The Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1887. ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6015, 25 August 1887, Page 3

The Star. THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 1887. ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN.

Mb E. G. WnionT has at laßt thought it convenient to address the eleotors of Avon, and if the value of his speech is to he tested by its length, it must he considered good enough. The Patriarch Job found out many hundreds of years ago that words are often used to "darken counsel." And Mr Wright, at the end of thiß nineteenth century, practices with equal Bkill the same triot of which poor Job complained so bitterly to his friends. We have read and re-read Mr Wright's speooh, and every time we read ib we, arejnore struck with the. want of that honest zing which should be found in the first speech of every candidate fora Beat in the House. Like most of the Opposition candidates in this part of the Colony, he is evidently afraid to declare himself an opponent of the Government. He ia afraid also to assume the title of " independent," most probably because he has found out that m the case of Mr Garrick,the " independent" ticket has not proved a brilliant success. He fenceß very meanly with the direct question whether he will support the Stout-Vogel Government, by asking in return whether anyone can tell him if the Stout- Vogel Government is going to exist? We will answer the question for him in the direct way in which he ought to havo answered it. Will the Stout-Vogel Government exist! Certainly not a single day if the electors of the Colony agree to return men like Mr Wright. Therefore, if the electors of the Avon wish the Stout-Vogel Government to remain in power, they must vote, against Mr Wright.

Neither time nor space will permit us to critically follow the wrigglings of Mr j Wright through all the mazes of the chief political topics of the hour. Nor is it necessary to do bo. The speech is to a certain extent a clever one ; in fact, it is too clever by half. It is all things to all men. Mr Wright attempts the difficult feat of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds. He thinks protection good on the whole for the Colony, good for the manufacturers, but bad for the farmers, and leaves his readers in a state of happy mystification a3 to what he would do either for Freetrade or Protection, for the farmers or the manufacturers. One thing only ho is clear about, that the present Government has made a great mess in its attempt to adjust the tariff so as to foster local industries. Then'he is not much clearer in his opinions about the land question. He objects to land falling into the hands of large owners, but he would sell it all as soon as possible on deferred payments, with a substantial deposit of 20 per cent, in farms up to 500 acres. To our limited intelligence no plan could be conceived more likely to ensure the land falling into the hands of large owners. But Mr Wright is very wrath with Sir B. Stout and Mr Ballanco for the various measures they have introduced to liberalise the land laws, and to enable the men of small means to get any hold on the land. Curiously enough all the land sharks and capitalists agree entirely in this with Mr Wright. But Mr Wright mußt run with the hare in this also. He has a sort of faith in the Village Settlement system, but it must be carried out in his own way, and not in that of its authors — the present Government. Mr Wright thinks that village settlement must follow, not precede other settlement. That is, when all the land— or the beet of it— has been brought under his system of 500-aore farms on deferred payments, then it will be time to think of settling the small man on . his village allotment— when there is no land left.

Mr Wright is in favour o£ high wages. In which opinion he is a brilliant exception to the general ran of contractors. He told his audience that he paid eleven shillings a day to, his labourers on the West Coast road, an announcement received by the simple-minded electors of Avon with cheers. But he forget to tell them

that the current rate of wages at that time was quite double what it is now, and that the rates paid to contractors were proportionately higher. It would have been more to the point, and would no doubt have been received with still louder cheers, if he had told them that he meant to tender for some of the -work on the Midland Railway, and would pay his men not less than eleven shillings a day. As it is, we only know that Mr Wright expresses himself to be fond of high wages in the abstract. Against which we have the unfortunate record that Mr Wright, when in the House, voted for a 10 per cent reduction in the wages of the working men in the service of !the Government. We should really not be surprised to find that, in spite of his abstract affection for high wages, should he be returned for Avon, and an all round reduction again be proposed,he might again vote in a similar direction. For he tells us that tho cry for retrenchment is tho "efcern resolve of men — like himself and the members of the Political Befortn Association — who have waited in vain for relief from the taxation which is weighing them down."

One thing may be quite clearly inferred from Mr Wright's speech, and that is about the only thing that is clear in it : Mr Wright -will bo found in the ranks of the Opposition. He will help •to turn out the Stout - Yogel Government as the first important business before him. ' What he will next do hardly concerns us, because we believe the Avon electors do not wish this Government to be turned out, and therefore will not elect him. If the electors wish to see Canterbury powerless in the Assembly, with half its membeis voting one way and half the other — if they wish to see a Government that has for the first time made liberal land lawa, that has promoted the cause of free education, that haß done something already to promote our local industries, and will do more, that has saved the Canterbury farmers £75,000 a-year by reducing the grain rates, that has carried the Midland Eailway Bill in the face of the strongest opposition, — if they wish to see this Government BtUl continue in office, they have a very simple task to perform. They must shut their ears to the blandishments of Mr E. G. Wright, and vote straight for Mr Blake.