THE WAITEMATA ELECTION.

Evening Post, Volume XLVII, Issue 85, 11 April 1894, Page 2

THE WAITEMATA ELECTION.

+ Wo have rarely met with anything more intoijscly amusing of its kind than tho romarks of our morning contemporary on the Wuitemata election. It and its patrons are evidently hard hit by the Waitemata defeat, but ordinary decency should have prevented indulgence in the unmitigated abuso with which the Ministerial organ assails tho electors who have so wisely preferred Mr. Massey and the Opposition to Mr. Jackgon Palmer and the Ministry. Evidently tho Ministry and its supporters aro very angry that the Waitemati gnmdipgoi-s wore honest and courageous enough to rosibt the Premier's blaudi&nmonts aud bribes, and to disregard his threats and menaces The attempt to hold tha Premier up to admiration as a moral hero refusing to buy votes on any terms, is almost excruciatingly funny to those who kuow Mr. Seddon. But our contemporary is scarcely ingenuous when it ventures to assert that we aro tbo only people outside a lunatic asylum who refuse to absolve Mr. Seddon from suspicion of having dono his best unblushingly to oorrupt the Waitemata electorate. Wo do not know what views may be entortained in lunatic asylums on this or other political subjects, and wo aro not therefore disposed to contest our contemporary's apparent know lodge in that respect, but wo do know what such papers as tho New Zealand Homld Mid the Otago Daily Times Ihink on tho subject Iho N on- Zealaud Herald condemned the Premier's attempt to buy or eoeroo the Waitemata valors in southing terms, winding up with the assertion that " Mr. Jackson " Palmer is being tbrnst down the throats "of the eleotors in fuili a bullying ■' and tyrannical fashion as must make "it a point of honour on tho part of " every elector who possesses a spark of " independent feeling to vote against him." And again, " Novor in tho histoi-y of New " Zealand have such threats been used till " now, and their uso is a positive and per- " Bonal insult to every elector of Waitenia'a. " Ministers must think that the electors of " that district are more Criuging and dcs- " picablo than tho olectors of any other con- " stitueney, when they toll them that unless " they 6end Mr. .Jackson Palmor their " 'prying wants' and thoir jast claims and " rights as Fettlers of New Zealand will not " be paid tho least attonlion to. All New " Zealand will say if Mr. Jackson Palmer "is elected that he is put in "Because tho electors felt themselves compelled "to do tho bidding of Mr. Seddon." The Otajfo Daily Times said of Mr. Seddon — " His latest failure to recognise what is duo " to the position he holds is in connection " with the Waitemata contest. A more " glaring case of Ministerial corruption has 1 never been witnessed in New Zealaud, and " Mr. Monk, who was tho viotim of hie son's " beery prodigality, is spotless as tho driven " snow in comparison with the Premier of " tho colony Here is a Liberal ' Government snpposcd v to bo passionately " devoted to ibe welfare of the masses -a -""devotion wickedly thwarted 'by theop- " posite party— a Governin"elSli "Vasinjr its " oxifiouce, on reptteenrativo JntSfciftßTOft*; 1 ' ' and loving purity of election— a' Gdvern- '| ment whose chief exhibited pious sorrow ' and indignation at the beery corruption of " tbig very Waitomata. And yet we find this democratic oliief— this professed foe " of privilege and force and all things Bhady " —indulging in what is practically bribery " and corruption of the most insidious kind " without a blush upon his cheek, or, ap- " parently, a twinge of his conscience." Tet tho Ministerial organ holds Mr. Seddon up as a model ot political virtue !