A CANDIDATE IN EXPLANATION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVI, Issue 11108, 6 November 1896, Page 5

A CANDIDATE IN EXPLANATION.

It is not easy to see what Mr J. Q. Wason expects to gain by his explanation of what he said, or intended to say, in his address to the Selwyn electors at Eakaia, The condensation of his remarks having been, hy his own admission, “most ably and impartially” done, he might well have refrained from attempting to explain away any portion of the report. "We cheerfully allow him the benefit of the correction that makes his allusion to u the horrors of Rome ” apply to Fagan persecutions of the early Christians; hat we cannot understand why he should have attempted to enforce his illustration by a reference to the Inquisition. On the land question what error does Mr Wason correct, or what misconception does he remove? Anyone who reads his own summary of his opinions on the Government land policy cannot fail to confess that he is correctly described as “ halting between two opinions ” on the subject. He does not approve of the Liberal land policy, he now says, but he will accept jt as the settled policy of the country. And how does he propose to show his acceptance ? By “ improving” it, as he thinks, by the encouragement of freeholds. The Liberal electors of Selwyn may be trusted to decide whether such a proposal is “ reactionary ” or progressive. As regards the “ manufacture ” of grain and beef, we do not propose to enter upon a battle of textbooks. The every-day, common-sense meaning of terms is good enough for ns. We prefer to speak of farmers as producers and not as manufacturers, and we think everyone of dear ideas and who does not wish to confuse others would do the nine. We seriously deprecate Mr Wason’a assumption that we intend to do him “ harm ” by criticising his utterances. We write for the information and guidance of electors, not for the injury or benefit of candidates. If we attach rather more importance to past performances than to present promises, it is because we have found that they are the more reliable index to the real character of our public men.