The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1271, 14 May 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times, PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1883.

So much has already been written and said concerning the contest which is to be decided by the ballot to-dya, that it is not now our purpose to refer to it at any great length. Most people we dare say, are by this time pretty "full up" of the whole sub ject, and welcome " the beginning of the end " with a sense of unspeakable relief. The struggle has been a protracted one, and in many respects will be memorable. However, the hour of deliverance is now at hand, and the battle being well prepared little remains to be said. For the vacancy in the representation of luangahua there are two candidates in the field. They have both addressed the electors very fully, and the claims of each are, or ought to be, by this time well understood. The claims of Mr Wakefield are briefly that he is a resident of Canterbury ; an experienced and- able politician, of 'acknowledged power and recognised political status. His opponent is Mr E. Shaw, a resident of Wellington, a man entirely new to public life, and who bases his claim wholly for support on the fact that he tilled an official position in this district some four years ago. To decide between these rival claims is the dry duty of the electors to-day. In arriving at this conclusion we ask the electors to banish entirely from their minds all other considerations, for the question is not merely which side shall win the victory, but really which candidate is, on purely public grounds most worthy of public confidence, and most likely to advance our interests. This is the simple issue we put to the electors to determine, and we present it with the most unbounded confidence that the verdict of every propertyholder, "from Larry's deck to Bruunerton," will be in favor of Mr Wakefield. To compare the claims of the two candidates is, in our view, ridiculous. It is a case of " Ellipse first, and the rest nowhere." On this head then we shall say no more. We may be said to have now reached the stage of a crisis in tha affairs of the West Coast, and it behove 3 every man to weigh the situation seriously and carefully, and to cast his vote with a' due sense of the high consequences' which will attend the result of to-day's poll. We ask them not to allow themselves to be blinded against Mr Wakefield's unquestionable merits by whatever abuse may be hurled at him. He has given the electors the fullest opportunity of estimating his qualifications, and we ask them to pronounce their verdict upon that evidence, and that alono. An attempt has been made by his opponent to steal a viotory on other grounds, but we do not hesitate to believe that it will fail. Mr Shaw is wooing the Catholic vote, but we cannot for a moment see how any true conscientious Catholic cau give his vote to a candidate with whom he cannot possess one single sentiment in common. We appeal to the ballot to-day with tin; fullest confidence in the return of Mr Edward Wakefield.