The Western Star. (PUBLISHED WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1876.

Western Star, Issue 161, 7 October 1876, Page 4

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, OCTOBER 7, 1876.

A good effect will be produced by the action of the House ot Assemblyin compelling Mr Wakefield, the editor of the Timaru Herald, to apologise for the indecent violence of his onslaught on one of the members; and while we are on the subject, it may be as well to add that the dignity of the Assembly would have run less risk of having to assert itself against coarse ©utside comment if the debates during the session hadb.en conducted more dispassionately and with less show of personal rancour towards one another. Hew Zealand has previously borne favourable comparison with the other colonies for the high tone and good order with which its various deliberative bodies have conducted their business ; but if poor Sir George Grey’s proposal to have manhood suffrage is carried, Hew Zealand may bid a long adieu to peace and respectability. At present, any man who puts a hut over his head or owns a miner’s right can become an elector,and in that the suffrage is right and liberal; but to simply allow every male arrived at manhood to exercise an electoral vote will be to open the door to every wandering thief and vagabond, and most probably enable an organised system to come into force of travelling gangs putting in an appearance with a block vote for sale, to the detriment of the bona-fide settlers. Once lower the franchise, and so assuredly will be lowered the stamp of our representative men. So much must that be patent that for a man of such high breeding and educational attainments as Sir George Grey to recommend it can only be explained by the aphorism that “ extremes meet,” or the equally applicable one “ that it is but a narrow step from the sublime to the ridiculous.” { -4- - \