiion aud hia friends must pay thoir share of the interest on rotida and bridges constructed for true believers. This may be the ~iie\v Light of tho Democracy in tho Britain of tho iSouth, but it hardly conforms wish the teachinga of _ tho ieodera of Socialism in the older Britain. Hero is what tho great Fabian lecturer, Bernard Shaw, says:—"The established Government had no mora right to call itself tho State than tho smoke of London has to cull itself tha climate."

Mr Seddon ia. or thinks he ia, the State. "L'clal, cost moi" said Louis'XlV., not long before tho French Revolution brought hia dynasty down with p. crash. The Hoggs aud Halls aro obedient plieop, cud it Bosnia a warto of effort to muzzle animals of that breed, and if tho constituents of Maatcrtoa and V/aipw-i ;u .M\.-toi>fctobodisfniur.hised for tho auko of providing a oouplo of Seddonian voting mtiohmcs, drawing £20 per month, then they do not deserve anything bettor. That ie the logioal way of looking at the matter.