The Timaru Herald. "THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1881.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 2245, 1 December 1881, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. "THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1881.

Few of our readers, probably, are aware of the existence of a paper called the Echo, published at Dunedin. It is not a widely circulated paper, we fancy, or an influential one m any respect, but it has nevertheless, a peculiar interest for those who like oddities. It is the organ and we suppose, the property, of Mr Robert Stout, a prominent lawyer, politician and eccentric character at Dunedin ; and the contents of its columns may fairly be taken as a reflection of that gentleman's mind. It is full of freethought, spiritualism, socialism, scepticism, and all sorts of queer stuff of that kind m which Mr Stout takes such a strange delight; and for anyone who has a taste for dabbling m those uncanny, but eminently tiresome subjects, a perusal of a stray copy of it occasionally would, very likely be amusing enough. For our own part, we have no patience for "isms." Life ia not long enough to admit of our following " the labyrinthine winding* of intricate investigation into the phenomena of transcendental physics with a view to attaining the incorporation of ideality with strict and exact observation !" We are thankful to «ay that jargon like this is Hebrew-Greek to us. But Mr Stout is a politician as well as a philosopher, and we confess we often have a good laugh over the political artioles m the Echo. We do not mean to hint for a moment that Mr Stout writes them. We have & great regard for him, and we would not iniult him by auch a supposi-

tion. Bat we are justified m assuming that they express his views, because he himself, both m speeches and letters, has recently gone to great pains to express views exactly similar to those expressed by the Echo, The native question ia the piece de resistance m the leading columns of that paper, juat now, and the length to which it goes m its crazy, frantic denunciations of the Ministers, is irresistibly funny. The hearing of Te "Whiti's case before the Justices at New Plymouth forms the subject of a delisioua article m which sympathy with sedition only predominates over reckless, bewildering slander of persons m authority. Te Whiti is represented as one of the grandest characters of ancient or modern times, a martyr m the cause of right and justice, nobly resigning himself to a er-ii ' fate rather than forego a lofty principle. Mr Bryce, on the other hand, is depicted as a person m comparison with whom Judge Jeffreys might be considered moderate and equitable. Amongst other peccadillos attributed to him, he is declared to have deliberately packed the Bench at New Plymouth m order to get Te Whiti unjustly condemned. His " servant," Mr Parris, moreover, iB stated to have sat on the Bench by his orders, m order to procure false testimony against Te Whiti, and, failing m that, to have gone into the witness box, and himself given the false testimony that was required ! . The trial of the Nihilists at Petersburg is contrasted with these proceedings, very unfavorably, of course, to the latter. The article concludes by disclosing the bloodcurdling fact that "the illegal and cruel destruction of the Maori homes, ' the-inaking prisoners of 600 women and as many children," m short, the whole of the recent operations on the "West Coast were only designed for the purpose of influencing the general election. Complimentary to the electors of New Zealand, certainly! But we have said enough to give our readers some idea of the sort of organ the Echo is, and that was all we proposed to do. In our opinion, it is the only genuina comic paper published m this colony at the present time. 4 Me TtTRNBULL took an odd method at the hustings yesterday to secure votes at the coming election. He struck out for himself a line of conduct at variance with the supposed business and duties of candidates on such occasions. Although for decency's sake political subjects were now and again touched on, they were clearly as many stepping stones only for the speaker to find cause to abuse m very unmeasured terms this paper. • In the exercise of our undoubted right we have frankly put before the electors the merits and demerits of the several candidates seeking their suffrages, and we have shown cause why, m our opinion, Mr Turnbull was not % fit man to represent Timaru m Parliament. To a person not blind with passion and prejudice, our comments have never l»een of such a character at to call forth anything but good natured criticism, and to invite fair play from the opposite camp. But good aatured criticism and fair play are evidently not to be got from Mr Turnbull. He yesterday neither attempted the one, nor did he seek to give a shadow of the other. By gestures and a choice of language — and Mr Turnbull'knows well how to manage a telling combination of these two great essentials of a stump-orator — the fullest possible effect waa given to a harangue bursting with vituperation and senseless insinuations against the Timaru Herald and those connected with its management. The great aim of the speaker apparently was firstly, to endaavor to raise up a storm of prejudice m the minds of the public against the paper, and, secondly, to use the feeling thus aroused to the political hurt of Mr Gibson, whom Mr Turnbull chose to designate as "the nominee of the Timaru Herald." Mr Turnbull knows, probably full well, that Mr Gibson is no more our nominee than he ia himself. It suits, though, his purpose to say so. Mr Tumbull, however, did not confine his tongue to speaking ill of ourselves, but m insufferable bad taste he alluded pointedly m a most improper manner to the late Resident Magistrate of Timaru, and a cruel and a moat uncalled for allusion it was. Although we have been a 'consistent opponent of Mr Turnbull ever since he had the honor of being first returned to Parliament, we confess we were fairly taken by surprise yesterday not ao much at the abuse levelled against ourselves, is at the impolicy of the speaker. Does he expect to gain a single vote by the rubbish he talked yesterday ? We have too good an opinion of the common sense of the Timaru electors generally to think that his ill-advised and senseless rhapsody will gain him one single vote. On the contrary, we shall be greatly mistaken if it doea not lose him a few. The painful exhibition Mr Turnbull made of himself yeaterday, the want of tact displayed, and the ungovernable temper he showed against us, his political adversary, was a matter for wonder and astonishment to friends and foes alike. To his friends deep chagrin must have been mixed with astonishment, as he exhibited himself m a light, and under conditions decidedly incompatible with the moderation and liberaality expected from a candidate for parliamentary honors. To his foes, the sight o£ an opponent injuring his cause by pouring forth a torrent of invective against a third party instead of confining himself to politics, is something to rejoice over ; they knowing full well that though the unthinking mob applaud the speaker who goes m for personalities — the stronger the better — reasonable men think very differently of euch undignified displays, and thinking differently of their candidate, may very possibly bo led to act differently to their original intention at the polling booth. A marked and pleasing change to Mr Tumbull's extravagancies was the quiet demeanor and language of his opponents. Mr Partridge did not fly into a rage because we had stated that he was the nominee of a class. Like a wise and plucky man he boldly acknowledged the soft impeachment, and claimed support on that very ground. Though we think his chance of being returned to Parliament very small indeed, we must fain admire his courage at coming forward, and his consistency of principle when face to face with the electors. Mr Gibson, too, strictly following the wise advice of Mr Tumbull's seconder, avoided all semblance of

personalities. His address was brief and to the point. He set at nought, and exposed the fallacy of the nomineeship dodge, and stated what everyone knows to be the case, that he was asked to come forward by persons representing all shades and classes of society. » Mb Tr/RNBULii t«ok upon himself yesterday to cast «uoh aspersions on the character of those gentlemen whose business it is to •onducfc this journal, that vre are bound, as a mere matter of justice, to them, and for our own selfrespect, to take legal proceedings, and to call on Mi' Turnbull m a Court of Justice to answer the charges he has so deliberately and publicly made against us. We exceedingly regret that a gentleman m Mr Turnbull's position should so far forget himself as to compel u» to take this step, but there is no other course open m the face of the grossly defamatory language he uttered yesterday.