The Hastings Standard Published Daily. FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1896. SIR ROBERT STOUT.

Hastings Standard, Issue 34, 5 June 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

FRIDAY, JUNE 5, 1896. SIR ROBERT STOUT.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The people of New Zealand have seen Sir Robert Stout in so many characters on the political stage that it is a difficult matter to take him seriously. That he has been successful in all his roles will hardly be admitted ; and that he is capable of delivering an address on social purity will alsa be questioned. His reception at the Princess Theatre last evening, however, was w r hat might reasonably be expected would be extended to any gentleman of culture. Sir Robert Stout received an attentive hearing, and was frequently applauded. It was hardly a political speech, it was

more of a moral address. The sentiment expressed was decidedly good, J and when the speaker's model parliament is returned in this colony —then the millenium. Purity of legislation is what all should strive for, and as each successive Government maintains that its actions are purer than those of its predecessor it is for the electors of New Zealand to sit in judgment. Sir Robert is evidently a disappointed man, and perhaps it is as well that he has thrown off the cloak of Liberalism and assumed the gown of what he is pleased to term an advanced order. In his opinion had he been allowed to carry out the policy of the late John Ballance, New Zealand would have become a Paradise long ere this. Of course, there are numbers of people who will be ungenerous enough to doubt this assertion, but Sir Robert is certainly entitled to entertain that opinion. The acts of Mr Seddon are past redemption, and if the electors of the colony wish to have a wise and healthy generation, they have but to return a sufficient number of members pledged to assure Sir Robert Stout of the Premiership. If that were possible the colony would soon recover its prosperity, New Zealand would be a smiling land, flowing with milk and honey, and we be in the position to even rival Utopia.