Wanganui Herald. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1885. MR FISHER'S SPEECH.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XX, Issue 5743, 13 October 1885, Page 2

Wanganui Herald. ( PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, OCTOBER 13, 1885. MR FISHER'S SPEECH.

The honorable member for South Wellington addressed a meeting of his constituents on last, and no doubt sat down highly satisfied with his efforts to prove black was white. He had ratted during the session, and his only plan was to pitch into the Government and blacken its members as much as possible, so that his desertion of the party might be condoned by his constituents. The absurd inflation of self-importance, so characteristic of Mr Fisher when on the stump, was, on this occasion, strained to its utmost limits, and we find him posing as leader of "high tone," claiming companionship with the best men in the House. Those who know Mr Fisher and his choice of companionship will smile when they read this, and well they may. Having deserted the Government party for reasons which he certainly did not tell the meeting on Friday last, Mr Fisher plays the old, old card, and says he had steered a compass course straight through indedependent of parties. That is, he had dangled his vote in front of both the Government and Opposition whips, and plainly allowed it to be known that it was ''independent;" i.c. — in the marhet. As the Government did not make any move to buy it, he is very bitter on the subject of political corruption, and vapours of votes bought and sold, in the most selfrighteous strain. Like ladies of questionable virtue, who shelter, their own little faux pas under a cloud of accusations and insinuations against their more decorous sisters ; so Mr Fisher, not content with extolling his own immaculate political purity,hastens to besmirch the reputation of those against whom he suddenly found himself arrayed at the close of the session. His tirade against Mr Stout was a most feeble effort to lower the Premier in the eyes of the electors of the colony and to elevate Mr Fisher correspondingly. We do not think it will have the 'desired effect, as between the Premier and his critic there lies an insuperable space through which Mr Fisher will hardly have time to climb in order to stand on the same political plane as Mr Stout. It would be tedious and unprofitable to follow Mr Fisher through his long tirade of abuse and accusation against the Government, but we must refer to his statement that they had taken sums off particular railways to punish members who voted against them. This is an unequivocal misstatement of the most unblushing kind, as the utterer of it knew well enough that the whole of the votes in question were carried by

the party which suddenly pounced upon Captain Rnssell's suicidal motion, and struck him and his followers an unexpected blow for having thwarted them in their efforts to get even devoted to a commencement of the East and West Coast Kailway. The motion was treated by the House as free from party obligations, and the result was members gave free vent to their disgust at the way certain landowners and their followers had been trying all through the session to clog the wheels of progress, and carried the motion so that the country should have some practical knowledge of what Captain JRussell and his friends would do for it if they were allowed sway. Mr Fisher may hoodwink his own constituents for a short time and get them to believe that the carrying of Capt. Itussell's motion will do the colony no harm, but he cannot get people with any real knowledge of its baneful effeccs to accept his denial of them, nor can he prevent his own constituents from finding out later on by actual experience that the depression now accentuated by the sudden check in our public works expenditure is attributable to people who, like Mr Fisher, began a session as staunch party men, and came away at its close as , " Independent Members," of whom the j public suspicion is that they are "independent" because they have not made their market, and have to await the opening of another session to get a fresh chance of forming new party ties, or renewing the old ones; for the "independent member" is not beyond repentance, and a return to the folds of his old party, provided the reward of virture in his case is considered high enough. We shall be curious to watch the future career of the hon. member for South Wellington, who is decidedly clever and versatile; indeed, the general opinion is that he is too clever by half, and that less versability and more stability of mind and purpose would be of infinite value to one so highly gifted and so little appreciated.