THE Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1887. “So Mote it be.”

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 139, 20 September 1887, Page 2

THE Marlborough Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1887. “So Mote it be.”

At the Nomination of candidates on Friday Mr Thomas "Watson at the very outset of his remarks indicated as plainly as possible how the ground was falling in beneath the feet of the man he was proposing as a fit and proper person, etc, to represent the Wairau. ‘ 1 A gentleman who had intended to perform that duty ” did not turn up said Mr Watson, and the statement was a very severe douche indeed to the hopes of the Dodson faction. “What, turned dog on the old man!” remarked a by-stander, and that it appears was the case. The man wfioip Mr Dodson regarded as his very first political friend failed him at the last moment and declined to identify himself with the cause. That is a very fair indication of the position Mr Dodson occupies. One by one all his friends are deserting him, some of them openly, some covertly. No wonder Mr Dodson was chagrined to find that even Mr Henderson’s firm friend Dr Cleghorn stuck to his candidate manfully, and no wonder he sneered

at the doctor for his loyalty as he thought of the disloyalty to which he-himself had been subjected. It was a very nasty sneer of Mr Dodson's,' one unworthy of any man aspiring" to a public position, and it .was' a deliberate insult to the doctorI,' 1 ,' than whom .there is not a more honorable man in Marlbordugh. Mr Dodson was mad no doubt because the gentleman who had promised to nominate his opponent had remained loyal whilst his own proposer admitted that somebody wKo had made a similar promise to Mr Dodson had not toed the line. But so it is throughout the piece, and Mr Dodsoii will find) that many besides bis first friend? have deserted a cause that cannot be conscientiously supported AH. that Mr Watson could say in favor- of Mr Dodson was that he was a very old settler, that he had been elected' twice before and that ho was respected and trusted, some part of which we agree with and some part of which we doubt. We believe- that there should be as much truth and sincerity' in polities as in other matters; and we would say with. Herbert—

/ ; Dare to be true; nothing can | need a lie. And speaking with, an experience of Parliamentary usage, equal, if not superior, to Mr-Dodson’s, we emphatically deny that any res'pectahle: member of. any representative assembly in the world ever made; a practice of speaking one way 4nd voting another. . Mr. Dodson libels his fellow-members in order to get out of the trap we placed him in over his action in regard to the schedule of the Loan Bill-of 1886 and the Tophouse and Awatere lines. He says it is customary to speak one way and vote another. If that were so, we should really have to believe that the prophet had tho members of Parliament of his day in his mind .when he exclaimed “all men are liars.-”. But such statements as these of Mr Dodson’s show how little he respects Parliament, himself and his constituents, and they are contemptible. “He know what ho was about talking one way and voting another ” forsooth ! If he knew what lie was about why does he not explain how it was that the Awatore line got £14,000 less voted for it than the Government proposed to spend. Ho tolls us first that ho voted against the Tophouse because he had arranged with Mr G. F. Richardson to get £25,000 additional for the Awatore line ; then at a public meeting, and forgetting his first statement, ho says that G. F. Richardson’s amendment [to strike off the Tophouse and ‘Westport - Inangahua votes) placed him in a dilemma, and at the Nomination he told us that he'neglected the Tophouse line because ho desired to “shove forward” the Awatere Railway. Now with all these contradictory statements the fact remains that when Messrs Dodson, G. F. Richardson, Mackrthur and others had finished with the schedule to the Loan Bill tho vote for the Tophouso line had disappeared, and the Awatere Railway had set against it £14,000 less ’than the Government first proposed to spend on it. “ What does it matter if you vote against the way you spoke as long as you voted the right way” is Mr Dodson’s idea of political morality, sincerity and truth! All we can say is that by such an assertion Mr Dodson has disgraced the Parliament of Now Zealand, has libelled its members, tho majority of whom are upright and honorable men, and pot “trimmers,” and tho result of his action is shown in the fact that by chicanery and muddling he lost a sum of £14,000 to the Awatere Railway, But we find there are so many points in tke speeches delivered at the Nomination that we shall fyave to reserre them to be dealt with elseivhcre. The one lesson of Friday last lies in the fact that, whilst Messrs Dodson and Henderson received a very poor hearing, and the proposer did not put in an appearance, the teiqper of the meeting was altogether with Mr Macalister and his supporters. If Friday's meeting was an indication of anything, it clearly indicated the certainty of Mr Macalister’s return for tho Wairau. “So mote it bo.”