The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1891. THE EGMONT ELECTION.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2167, 24 February 1891, Page 2

The Temuka Leader TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24, 1891. THE EGMONT ELECTION.

Some indignation has been expressed in various quarters because members of the Government appear to have assisted Mr McGuire in the Egmont election. What is sauce for the goose is evidently nob sauce for the gander with critics of the present Government. Stumping the country has been a favorite pastime with the Atkinsonians for years, and even Mr Bruce, the candidate who opposed Mr McGuire, indulged in it, In J 887 Mr Bruce attempted to stump the country in opposition to the StoutVogel Government. He came to Christchurch, but no one would listen to him, and he went to Dunedin and delivered an address. Mr Bruce has been a sailor, and is now a farmer, and a more vapid coxcomb has not entered Parliament. In Parliament he dresses in the pink'of fashion, but when he came to Christchurch to Hpeak as a working man he put on moleskins. Ho is a fluent speaker, because his tongue is not hampered by a thinking head, and consequently is a useful tool in the hands of the Tones, But the real question is, Had members of the Government a right to assist Mr McGuire ? Mr Bruce, who had, as the French say, no mandate to do so, made an effort to stump the country in 1887. If Mr Bruce did so, why should not Mr Seddon do sj? I It is more reasonable that Mr Seddon -M do bo, because he is a Minister or°the * h « ** ' **" . . .;, t, -««. why should went to assist Mr \^ n « i not Mr Seddon assist his 0...

lower ? It is really most extraordinary how captious the critics are becoming, and how they can see that what in their eyes was a virtue in the late Government is a vice in the present one. There is no reason in the world

why the Government should not assist one of their own followers, and one, too, who has consistently and ably supported the party tor years. Mr McGuire is a very able man, aud will prove au acquisition to Parliament. He has been a policeman, a storekeeper and subsequently a lawyer, and he is besides financially independent. Now a man, who while filling other positions and fighting life’s battle generally, must have ability to qualify for the law. Even though he may be self-taught he undoubtedly must be fairly well educated, or he could not pass a law examination. He fought Sir Harry Atkinson on two or three occasions when no one else would, and fought good battles too. In every respect, therefore, he appears to us to be a very desirable representative, and one the Government were perfectly right in assisting.