THURSDAY, NOVEMBEE 27, 1884.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5170, 27 November 1884, Page 2

THURSDAY, NOVEMBEE 27, 1884.

Mr Wakefield will address the electors of Selwyn at Leeston on Tuesday evening With an absolute sublimity of " cheek," the one man at whom of all others in New Zealand the finger of scorn is pointed, presumes to address the electors whom he has treated with the most contemptuous indifference. This very daisy of political purity, of high-souled morality, who has described to his constituents how peculiarly sensitive he is, how easily he can be "surprised and shocked," ought to be able to relate some interesting experiences of the to be, to do, and to suffer of an aspiring-member. Never, in the history of this Colony, has a public man been more severely castigated ; never has the lash of sarcasm, knotted with stinging truths, been more vigorously applied than to the ample shoulders of the member for Selwyn. Never has the verdict been so emphatically pronounced, " He deserved all he got." Mr Leonard Harper has said this; a man of irreproachable integrity, possessed of calm, judicial reasoning powers. Mr Wakefield's unbosoming on Tuesday night ought to.be a strange revelation, coming from one whom Mr John Holmes has described as " bold, shifty, shameless, turbulent of wit." Nor will it be at all necessary, to enable him to sustain the interest of his audience, that he should revert to a distant past. Is not his earlier caieer, so peculiarly instructive in the light of to-day, enshrined in the Hansard of the past session in the form of a brief memoir contributed by the member for Chiistchurch South ? Interest enough, excitement enough, will be found in the sayings and doings of the past few montliß. Mr Wakefield will be able to describe how he glowed with virtuous indignation because of the wrong-doings of Major Atkinson, and how he denounced him from his own platform at a monster meeting in Christchurch. He will be able to describe how he turned to Sir Julius Yogel as to the rising sun, and prepared himself for reflected glory. He will be able to tell them how he intrigued for that purpose he had set himself, of " breaking up existing parties altogether," and of giving to the Colony the unparalleled blessof " a new party — a new party with a new policy," whose high priest should be Edward Wakefield. There may come the story of unrequited affection : how, whilst Wakefield had not the least objection to mate with Yogel, the man who " knows how to choose " his coadjutors had a very decided objection t"> match with Wakelield ; how the pangs of despised aid engendered the gall of exceeding bitterness ; how conflicting passions brought about an " unholy alliance " with a man for whom he had declared utter distrust ; how the One-day Ministry burst like a too-distended bubble, and vaulting ambition lay prone in the weedy ditch. Then — ah, then ! a mournful, pitiful tale of Opposition, fierce, vindictive— futile ! Yet of something attempted, something done. For did not the member for Selwyn dare to do right in the cause of the Lake Ellesmere flounder ? Did he not inquire whether a telegraph station was to be opened somewhere or other ? And shall not those things, big with local importance, outweigh all that may have objectionable seeming, even to the cuin-Bolleston vote against the East and West Coast Eailway Bill? Alas, this is an age of scepticism. It may be that whilst the electors who assemble at Leeston on Tuesday night listen with some patience to the charmer's voice, they will no longer be seduced thereby. It may be, that in their steadfast regard for truth and justice they will tell the membor for Selwyn that though he represents them in name they have now not a vestige of faith in him, not a shadow of respect left for him. Should this be done, and in these days of openly-expressed conviction it is not impossible, it may even be that the universal verdict will still be — He deserved all he got.