The Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1891. THE NAPIER TELEGRAPH ON MR BUICK.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXVII, Issue 2, 3 January 1891, Page 2

The Marlborough Express. Published Every Evening. SATURDAY, JANUARY 3, 1891. THE NAPIER TELEGRAPH ON MR BUICK.

4~ — We admire the Napier Telegraph, haye done 60 for years m fact, because when it takes a side it fights out to the bitter end for that side. It cannot say anything too severe of its opponents, and if it does not always tell the truih, ihe whole truth and nothing but the truth— well it is only clolng wnat a great many do, tell as much as suits their own purpose. Tha morality is low we admit, but tUe practice is one that is too common

to induce us to hold the Telegraph up as a shocking example. In a recent leading article we find it writing as follows : — "The Liberal organs are sore at the thought that it was the voters from Dunedin who defeated Mr Millar, and put Mr J. Mills into Parliament for Port Chalmers. The Liberals would prefer to see Mr Millar m the House, not because he would have been of the slightest use as a legislator, but on account of his vote. A Parliament composed of nonentities is what the Liberals like, so that their one or two leaders could drive the members like a flock of sheep. Mr Buick, the new member for Wairau is the man to auit them. This young journeyman carpenter — he is only twenty- three years of age — knows next to nothing, and owes his eleotion to the Salvation Army. But he beat an educated, thoughtful, and conscientious gentleman like Mr Seymour by' seven ty-fivo votes. The election practically hinged on the question of compensation to publicans, which at present is not within the range of i our politics ; but because Mr Seymour would not pledge himself to vote for injustice the goody goody faddists voted for Buick ! What did they care for the colony, or for the colony's good, so long as their miserable prejudices were catered for ? And for these and similarly contemptible purposes all kinds of differing sections of the community throughout the colony have smothered themselves with disgrace by putting their own narrow-minded representatives into Parliament." We think we read quite as many Liberal papers as the Telegraph does, and wo have failed so far to find that they are sorry Mr Mills defeated Mr Millar— on the contrary some of them have, as we have done, expressed satisfaction that Mr Millar was not successful. Not that Mr Mills is much good, no one who saw him m the House could say that he has not been a disappointment. But he has a vote, and so will Mr Swan have, and these two nonentities are keeping out better men. Now as to Mr Buick. Our contemporary shows its utter recklessness and disregard for accuracy m saying that the election hinged on the question of compensation to publicans. Mr Buick as a teetotaller for years naturally had the temperance vote— or a large section of it, and for that reason no doubt got the Salvationists, who are all we believe, expected to bo water drinkers. But he also had the Catholics, the working men, and those who believed m the Single Tax and Henry George. We cannot be accused of having unduly favored Mr Buick's candidature, nor do we expect any great things from, him, but our sen3e of fair play compels us to deny the aspersions of the Telegraph. Mr Seymour's defeat was due to entirely different reasons. He came to us a rejected candidate both m the Wairau and Waimea Picton, and if he stood aga-n t j-morrow, with Mr Buick alone, or with Mr Maoalister alone he would get the same answer that he received on December sth. To say that the Liberals want a Parliament of nonentities is to say that which is utterly false, and which the Telegraph must know is quite untrue and uncalled for. If the list of last Parliament is gone through it will be found that the nonentities were on the Atkinson side, and it is because safe and reliable votes such as Mr Seymour's have been lost to them that they are now m a quandary. We wish to see better men m the House, and neither Mr Seymour, nor Mr Swan, nor Mr Buick i3 up to the standard that tha colony has a right to expect. But whoa the motives of such men as Sir Robert Stout are impugned by those who do the dirty work for the Tory journals, and when to stand for Parliament as a representative of the masses rather than the classes is tha signal for abuse of the lowest kind, it is not to bs wondered at if our Parliaments do go downwards, and that at length we have to put up with nonentities.