THE WAIPAWA ELECTION.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3221, 26 October 1881, Page 2

THE WAIPAWA ELECTION.

[To tho Editor of the Daily Telegraph.! Sib,— Being a subscriber to the Mercury, and having interested myself in Mr Smith's candidature to the extent of writing my opinions of our present members, in which I like others have sought to make plain to the public Mr Ormond's political shortcomings, and taking exception as I do to much in a leading article directed against Mr Smith and his supporters, you will in justice I hope allow me to point out my objections. After asserting that no stone is being left unturned to secure support for Mr Smith, you add that the most unscrupulous means are being adopted to elevate that gentleman's qualifications in the eyes of the electors. Now, Sir, so far as this end of the Bush is concerned there is no foundation for such a statement, and if such is true of any portion of the district it is your bourden duty, in simple justice to your readers and Mr Ormond, to expose thes:e unscrupulous persons. But I venture to assert that Mr Smith's partisans have nothing to fear in the matter of unscrupulousness compared with the other side, one candidate having gone from door to door begging support, and tbe other has set the whole electioneering machinery in motion, eeetn-

ing'y fearful that his political experience, administrative ability, honesty, integrity, calibre, and other qualifications too numerous to mention, will not suffice to place him at the head of the poll. To this list some of his friends bave through the local press added that of housebuilding, grass-growing, and stockraising. Going back to your statements, you charge Mr Smith's supporters with mud-throwing at Messrs Ormond and Johnston, but I do not think that any one can point to one solitary instance where Mr Smith's supporters have said anything either gentlemen outside of th°ir political characters. You a week or two ago also published a portion of a letter written by one W. Ruud, taken from the Waipawa Mail, yet you kept absolute silence as to the subject matter of the letters which called Mr Rndd's string of abuse forth. A cause must be very weak indeed when a gentleman like Mr Rudd, who is evidently a scholar can find no better way of helping on his cause than by studied abuse of his political opponents. Yet you in the face of all this accuse us of dirt throwing, and unscrupulousness. Remember, Sir, that the old saying holds as good as ever, namely, that people that live in glass houses should not throw stones.—l am, &c,

Vindicator.

Woodville, October 2_, 1881

[" Vindicator" will observe that we have cut out all those sentences in his letter that contained such expressions as "malicious," "vile," "sneaking,""dirty," &c. " Vindicator" is anxious to show that he and his party never throw mud, yet his letter in its original form was little better than a compound of mud.— Ed. D.T j