STRAIGHT TALK

Fair Play, Volume I, Issue 4, 25 November 1893, Page 1

STRAIGHT TALK

Fair Play has stated in previous issues that its policy was “ men and not measures,” and that its support, devoid of party feeling, would be given to those candidates who, in its opinion, had the best interests of the country at heart. We have watched the actions of the different candidates since the commencement of the fight, their different modes of electioneering, the promises they have made, and the attitudes they have adopted on the various important questions of the day, and our decision has been made after careful consideration and apart from any personal feeling. The men whom we have chosen as the best representatives for the people of Wellington in the council of the nation are men of honour, and honest men, and although they may differ on minor points of legislative action, we believe them to be men who will devote all their energies and intelligence to the furtherance of the best interests of the colony. Fair Play gives its support to, JOHN DUTHIE, T. KENNEDY MACDONALD, H. B. VOGEL. • • «L John Duthie is a gentleman well-known in Wellington. Although born in Scotland he came to New Zealand as a comparatively young man, and has made this colony bis home. As the head of a large commercial enterprise his integrity is unquestioned, and as a public man his consistency in politics and his liberality when in command of the Municipality, are matters of local history. Mr. Duthie has his faults, but there is one point in his character that recommends him to all,' namely, once he puts his hand to the plough he will never turn back, and as he is a man guided byi fixed, principle and not by, political jealousies, he will be when elected the right man in the ; right place. ,

Of Mr. T. Kennedy Macdonald it is hardly necessary for us to speak at length. He is a man who has mado bittor enemies and strong friends, as is the caeo with almost every man of ability and determination. As a public speaker, tible to put-his views clearly and concisely before the public, he hits but few equals and scarcely any superiors in the colony. Mr; Macdonald is a keen debater and thoroughly familiar with Par* liamentary life. On subjects which arouse his interost as a representative of the people he is a sturdy champion, and neither cajolery nor bullying will turn him from tho course ho has mapped out for himself. The people of "Wellington have once before shown their confidence in Mr. Macdonald, and will, undoubtedly, rally to his support at the coming elections.

In the early stages of the campaign we were inclined to pass over Mr. H. B. Vogel on account of his youth ; subsequent events, however, have induced us to alter our opinion in his favour. Mr. Vogel brings into the political arena the keen intelligence of a trained lawyer, who has, had the advantage of a parliamentary schooling under an able statesman. There was a time when the name of Sir Julius Vogel was one to conjure with in New Zealand, and we have no reason to believe fhat the race has deteroriated in the person of his son. Mr. Vogel solicits our suffrages at this election as a prominent figure amongst the younger New Zealanders of note, to whom we must look for the future legislators of the colony, and a better exponent could hardly have been chosen.

Curious that we should have heard no more in the cables about Dr. Nansen’s ship the Fram after the first cable saying that fears were entertained for the safety of the ship. As a matter of fact an English Insurance Company issued a policy on the life of every one of the crew before the Fram left on her voyage to the North Pole, and. as Insurance Companies are , generally pretty good judges of chances, we should say that Nansen and his ship will pull through all right, although'they may never getto ihe^OTthlEWe.' 5 v ‘ ' v Uuvir H ■

We publish above a portrait ol Mr. Francis* Henry Dillon Bell, Mayor of Wellington, and candidate for a seat in Parliament for the city constituency. Mr. Bell was born in Nelson in 1851, and is a son of Sir F. D. Bell. He was educoted at the High School in Dunedin, and at St. John’s College, Cambridge, and is a B.A. of both Cambridge and the New Zealand University. He was Crown-Solicitor from 1878 until 1890. In 1891 he was elected to the Mayoralty and was re-elected in 1892. During his tenure of office he carried through the Drainage Scheme and the Drainage Act. In 1892 he contested a bye election but was defeated by Mr. William McLean, who is a candidate for Parliamentary honours at the present general elections.' Mr. Bell has been a patron of sport for many years, and is president or an officer of most of the athletic organisations in Wellington, amongst which may be mentioned, the Star Boating Club, the Amateur Athletic Association, the Wellington Cricket Association, the Wellington Pacing Club, and several football clubs. As a worthy citizen we, in company with many others, esteem him highly, but as a candidate for Parliament we cannot conscienciously support him in any way. First and foremost he is the exponent of a rapidly increasing class of men, who would, if they only could, rule the country by an oligarchy: secondly, although the last time he stood for Parliament, his candidature was endorsed by the Brewers and Licensed Victuallers,' he is now running under the wing of the Prohibitionists, as an avowed supporter of Stout, which means that he is determined to get into Parliament at any sacrifice of principle, and more, that in supporting Sir Bobert Stout in his endeavour to wreck the Liberal Government, he has overreached himself by allowing his inherent conservatsm to crop out. As member of the City Council, or as Crown Prosecutor it would probably be hard to replac . Bell, but as a political

wrecker, prohibitionist convert, and thinly disguised conservative, we hope the men and women of Wellington will enter an emphatic protest at the polls next Tuesday against his election.

A scurrilous little fly-sheet, impudently claiming to be the “ People’s Voice,” is being circulated in.the city. It is published gratis—a wise idea, for no sane person would ever give anything for such a trashy travesty on common sense. It is solely and wholly in favour of the prohibition fanatics; being aware, however, that the prohibition fad is being scouted by the majority of sensible people, the conductor of this fly-paper journalistic abortion has cast about for a new dodge wherewith to gather votes into the prohibition fold. He, therefore, appeals to the basest form of sectarian hatred, and heading his article “ Rum, Rome, and Roguery,” proceeds to insult every Catholic in the community. We trust that the Catholics of Wellington will notice that it is a weapon employed in favour of Sir Robert Stout, Bell, and Fraser.

One would think that the Prohibitionist party of all others would do well not to stir up the religious question during the present campaign. Sir Robert Stout, the head and forefront of the movement, is an avowed enemy to religion, although at present he is hiding his agnostic light under a bushel—(until the elections are over.) We ask the women of Wellington if they are willing to vote for a man who, by his present attitude, leaves us to draw but two conclusions—either that he has proselyted from the convictions he has so often made public to secure the power he so earnestly covets; or he is hypocritically keeping them in the back prouud, with a view to deceiving the wives, mothers, and daughters of this district. We don’t want such men in Parliament. Stout, the would be smasher-up of the Liberal Government; Stout, the rejected of Dunedin; Stout, the modem Janus, with one face towards the women of New Zealand and the other towards the enemies of religious teaching. Men of his public character are best left alone, and it is to be hoped that the true men and women of New Zealand will, when election day comes round, consign him to that oblivion from which he should never have emerged.

Mr. “He Hem” Smith is hardly enjoying himself in his electioneering campaign as much as he might wish, and has probably come to the conclusion by this time that the path to Parliament is not strewn with roses. The following occurrence which took place in New Plymouth the other night at one of Mr. Smith’s meetings was both instructive and amusing—to the lookers on; —Mr. L. Hooker asked a question on the loan conversion. Mr. Smith : 5‘ What is your name ?” Mr. Hooker: “My name is Hooker.” Mr. Smith: “ Oh; you are the man who got a pennyworth of lollies for writing the letter in this morning’s paper.” Mr. Hooker: “What about the sinking fund ?” Mr. Smith: “ The sooner you sink into insignificance the better it will be.” Mr. Hooker attempted to ask another question, when he was received with derisive cries from different parts of the hall. Mr. Smith rose and stated that he declined to answer any more questions from that quarter, as the questioner for the last three weeks had made scurrilous remarks about him. The festive Smith evidently intends to carry matters with a high hand.

The subject of our sketch, Mr. Gilbert Carson, is one of the few mortals in this world that claims the sea as his birthplace. He was born on the ship that was carrying his parents to Auckland in the early days of 1842. His parents were Scotch, so our subject, next to being a New Zealander, is a Scotchman. When a lad young Carson was apprenticed to the printing trade' working on the staff of the New Zealander , now the Netv Zea' land Herald, which was owned at that time by Mr. Williamson. At the time of the Maori war, Mr. Carson became a volunteer and served his adopted country three years during the trouble, in which period he was in action a number of times. In Auckland he was a fellow printer with Mr. Didsbury, the late Government Printer, and served under him in Wellington with Mr. G. Fisher. He left Wellington in 1874, and settled in Wanganui, where he bought the Wanganui Chronicle, which journal he has since then principally edited. In local matters Mr. Carson has played a prominent part, having been connected with nearly every office of importance in the town. He was Mayor for three years in succession, and Chairman of the Education Board, of which institution he is still a member; he also occupies a seat in the Borough Council, and was at one time Chairman of three separate Licensing Committees, and had the power of closing up the hotels in his district. His action in this matter, however, won him many friends, for he declined to so, but submitted the question to the people, who emphatically protested against the proposal and rejected his candidature at the next licensing election. He is a prohibitionist, but is one who did not abuse his power when in a position to do so. Mr. Carson’s great ambition is to enter Parliament. Three times he has stood for Wanganui, and three times he has had to eat the leek, but he is still hopeful, and he now bobs up serenely for the fourth time. Rumour says he will have to bob down again. At any rate, if Mr. Carson should again be rejected, we hope for his own sake

he will never try again. One thing only will have killed the Carson goose, in election matters, and that ono thing is Prohibition ; had he not been so emphatic on this question, Welling ton would have seen him years ago. All people of different political opinions recognise him os an able man, but his prohibition fad and friends have spoiled all the chances he had.

In another portion of the new production, a latter evidently written in the editorial sanctum, makes a cowardly attack on T. Kennedy Macdonald, and, contrasting him with Fraser, glorifies the latter for refusing an alleged bribe in the shape of a seat in the Upper House, which is estimated at boing worth, in round numbers, '£1,050. • We have dealt with that matter in another column, arid have shown how plain facts can be distorted to suit the purpose of parties or persons. With reference to the personal attack on Mr. Macdonald for his unfortunate business complications some time back, it is what one would expect from a writer who conoeals Iris identity under the letters X.Y.Z, symbolical of the .unknown'-quantity, or, in other words, nonentity that he undoubtedly is,

It lias been stated by one or two of the advertising firms in the city, that the “rag” referred to above is merely an electioneering pamphlet, which is to .pubHsh four tissues: of some thousand or so each, and distribute them gratis. If this be the fact, and we have no reason to doubt that it is, no relianoe can be placed on the opinion of what is merely an advertising dodger.

The famous Manchester Canal is to be opened on the Ist of January. It has cost over three millions. The Liverpool poopie are not over enthusiastic about the matter, for the big Atlantic liners, out of which they have made so much profit, will go right up to the heart of Cottonopolis. . Nevertheless there is a heap of money in Liverpool, and the shipping interest there will fight hard against the merchant and mill-owning interest at Manchester.

There are 280 candidates for the 74 seats in Parliament. Apart from the members of the past Governments who are entitled to write “honourable” before their names, those of the candidates who claim other titles are as follows:—Three knights, six clergymen, three doctors, three colonels, two majors, and one captain. We think the public will agree with us, that we could easily dispense with one of the knights at least, and alittl e weeding out of the military element would probably be judicious, at any rate there is considerable consolation to be derived from the fact that the vast majority of the candidates will be gently but firmly relegated to private life.

Stout is a Freethinker, and so is another of the prominent Wellington candidates. Now, who is it? You would never gueßs. Perhaps we’ll tell you next week. He's a gentleman too for whom a good many women ore expected to vote.

Mr. T. Kennedy Macdonald has engaged the Theatre -Royal for the evening of the 27th instant. : ’

We publish in this issue a portrait of Sir Robert Stout, who is in New Zealand politics what Jay Gould was in American finance —a wrecker. As Jay Gould was a keen and clever financier, so is Sir Robert Stout a meretriciously brilliant politician; we use the word politician advisedly, for in all honesty we think that the term statesman would be misapplied. Gouldmade his money through the ruining, either by fair means or foul, of his opponents; Sir Robert Stout, taking a leaf from his book, stands to-day an avowed opponent to the Liberal Government, which he has always claimed to be a supporter of, and a solicitor of Opposition votes to enable him to satisfy personal vanity by an attempt to wrest the reins of government from a former colleague. His candidature is merely a duel between Seddon and himself, and to win the fight he is willing to make use of any means, whether patriotic or even politic or not. Sir Robert’s election means a disruption of the Liberal Government, and a patched-up coalition that will be neither one thing nor the other. In a word the present attitude of Sir Robert Stout j presents a species of anarchy, which is merely a prelude to a political dictatorship. Not the dictatorship of brains, not the dictatorship of the people’s exponent, but a dictatorship which is purely and simply a deification of self.

Our obstreperous contemporary, the. Weekly 'Erald, has burst into a volcanic eruption of vituperation against this journal and the editor. Our education having been to a certain extent neglected in the acquiring of a thorough knowledge of Billingsgate and having unfortunately no friend of the Thames bargee persuasion to instruct us, we cannot reply in kind. Our columns, however, are open lb Mr. Dwan, and if he wishes to publish an article oyer his signature we will be pleased to receive it. We oily make the following stipulations u :-rFirst, that whatever

subject the article may be upon, the writer confine himself as near as he is able within the limits of decency ; second, that he permits us to correct any palpable mistakes of grammar or set any misquotations right; and third, that he does not require us to publish his portrait. We must particularly insist upon the last stipulation being agreed to.

When all the Wellington papers were declaring on the best authority that Mr. Gilbert Carson, editor of the Wanganui Chronicle, would not contest the Wanganui seat, Fair Play stated positively that Mr. Carson would be a candidate, and it turns out we were quite right and that Mr. Carson is again in the field. This time he is posing as a sort of independent, but of course is strong on Prohibition. We will give Mr. Carson the credit of having always been consistent on the temperance question, but he will not get in, for the Ballance crowd in .the town will, as they ought to, remain true to Archie Willis.

Mr. A. J. Parsons, a third candidate, was once a brewer at Timaru and afterwards ran the well-known Rutland Hotel at Wanganui. He is well off, a shrewd, able, energetic man, and was the best Mayor Wanganui ever had. In ability he is head and shoulders over both Willis and Carson, but we hardly think he can slip in between the two. He is more likely to help Carson by splitting the Liberal vote. At Wanganui, as elsewhere, there is the danger of the idiotic Prohibition fad bursting up the Liberal party. Stout, of course, is primarily responsible for this.

' After all the feasting and junketting and sight-seeing indulged in by the members of the English Institute of Journalists in London recenoly, several papers have asked: What on earth is the good of the Institute, and what has it done for the working journalist ? and no one can give a satisfactory answer. The - same question might be asked, and the same answer given, respecting the New Zealand Institute of Journalists.

The surgical process of grafting is advancing with wonderful strides. The latest experiment was made in America where a dog was grafted on to a boy. The boy was minus a shin bone and an enterprising surgeon in the hospital enlisted the services of a small spaniel, and after encasing'the animal in plaster of Paris, all but his foreleg, grafted that portion of his anatomy on to the place where the bone should have been in the boy’s leg. The boy and the dog remained in company for some time—sort of grew up together as it were—until the boy got well, and then they sawed them apart. This experiment opens up a wide field of conjecture as to future possibilities. Portions of Mr. Duthie, for instance, might be grafted on to Mr. Seddon, or Sir Robert Stout might be patched up with a. graft from some prominent publican. We throw this suggestion out to the medical fraternity free of- cost.

Some wiseacres say that we shall have a Stout-Russell cornnation after the elections. Rubbish. The captain is a sensible man, and on the liquour questionhe is as far awayfrom the Dunedin fad-monger as Seddon is from Rolleston. He made a capital speech at Hastings the other day, and showed plainly from American authorities of high-standing that prohibition in the land of the wooden nutmeg was, as too many things are there, a ghastly sham. The captain’s opponent is Mr. Reardon, a partner, strange to say, of little G. F. Richardson. Reardon poses as an anti-land monopolist, and yet he has done a lot of Native land negotiations on behalf of the big Hawke’s Bay land-

grabber. He is a 'wretched speaker, and a mere nonentity as a politician. He may get a little support from the small settlers who will vote as W. C. Smith tells them, but he stands no chance whatever of beating the captain.

One of the most unassuming decent men in the last Parliament was Charley Mills, who represented the Waimea-Picton seat. He is no fanatic, but a good genuine Liberal, of commonsense and never extreme views. He worked hard as Government whip, and did his constituents several good turns. He is opposed, we are sorry to see, but we trust the electors will send him back to Wellington by a goo 1 majority. Mills is one of those who would be missed.

The New Zealand Times is in a tight corner. It has to run Stout, because the Iconoclast holds 1000 shares in the business, and yet it cannot be denied that Stout’s candidature for Wellington is ruining the chances of the Liberal party, which the Times is supposed to support. Verily the poor Times editor will be glad when the elections are over.

The day cometh when no man shall drink, my brethren, unless he be a rich man and keep a cellar. That is to say, the day cometh, if the teetotal tomfools can make the rest of the country as mad as themselves. But we don’t think they will. Local option, forsooth. Isn’t there local option now ? A man has the option to keep out of a pub., if he likes. He has the option to go there if he likes. And this precious Bill is to give the people who don’t want beer the right to say that the man who does want it shan’t have it, just because they say so. The vegetarians say beef is a bad thing, that it is the cause of all diseases, and the root of uncleanliness. In time to come, if the vegetarians can influence votes enough, they will introduce another Local Option Bill, declaring that if those who don’t like beef say the word, those who do like it and do wan’t it shan’t have any, but shall spend the rest of their days gnawing carrots.

“ Drink is a great evil,” says someone. “ Yes,” says someone else, “so is beef.” Shut up the beer and the beef shops then, and don’t compensate either the butcher or the beerseller. They are enemies of their race, people beyond the pale of civilisation ; stamp on them, wipe them out. Just, isn’t it? Honest, too, of course ? Of course, there are evils in the world, and drunkenness is one of them. But prohibition isn’t the remedy for intemperance, andNewZealandisn’t so fatuous that it cannot see the absurdity of the teetotalers’ nostrum. A nation which protests its own righteousness so volubly is too honest to shut up a pub,—if it wants to —without paying the publican for what it causes him to resign. So don’t flutter yourselves. Everybody would like to see drunkenness abolished; but an Act of Parliament won’t do it.

The two papers which have shown the worst taste and the most gross unfairness during the present election campaign are the New Zealand Herald and the Christchurch Press. The former is owned by a lot of canting capitalists who give their reporters poor screws and who hate the very name of democracy, and the latter is run in the interests of the Canterbury squatters, the most selfish set: of men in the colony. The Press has done its level best to keep out W. P. Eeeves, but try as it may, to give that gentleman' his political coup de grace , we believe he will succeed in being re-elected. At Christchurch, as elsewhere, the Conservatives and the prohibition fanatics have joined hands to try and kill the supporters of the present Ministry. The returns from Christchurch will be eagerly awaited on Tuesday night.

• A rumour has got about town, and paragraphs of an insinuating character have appeared in soveral of pur contemporaries, to the effect that the Premier, Mr. Seddon, has promised seats in the Upper House to some three or four gentlemen who have offered themselves as candidates for oloction to the House of Representatives, pfbvidM tliey 1 'wih test. This is not merely a gross exaggeration, ! but an actual falsification of facts and only circuited by interested parties, who, unable to stand on : their own merits, wish to make themselves more acceptable to> the public by endeavoring to smirch the 'characters of their opponents. The true facts of the oaso ore stutod to bd ns follows*:—Mr. Seddon .was waited upon by a gentleman, kvlio asked him if he were. disposed .to give Mr. Fraser a Iseat in the -Upper House, provided-he would retire from the , contest, Mr Seddon replied ' that he had had! no conversation with Mr. Fraser, and he would prefer Sthat that gentleman should call on him personally, if ho wished to talk on any such subject.-Mr Fraser thereupon called oh Mr Seddon, and the latter gentleman said to him u lt is useless discussing the question, you have no ; chance ‘ of election anyhow Mr. Fraser.” Mi Fiasei msistod ithat his chances were particularly good and expressed a willingness to accept a promise, M>\ Seddon, however; objected Jo lend himself to any agreement, and advised his viator to atjlncljono or two of his opponent’s meetings before being too confident. Before visiting Mr. Seddon. ooii^u^pdttdnl P to have passed between Mr. 'Fraser in which the latter, as a prospejJiw any promise that Mr Seddon would \,ht latter's signature to such promise. , The Conelusiofi iSlifieAr; a trap had been set for Mr. Seddon which he for tunately was; too clever JoiaU into, Had a written prOnuke been, extorwl, it would, without doubt, have been uaed onlhe evitoftiua election, as political capital against the Premier. To use a vulgarism Sir Robert Stout and Mr. F. H. Fraser are playing it rather “ low down” to descend to such tactics which can in no sense bo defended as manly or straightforward conduct.

The political creed of the Evening Post was given in extenso .in its leading columns on Monday last, under a series of side headings that professed to deal with every subject that ever has, or ever will come up in the political arena of New Zealand. The article which was certainly ably written, was a most delightful mixture of Conservatism and quasi Liberalism. Abounding in well-rounded phrases and plausible suggestions,, it at first strikes the reader favourably, but will hardly stand the test of a careful analysis. The writer is strongly in favour of party government. To this proposition, in a certain degree, we have no objection, but he goes on to combat the idea of an appeal to the referendum under any circumstances, and here we join issue. Mr. Gillon may bo. right in his contention that the populace is not qualified to enter into the details of administration or legislation,-but. ho goes a shade too far, when he says that it is absolutely incapable of digesting and giving its decision upon great questions, for if it were not, it would be absurd for the populace as a whole to enjoy the franchise, which, if Mr. Gillon is correct should'bp restricted to a few of the more intelligent heads, of the community. Such questions as, federation, the unpositidn of a heavy taxation not included in the platform of members before their election or in fact, any question of natiohal r importanee should, in our opinion, be subjected to the voice of the people. Cleverly as Mr. Gillon’s article is worded and promising as it seems ,on the surface, there is a strong undercurrent of'Conservation-in. it, that is suggestive to the masses of the old fable ofthewolfinaaquerading in the sheep’s skin. * ' v..s «*■#/, ■