The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3056, 12 April 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, APRIL 12, 1881.

The report that the Napier Liberal Reform Association is about to hold a meeting ot its members to discuss the merits of the probable candidates for the representation of the borough at the next elections of the General Apsembly is the first evidence we have had for a long time past of the existence of the Association. If it has been doing any work at all since the last elections it must have been of a very silent and secret nature. It showed no signs of life throughout the discussions and heart-burnings in relation to permanent levels, drainage, watersupply, or school committee elections. Nothing of a local character appears to be of sufficient importance to stir the Association from its lethargy. But as soon as something relating to general politics is on the tapis, like an ancient charger snuffing the battle from afar, the Association is all agog. Topics of a colonial nature may to some minds present themselves as of more stupendous interest than matters in which one's daily life is concerned, but for ourselves we confess a partiality for those things upon which mainly hinge our personal health and welfare. In discussing the merits then of tbe probable candidates for the representation of this borough, which at the next elections will be a separate constituency, the Association may very possibly ignore the mo9t important qualification in a representative — a sense of duty to that which he represents. The debate at the meeting of the Association may go off at a tangent, and we may be treated to all sorts of ideas on the most abstruse questions of the day. What we think the meeting should endeavor to confine itself to as closely as possible is a calm review ot the labors of those who now represent the constituency, with a dispassionate discussion upon the effects those labors have had upon the welfare of this electorate in particular and the colony in general. It should not altogether be forgotten tbat the electors of any constituency are more intimately concerned in the welfare of their own district than in that of any other. Therefore it is that the value of a representative has very much to be judged by the evidence of his work for the especial benefit of his district. On the other hand a member of Parliament may point to the support he has given to a particular political party in the House, and to the votes he has given in favor of " great and good" measures. This is all very well m a country like England, where the British Parliament is more concerned in Imperial questions than in small matters affecting local affairs. But in a young colony it is really of very little importance what Ministry may be in power as compared with local prosperity and advancement, and great and good measures are not dependent on the vote of one man. The evil that any one Ministry may do in a short reign of power can never be so great but what it can be speedily repaired. Ihe true danger is to be found in the supineness of the people in permitting an evil to grow and continue under successive Ministries representing different parties. Though we are prepared to admit that Sir George Grey's rule was mischievous from a financial point of view, it was of short duration, and the extravagance, the bribery, the corruption of it were due not so much to his maladministration as to the system that he found ready-made to his hand by his predecessors. Thus, in discussing the merits of a representative, we hold it to be of little importance whether he ranks himself as a Liberal or as a Conservative. The question to be considered is this: what has he done for the constituency that the constituency could not have obtained without his assistance? If on calm investigation the answer be unfavorable, then the supposed merits of probable candidates for tbe future representation of the place become a proper subject for consideration. At all events this much can be safely arrived at, namely, that if the present representative has done no good to the constituency a change can make things no worse, and possibly may effect some benefit. Into the merits of our representatives we are not just now prepared to enter. They have another session of Parliament before them, and between this and the time when they will seek re-election they may possibly give better evidence of their desire to serve this particular constituency than they have hitherto done.