INTERFERENCE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT WITH THE ELECTIONS.

Otago Witness, Volume 25, Issue 1004, 25 February 1871, Page 6

INTERFERENCE OF THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT WITH THE ELECTIONS.

While the Native Minister has been doing hid utmost to' sway the elections in the North, the Minister of Public Works has kept an eye on those in the South. It is but fair to say that he has not been so utterly unscrupulous as his colleague. He has not abandoned his office to go on an electioneering expedition. He has not solioited electors over whom his official position enabled him to exert influence to vote for Government. He has not carried about a Government candidate at the public expense, and supported his canvass with the weight of his Ministerial authority. On the other hand, he has interfered in an election in which, he had not even the pretext that the result might affect the stability of the Government — an election, not of a member of the House of Representatives, but for the Superintendence of Otago. We must add, too, that much for which we can find excuse in the case of Mr M'Lean is wholly inexcusable and disgracetul in Mr Gisborne. For the Native Minister's education and training have not been such as to accustom him to any very lofty moral standard ; and we oan readily believe that he is to a great extent unconscious of the impropriety of his conduct. But Mr Giaborne is of another stamp. He offends against his better knowledge. He is a gentleman of high education and refined intelligence ; of experience in affairs, and familiar with the unwritten but well understood code of laws that regulate the actions of a public man. Re knows as well as we do that for a Minister of the Crown, acting in his official capacity, to endeavour to influence an election, is an unconstitutional and indecent thing ; which in England, were an English statesman guilty of it, would lead to his instant dismissal from office and blight his political career for ever.

The facts of the case are as follows : — During the last session of the Provincial Council of Otago resolutions were carried, after a long discussion, affirming that the Government financial scheme, if carried oat in its present form, would be injurious to the province. Mr Vogel, alarmed at this opposition to his policy, hastened to Dunedin ; and after consultation with Mr Macandrew it was decided between them that the Council had better be dissolved. Accordingly Mr Macandrew handed in his resignation, and Mr Vogel announced next day at a public meeting that there would be a dissolution. As we remarked at the time, Mr Yogel's extreme readiness to sit in judgment on a Provincial Council compared oddly with the outcry ho raised against Mr Stafford in 1867 for his supposed inclination to interfere in provincial politics. However, the dissolution took place, and two candidates came forward to contest the Superintendency ; Mr Macandrew, as a partisan of the Government, and Mr Reid, as champion of those who maintain the view taken in the Provincial Council. At one of the subsequent election meetings it seems that Mr Reid said something to the effect that the land purchase by the General Government in connection with the Southern Trunk Railway had come to a stand still ; and shortly afterwards a letter appeared in the Otago papers from the Agent of the General Government, a Mr Thomas Calcutt. Mr Calcutt said that he had reported the circumstance to the Minister of Public Works, and was authorised to contradict Mr Reid's statement ; and furthermore, that he " had received expreu initructlons to draw public atten.-

tion to the fact that by erroneous state* ments Mr Reid watt doing his bast to obstruct the opening ot the , southern railway and to damage the province." Mr' Reid's Committee thereupon applied to Mr Calcutt for a copy of the "express instructions" referred to, bat he declined to furnish it.

Mr Calcatt's letter forms a significant commentary to the notice in the Gazette prohibiting Government officials from meddling in elections. We see how little the rule is observed when Government have an interest in breaking it. To the outside public all seems fair enough, but we are here admitted for ao instant behind the scenes, and see how the system really works. The Branding rule, it appears, allows of many exceptions, and can be set aside when occasion requires by private orders, for Mr Calcutt committed a blander in making the tenour of his instructions public. Mr Gisborae desired him to placard Mr Reid as an enemy of the province, but never meant him to let the electors know that he had been told to do so. But in his hurry to obey he overshot the mark, and revealed the secret. We have it now under his own hand that in this eleotion he, as General Government Agent, has received instructions from head-quarters to take an active part in opposition to the antiMinisterialist candidate.

The first part of the instructions is un> objectionable. If Mr Reid waa misinformed about the land purchases, and stated what was not correct, the Government, who were mis-represented, had a, right to explain how the matter stood. But Mr Gisborne goes much further. He expresses his opinion on the merits of one of the candidates, and directs his agent to take steps to make his opinion gene* rally known. Not content with Betting Mr Reid straight upon a matter of faof, he rushes into a fierce personal attack upon him. The point he labours to impress on ths public is that Mr Reid is setting himself against their interests. He charges him with wishing to obstruct the railway and to damage the province ; implies that for that object he does not stick at telling untruths ; and instructs hia agent to circulate these charges, evidently in the hope that they will excite a prejudice against Mr Reid and assist the return of Mr Macandrew. This is as bad in its way as any of Mr M'Lean's doings in the North. It is another outrageous attempt to carry an election by force of Government influence. We are as much grieved as surprised that Mr Gisborne, from whom we had hoped better things, should have lent himself to so discreditable a trans* aotion. — Press.