TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3249, 30 November 1881, Page 3

TOWN EDITION. The Daily Telegraph WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1881.

As far as we can learn there will be but three bona fide candidates for the representation of Napier. For a considerable period it was anticipated that Mr Buchanan would have do one to contest the election with him, and tbe subsequent appearance ot Mr M'Sweeney in the field did not in the least alter that gentleman's chances of an easy walk over. A very large majority of the electors, however, continued to hope that some candidate ■would at the eleventh hour come forward in whom tbe confidence of the constituency could have been unmistakably placed. It was certainly in the nature of a surprise when Mr M'Dougall announced his intention to stand for the representation of this borough, but it is needless to say that his candidature altogether failed to satisfy the expectations of the electors. Mr M'Sweeney's candidature was regarded with combined amusement and indifference, but when it was followed by Mr M'Dougall's public feeling changed; it was no longer a laughing matter, it was one of very serious import. The opinions,'as far as they had been gathered, that had been expressed by those two gentlemen upon the public questions of the day, and upon the public men of the colony, were known to be utterly opposed to the generally received views of the residents of tbis town, and of neither of them could it be said that he was a representative man of his class, or of the wealth or the commerce of Napier. And herein was the difficulty that, opposed to these two, there was a third who belonged to a class by whose representation it had been urged the best interests of the town had suffered in the past. There was evidently room for a fourth candidate ; for, strange to say, at the last general elections the three now in the field were cordially working together in the interests of the Grey party. The existing split in their ranks appears to have occurred through causes with which tbe public can have very little sympathy or concern. But here stands the fact, that although this constituency has for the last six years been asserting its claim to separate representation we have no one in whom all would have been agreed to be the most fitting representative for any party but that to which the three beloDg, or to which they did belong, because none will place much confidence in either polical converts of political turncoats. We understand that the three claim to be of the so-called Liberal party ; there may be a 9bade of difference in the lengths to which they would go in order to tax capital out of the colony, or in the opinions they may entertain on the subject of giving every man a freehold, every freehold a cottage, and every cottage a smiling mistress and a happy family. We must wait for their respective addresses before being able to pronounce definitely upon this point. We Bhall be prepared, however, for much weeping from all three over the wickedness of the pioneers of the colony, and torrents of tears for the milk that is spilt. In the meantime we have our own sorrow caused by the fact to-morrow is the nomination day, and our fear that the electors will only have to choose as their representative one from amongst the three to whom we have referred.