Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. " NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1880.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 4301, 12 April 1880, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. " NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1880.

Sir William Fos has signified his intention to offer himself as a caudidate lor the Kangitikei seat in Parliament, rendered vacant by the resignation of Major Willis. He has published a notice lo that effect in the Kangitikei Advocate, and will meet the electors at Bulls on Thursday next, and at Marton on Friday. He also hopes to visit Turakina before tho election, but fixes no date. The notice makes no allusion to the political creed of the writer, but reminds the electors of his long service as their representative in times past. Sir William alludes to one fact which might place hitn at a slight disadvantage if he were strongly opposed in his candidature. The work of the Royal Commission ou the Native affairs of the West Coast is not yet concluded, and will engross most of his time between now and the date of the election. Under the actual circumstances it will, we presume, make but little difference to the result. No other candidate has as yet made his appearance, and no strong candidate is likely to do so. Indeed we do •■■ul know of any one else in the colony who would find favour with a majority of the Rangitikei electors, now that Sir William Fox is in the field. When we first expressed a hope that lie would conic forward as a candidate, we alluded tohis public service in convection with (he Native difficulty as giving him even a stronger claim than he would otherwise have possessed on the goodwill of the electors Supposing him to be opposed (and at present there is ouly the faintest rumour of such an event), the electors will not support their old and well-tried member Ihe less heartily because important public duties, undertaken when there was no probability of a vacancy, will prevent him paying so much a' tention to the contest as he might have done had the time been wholly at his disposal. At the two or three public meetings which he will hold, the constituency will no doubt lie info.'mcd of the candidal c's '.ieus w.tti regard to the- special dilliuul'i- :. nn 'i-r which the Colony is at pr, sini Übuui' n„, and the course which 1 Parliament ought to lake. The position

ia somewhat altered since the general election. The Ministry are doing tlieir utmost to bring the country safely through the crisis which is in a groat measure tlic result of tlie incapacity and dishonesty of their predecessors, though no doubt other causes contributed thereto. But matters have turned out to be far worse than they wero supposed to be at the time Sir William Fox addressed the Wanganui electors, aud the thorough J exposure of the maladministration of Sir George Grey and liis colleagues is a text which will yet bear a good deal of en* iavging on. One thing is certain— the country needs tho services of her beat public men, and we are confident that tlie ( Kangitikei constituency have far too much I regard for the interests of the colony and the district to allow tliem to perpetrate tlie blunder of returning as their member a person unused lo political life and of inferior capabilities when Sir William Fox offers himself for election. In a previous article we alluded to the statement that there was a compact between Major Willis and Sir William Fox with leferciice lv the resignation of the former should it become necessary lo provide tiie latter with a seat, and ive pointed out our reasons for asserting tliat no such compact — cither expressed or understood — was ever entered into. This is what the Kangitikei Advocate says on the same subject: — "Jfo more deliberate falsehood than that contained in the paragraph alluded to ever appeared in the columns of a newspaper in b is colony ; and the fnlsity of the assertion is only equalled, if indeed it is Dot . surpassed, by the unscrupulous character of its author. To all those able to form their own judgment, and who are not blinded by party prejudice, this infamous assertion carries its own refutation with it. Is it to be supposed that if this compact had existed--if Major Willis had been, as has beeu assorted, simply ' a warniine-pan for Sir William Fox,' that the latter would not havo insisted on its being carried out ivhen he was defeated at Wanganui 1 He would then have been returned to tho House as leader of the Opposition, which had just before the dissolution defeated the Ministry of Sir George Grey by a majority of l-i, and would, had he so pleased, have been Premier of this colony at the present moment. To suppose tliat he would have waited till now, when he will, if elected, go back to the House merely as a private member of the party, is worthy of tho wisdom of the source from which the falsehood emanates, and ia simply irreconcilable to the instincts of those persons to whom the wisli is not father to tho thought. It ia a recognised attribute of cunning, that in judging ofthe conduct of others, it invariably ascribes to them its own vile motives ; and in this last dastardly attempt to cast dishonour upon the actions of two well-known and deservedly respected public men, it is not difficult to discern the motive which planned or the hand which aimed the shaft."