A LETTER FROM AMERICA.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1545, 14 September 1912, Page 2

A LETTER FROM AMERICA.

Mr. A. M. Snyder, probably the bestknown commercial. gentleman who baa ever visited Australia from America, writes as follows from tho Hotel Turpir, San Francisco, Cal.:~ "1 am enclosing post office order for 150 dollars, and yon may Bend me eome more of y6ur Magnetic Liniment, it is tne real thing. ■ Mr. Fletcher, first, officer of the ship Manuka, had Neuralgia so bad ho could hardly attend to his duties on the way over. 1 gave him a bottle of Magnetic Liniment that I had and the next morning, he said, he was so tuankful on account of the prompt relief it I used it on my shoulder on the way over and it worked like magic, you know how badly I suffer with Rheumatism there. I want you to send me tho value of the enclosed post offico order m Magnetic Liniment by the next steamer. , Dγ • Sheldon's Magnetic Liniment will relieve at onco Rheumatism, Ltimbago, Lamo Bnck. Cuts, Bruises, and Burns, and repeated applications will effect a cure in ft remarkably short tune. Price, I*. W. and 3a. 6» A H Atl;in?!on and Co. have received instructions from the Registrar of the Supreme Court. Wellington, to sell at their rooms, Feildinc, pn Saturday, October 12, parcels of laud containing 500 acres. •Mr. E. S. Pfsler;- Auckland, has for sale Ml! acres, M mil*? from Mntiita, on the llotormi conch load. \ handsome liou?e, with every conveiiien'cp, is for sale, in one of Auckland's suburbs 13 minutes from G.P.O. ApDlir«turns fo'i , purchase are invited by Mr. W. D. M'Lcan, Auckland.

. The. "West Coast Times," a spirited and enterprising journal, published at'Hokitika, which has been fighting the battle of Reform for some time past, makes an exposure of the electioneering methods .of the Ward Government and its supporters, which is of. general interest. - In its issue of Wednesday last, it says:— "The vitiation of the true principles of democracy which had lowered the political aspirations.of the people of other parts of the Dominion, and which were rectified by the clarifying influences, of the election last December, is not an unknown influence in Westland, and, last December the whole of the forces of political degeneration were able "to temporarily hold back the tide of. political emancipa-v tion'which will, in the near future, sweep Westland.-■■■,, ... ' • Election Telegrams at People's Expense. "We have been led to refer to this phase of.the, political outKfoK Tiecause our statements ; in reference to political pull and 'Liberal' misdoings have been questioned ; and because there exists among the sitting member's supporters a smug unconcern in regard to the means whereby they accomplished their purpose. During the election- campaign this journal drew attention-.to Uie unfair tactics which were adopted by the Government party, but we have not shown our hand in. its entirety, and we propose to deal now with one of- the most flagrant breaches of the regulations on which any member could bo adjudged guilty. Not satisfied with having cast | and promises showered upon this district for party purposes, the member for Westland had the audacity to make use of one of the State services in order to promote his electioneering campaign, and the apparent ease with which ho used the telegraph service at the public expense only goes to prove the more conclusively the slipshod manner in which some of the . State Departments were conducted under the 'Liberal' regime; also clearly demonstrating tho truth of the oft-expressed coniention that the.State services, which are, after all, the property of the people, and not of the party in power for the time being, had been used for the furtherance of party interests! , "Tell all.My Friends." "Chafing under the long-drawn-out session of 1911, tho member for Westland was naturally anxious to keep himself before the electors of the district., And this is one of the irregularities which were reeorted to in order to achieve that purpose. The leading members of the Ward Government must have realised the gathering strength of tho wave ol reform which has since overwhelmed them and swept the whole country., So they fell back upon the last resource of time-serving politicians, and in the Financial Statement and Public Works Estimates they attempted the lowest of iow political subterfuges—they tried to buy the people with promises; they tried to bribe the' electors with the people's own money—and, in some cases, they succeeded, notably in Westland, where they won by the narrow margin, of just over two hundred votes. Among tho many bribes proffered, tho most barefaced was thd one referred to in the service telegram sent (in accordance with the instructions issued by the member ,for Westland) to 'all his friends ns far down as Okiiru.'

Nice Piece of Political Bribery. This telegram in itself is most interesting, apart from the fact that the taxpayers paid for the transmission of 'a good number, and it was later tho subject of a Departmental inquiry. In the first place, tho text of tho telegram shows pretty'clearly that the member for. Westland is no better than other politicians who are the product of twenty vears of .."Liberalism", he used the State wires to •"tell all his friends." Our contemporary then goes on to point cut the misleading nature of the message seeing that, no "provision" had been mndo for the extension of tho railway "south of Mikqnui." but merely a , vote of i'3ooo placed on tho Estimates towards the cost of extending the railway south of Boss to Mikomii, a, distance' of four miles. Continuing. its story, the "West Coast Times" pfoceeds: '. Result of Departmental Inquiry. As we mentioned above, this telegram, which' was distributed so copiously between' Forgnsan's and "as far'down i>s Okuru," formed the subject of a Departmental 'inquiry.- An inspector visited Sb'iith Westland, and after the matter had been considered by tho Department, a report was issued. And, although thn strictures .are pretty severe, we can rest assured that had the matter been investigated by the officers of the present Government,' instead of those under control of the Government which wanted thf member re-elected, those responsible for these irregularities would have bsen severely reprimanded. The Post and Telegraph Department reported:— "Regrets Irregularity." (Cony.) General Post Office, Wellington, February 2, 1912. Sir,—ln reference to your letter of the 19th of December last, complaining thai- a telegram from Mr. T. L. . Y. Sedtbn, • M.P., addressed to Mr. Ferguson, of Ferguson's, was transmitted from Ferguson's to a number of post ollices, freD of .charge, I have the honour to inform you t.hat the matter law been.'inquired in' o by au inspecting officer of tho Department. The wife of the Postmaster at Terffueon's admits that the contents of the

telegram were transmitted, free of charge, for public information at.Hari Hari and Wataroa,\ and. tho request made that the message be retransmitted from Wataroa to ■Okarito -for the information of the southern offices. The Postmistress at Hari Hari and the Postmaster at Wataroa, admit that tho contents . of the telegram were made public, and the Postmaster at Okarito states that he does not remember that ho mentioned the message to the officers south of him. . The Department much regrets the irregularities, and has taken such ac- . tion as will, it is hoped, prevent irre-. gular use being made of the telegraphs . in future. : (Signed), .W.-R. MORRIS, '■ ■ For the Secretary. A Dishonoured Promise. "But the sequel has yet to be told. It is worthy of note that the date on the telegram reproduced here jis'-'l6th October 1911,' —nearly twelve.months..ago; arid, we ask: How much of the pfomise i has been honoured? Except for a few" days surveying, as. mentioned below,. not a penny piece lins been spent on the line. Bearing in mind, therefore, that the New Zealand railways cost between .£12,000 to .£15,000 a mile to construct, the sum of ,£SOOO, had it all. been spent, ■ would not have' carried the lines many chains south of Ross, certainly not south of >Hkonui, or even near that river. But the 'Liberal , Government, with its characteristic disregard for . the sacredness of a promise, has not thought any moro about this promise. The proffered bribe, however, served, its purpose, while the country paid the- cost of tho electioneering telegrams, and the member's 'friends as far dow.i as Okuru' did not miss the opportunity of telling everybody that the 'Liberal' Government intended, according to the member's Public Service teler gram, to 'extend the railway south of Mikonui!' "Dead and Buried." "In order to gull the people into believing that the .'Liberal' Government were really sincere, a party of surveyors were dispatched down south, just before the day of the election, and wonder of wonders, they were required elsewhere a day or so after the election! They have not been seen in the district since! Is it any wonder that the party which re,sorted to such tactics, in the words of one of the es-Ministers who contd not. tolerate the political misdoings: 'Is deafi and buried'—and there 13 more joy than sorrow over its demise." We publish abnvo a facsimile of the. telegram, the subject of the "West Coast Times's" strictures, for the block of which we have to thank our contemporary.