TOWN EDITION. The Ensign. GORE : THURSDAY, NOV. 12, 1896. THE CLUTHA SEAT.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 214, 12 November 1896, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. The Ensign. GORE : THURSDAY, NOV. 12, 1896. THE CLUTHA SEAT.

Mr John Blaib, tbe last, but no means least, of the four candidates for the Clutha seat with whom we have to deal editorially, is one of those peculiar latter-day political hybrids — an Independent. He is not altogether a debutante upon the political stage, although his last appearance dates back so far that fears may be entertained of his ideas on things generally having got rusty and narrowed down in the interim. A pleasant speaker and a finished scholar, his items of policy are somewhat crude and lack the breadth and extensiveuess which a close contact with latter-day politics alone can give. In admiration of the candidate's well-turned phrases and apt quotations from the classics, one is apt to be carried away above the serious, solid questions of the hour, and confuse scholarship with statesmanship, and generally to come away with the idea perhaps that Mr Blair, with a verse or so from Shakespeare, a stanza or two from Burns, or a truism from Plato, will be able to make straight all the vexing tangles presented in the burning public questions of the hour with his pleasing eloquence. Not that we wish to infer that Mr Blair possesses no other merits thau those pertaining to a successful country dominie ; far from it. He holds commonsense views on many subjects, but the drawback visible in most is that there is little finality or tangible conclusiveness about them. For instance, the banner under which be elects to fight is " Down with Party Government," and he swears by Major Steward's Elective Executive Bill as the means through which that end , shall come. Now, this same proposal sounds all very well as a detail to any ' candidate's articles of political belief, but ! to make it the question of questions, and ask the electors to return him on that ticket, is preferring a most unreasonable demand. We always understood the term " one idea " man to apply to one who was prepared to swim or sink by Prohibition, come wbat may, and happen what might to all other questions of political economy, but we fear that we must extend the meaning of the term so as to embrace Mr Blair and his Elective Executive fad. Mr Blair quoted the two leaders of the House in support of his vigorous denunciation of the sins of Party Government. Captain Russell's statement during the no-confidence debate was

repeated by the candidate as follows : — " What we want in this colony is not so much party fighting as good administration. We want a simpler form of Government to bring the country back into a condition of purity and political cleanness." 'This was not, we take it, so much a condemnation of the principles of Party Government as it was a condemnation of the way in which those principles had been abused and dragged in the dust by the Seddon Government during the preceding six years. Captain Russell, in common with others of the Opposition following, was so heartily disgusted with the wretched and almost criminal manner in which the power given under those ' principles had been prostituted and made j an open shame, that he would have wel- I eomed any change, no matter what, in the ; existing order of things. Such a statement, made under such circumstances, can hardly be considered as confirmatory evidence in support of Mr Blair's general condemnation of the entire principles of Party Government as it should be. Mr Blair's land policy is not a very elaborate affair. He displayed common-sense notions when he said there were a good many of the Hon. J. McKenzie's measures that he would knock on the head if he got the opportunity, and in describing several localities in which the land like, Burns' famous farm at Ellisland, was the riddlings of creation, he struck at the root of all that is foolish, unstatesmanlike and un-Liberal in the whole of the Minister for Lands' administration — a very large portion of the whole programme. No one — not even the most crusted of Tories — would have the slightest objection to the Minister for Lands settling whosoever would upon tlie land, provided that that land was acquired by the State at a price comensurate to its value, and that once settled it became reproductive in the measure of its occupation without any further risk to the colony. Mr Blair is not a financial genius on his own showing. ■ Like many another, the State finances as set forth in State papers are to him more like so many missing word problems than straight out records of receipts and expenditure, therefore he will do his best if returned to have public accounts so simplified that even a sixth standard scholar — and certain members of Parliament — may come to an intelligent conclusion upon them. Another desirable feature about Mr Blair's convictions, is a rooted objection to the farcical bill et-manufacturing propensities peculiar to the present Government ; and the electors of Clutha may rest assured that if he can help it there will be loss inspectors than rabbits in the country — and very few of either. His was a sensible suggestion — and one frequently urged — that Government auditors should examine and pass the books of large public companies. The funds of the people are as much at stake in these institutions as they are when laid out under State auspices. Therefore, the same rigid precautions should be taken in both instances to guard against mismanagement and fraud — examples of which, unfortunately, have not been wanting of late to show our laxity in this important connection. As a teacher, Mr Blair knows something of the troubles which vex and harry the soul of the country schoolmaster, and his suggestions for the better working of our educational laws, where they affect small schools, are worthy of all acceptance. No one can accuse Mr Blair of want of backbone, or of the courage of his convictions on the liquor question. Personally he is opposed to Prohibition, but yet embracing the principles of Democracy in a manner which should put to the blush the self-constituted high priest of thai cult — Mr Seddon — he is prepared to sink his own individual prejudices, and permit of the voice of the people deciding the question at issue, reserving to himself the right of a factor of that Democracy to record his vote in opposition to any change in the matter of licensing. As- we have already stated, there is not much depth or extensiveness in Mr Blair's views, but what opinions he does hold he holds tenaciously, and if the choice of the people of Clutha fall upon him, to the rejection of a worthier and more able man, they may be assured that he will consistently uphold the principles he has set out to enunciate, and in doing so, to use his own words, he " will neither disgrace his constituents nor himself,' ' — which is always something nowadays.