The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1883.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3863, 4 December 1883, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1883.

The report that wo published yesterday to the effect that Mr A. McDonald had offered to resign his scat in the House for the East Coast, provided Mr Ormond would stand for election, recalls to mind the loss the colony has sustained by Mr Ormond's absence from Parliament. Tho result of tho last general elections is by no means a pleasant subject to contemplate. And Avhen it is remembered that the defeat of such men as Messrs Reader AVood, Ormond, Richardson, Saunders, AVakefield, and others, left the new Parliament at the complete mercy of tlie Ministry, we may well deplore the first effect of manhood suffrage in this colony. It is reported, avo knoAV not with what truth, that Mr Ormond has declined Mr McDonald's offer. There may be several reasons Avhy he should have adopted this course, but Aye can offer one or two that to most of his supporters will appear cogent enough. In tho ffrst place the present Parliament only lasts till after the next session, and Avith the existing composition of the House Mr Ormond could do little good. He OAves his retirement to private life to the unwearied exertions of the Ministerial party, Avho regarded him as the most damaging critic they could have. Had Mr Ormond and his friends, Avhose names Aye mentioned aboA'e, succeeded in retaining their seats the "Continuous" Ministry would ere noAV havo been sitting in tbe cold shades of Opposition. It Avas therefore desirable from every party point of vieAV to keep such men out of Parliament. To increase the number of the Ministerial ranks Avas of no importance ; the strength of the Government Avas to bo found in the weakness of the capacity of the Opposition. It became consequently a matter of perfect indifference whether Mr Johnston or Mr Smith succeeded Mr Ormond; but, from the first, it was seen that the brother of the Minister for Public AVorks had not a chance of being placed at the head of the poll. His retirement from the contest Avas a foregone conclusion. Personally almost unknown, and Avith a very large majority of the neAvly enfranchised classes the reverse of popular, Mr Ormond had a much harder task before him than either he or his friends could believe possible. Politically speaking no comparison could be draAvn between him and his principal opponent, and those who retained some confidence in the discrimination of tho electorate could not be brought to believe that Mr Smith might poll a majority of A'otes. Too little credit was given to Mr Smith for the possession of political ability; in whatever school he had graduated he proved himself an apt scholar. For months before the election ho had kept steadily in view the object at which he aimed ; unceasingly he worked for its attainment, and if the reAvard Avas a compensation for the labor he fully merited his success. Very differently did _ Mr Ormond proceed to work. He had a right to expect that seventeen years of Parliamentary life entitled Mm to the confidence and support of all his old political friends; but to gain the votes of those whose support he oould not so .confidently reckon upon he could but consider himself on a level Avith any other candidate. And this is whore he failed. A feAV addresses at some of the chief centres of his constituency, in Avhich no attempt was made to take the popular view of the questions upon which he touched, comprised about the sum total of his electioneering labor. For years past it has been the complaint of his supporters that he will not help himself; that he Avill make no exertion to secure his own election. No complaint was ever more justly made than at the last general elections. On the polling day Mr Ormond never entered the constituency AA'hich ho sought to represent; but a worse error than that was that, while its sitting member, he hardly ever visited the principal centres of its population. Regarded as one of the most influential members of the House, his name a household Avord in political circles throughout the length and breadth of the colony, he was a comparative stranger to his constituents. He counted upon his Avcll-earned reputation, and it failed him, for the simple reason that the franchise had been extended in a direction in which reputation Avent for nothing as against personal prejudice. And noAV, if report be true, another opportunity is offered him to outer Parliament, and he has declined it. At the last general j

elections his friends strongly urged him to alloAV himself to be nominated for Napier as well as for Waipawa. This he refused to clo on the ground that it Avould have hi it an appearance of fear, and he did not fear the result of the AVaipaAva contest. In twelve months there will be another election, and, probably, Mr Ormond contemplates offering himself as a candidate for either his old constituency, or for tho Borough of Napier, and tc stand for the East Coast would look like desertion from his province. AYe venture to think, however, that it matters nothing to the colony what constituency he represents, Avhile public affairs aro in such a condition that the colony cannot afford to lose his services. It pleases somo to think that the increase in the number of the members of tho Houso of Representatives, and the extension of the franchise, have had no deteriorating effect upon Parliament, We have heard somo public men go so far as to say that the present House will compare favorably AA'ith its predecessors; but thero is no getting away from the fact that, not in the history of New Zealand have Aye had a Parliament that has exhibited such a paucity of legislative and administrative ability as that which we noAV have. If there is to be any reform, any economy, any lightening of taxation, it will not be through the exertions of either the present Parliament or the present Ministry. It Avill have to be brought about by such men as Mr Ormond, and we Can advance no stronger evidence of the truth of our assertion than in the Avonderful exertions the Ministry have made to keep such men out of Parliament.