The Rangitikei Election

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 145, 4 June 1892, Page 2

The Rangitikei Election

» It is understood that Ministers fully recognise tliat certain defeat a trails any candidate for Rangitikei feat who de cliircs himself a Ministerialist, nnd their candidate will therefore be run in the convenient disguise of a" Liberal," which means anything nowadays. Thee'ectors, however, will no doubt force from candidates a clear statement as to whether they are for or against the present Ministry, The opportunity is certainly an excellent one for the Ministry to test whether their policy is popn'ar with the country settlers, but there is no doubt that if. the experiment is tried the defeat will be even more crushing than that winch resulted at the Bruce election recently. The country settlers are not in the temper to approve of a Ministerial candidate, or of any one who is not a pronounced Oppositionist. They rightly consider that the sooner the Ballauce faction is removed from office the sooner will their interests be promoted. They cannot understand the wisdom of placing excessive taxation on land, while taking away the freehold title, and " coddling ud" the unemployed to the detriment of the interests of all genuine working men. There are many other features of the Government policy which fail to commend them-elyes to the approbation of the real workers and producer?, and as these are largely in the majority the Rangitikei contest may he looked on as a foregone conclusion. At the same tims, after all the talk we hare heard about the Ministerial policy being approved by the coun try, it might hare been expected that the Ministry would at least run a candidate openly for the seat, and not attempt to gel in a supporter by stealth. The electors should clearly understand that any candidate who is not an Oppositionist must be a Ministerialist, and that this is not a time when any member will be allowed to " sit on a rail."— Manawatu Times.