ELECTION TIME : A NOTE OF WARNING.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7975, 15 June 1887, Page 6

ELECTION TIME : A NOTE OF WARNING.

[- TO THE EDITOR. h Sib, —Now is the only time we will have a a show for three years to come to shape to r some extent the programme of the govern- ■- ment of the country. After that, the repre- , sentativea selected by the electors will have j the reins in their hands, and guide the t country as they think fit; and for this ,1 reason it is of the utmost importance that 0 our drivers Bhould be men that can be relied , upon, as there are a great many ruts to keep J the wheels of the governmental chariot clear of, and false lights set up—as the wreckers used to do on the Cornish coast—to lure the f vessel on to the rocks. We have many things 1 to show what drivers should not hold the . reins, but we must use our brains to select t, those that should. Those who should not . are they who have sold their country for the 0 mess of pottage, even though they did not get the pottage. And those with politics "variable as the shade, by the light quivering aspen made," and again those of " Vicar of Bray" proclivities. We must choose men of some education, meu of calibre, or we must blame ourselves if the Southerners get the better of us in the " tug of war" for the dollars. As Q I remarked iu a previous letter, apathy is the y cause of our being generally left out in the » cold. Let us have a policy, and elect men t that know the meaning of the word—sell the railways, ctjt down the education expenditure, send down more brains and fewer memj. bars to Wellington, thereby saving freight } and honorariums. I . predict that future Ministers will have a troublesome legaoy in the village settlement scheme, as these ohil- " dren of a benefioent Government will regard 1 it as their right to be fed and clothed at the 3 public expense for years to come, and if not properly attended to will have an action for breach of promise," but not divorce ; no, their ory will be, "I will never leave Mr. ' a Micawber." To see to this before it is too s late, 1 believe would be a I Happs: Thought.