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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3246, 26 November 1881, Page 2

In refcrsn.ee to Maoris having equal electoral privileges with Europeans, a measure that is now strongly advocated by Captain Russell, that gentleman, from his place in the House, in IS7B, paid, "In tny own district we feel that the position in which the Europeans are placed is one of great hardship. At a general election, when party spirit usually rune uncommonly high, the candidates will poH, most probably, considerably within a huudred votes of each other, but three or four hundred native electors are placed on the roll, and they have been placed there with solely the one single object of controlling the election of 7i!uropean members. They have been placed on the roll for party purposes only, without any desire for the benefit of the native race, without any wish for the benefit of the European population, but simply with the one object of surely and utterly disfranchising every European in the district. The four hundred votes of the four hundred natives will completely nullify the votes of all the Europeans. It is absolutely monstrous and anomalous." This speech of Captain Russell's was heartily approved of by every one in Hawke's Bay, and we cannot understand how it is that his views have so completely changed that he should now advocate a measure " absolutely monstrous and anomalous."