THE WAIHEMO CONSTITUENCY.

Otago Witness, Issue 1861, 22 July 1887, Page 9

THE WAIHEMO CONSTITUENCY.

It is much to be regretted that the Ifatcs, impersonated by the Representation Commissioners, should have chosen for annihilation a constituency which was so well represented as Waikouaiti, forcing Mr J. C. Buckland to throw himself upon the tender mercies of a new electorate, half of which has comparatively little knowledge of him. At a time when retrenchment is the order of the day, Mr Buckland has special claims upon the electors. For his vote has been consistently given in favour of economy throughout his Parliamentary career, and he has been faithful to the object of reducing the public expenditure in the very .smallest as in the most important matters. Modest and unassuming in manner, few who met Mr Bnckland upon his entrance into the political world imagined that he would be the first of the band of new members who went up to Wellington under the banner of " Vogel with the break on " to have the courage of his convictions, and leave a party which could not be trusted to curry them out. Whilst Mr Mackenzie, Mr Richard- 1 son, and the rest still faltered, Mr Buckland crossed the Rubicon. And though he never left it in doubt as to which party he belonged to, no member showed himself more independent in his votes, pursuing economy before it acquired its reoont popularity and in the face of Sir p obert Stout and Major Atkinson alike. Mr Buckland certainly cannot show the electors of Waihemo such a record of loaves and fishes as Mr John M'Kenzie. They need not expect from him another Palmerston school palace or payment by the Government for faithful support in an extra supply of roads and bridges. But if they want a member who is intent upon retrenchment and will have the conrage to pursue it, they cannot do better than choose one who lias given such good tokens in the past of his earnestness and judgment in the matter. How exceedingly painstaking and conscientious Mr Buckland is may be seen from his address, in which he takes the electors into the details of past extravagance and possible reductions, and puts before them the course he intends to pursue without the slightest reserve. Waihemo might be able to get a more brilliant and showy representative than Mr Buckland, but it could not easily obtain one so thoroughly to be trusted.