The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1907.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2085, 21 May 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. TUESDAY, MAY 21, 1907.

THE TARANAKI StAT. It was forecasted a few days ago that it would not bo long before tlie Government party began to make excuses about the loss of the Taranaki seat, and the forecast has proved correct. The forecast also indicated tho lines on which the first excuse would go; and in all particulars the forecast was verified. The Hon. R. McNab, speaking to an interviewer at Ashburton, said the Government had lost the seat through a divided vote for the Liberal party. It is not gentlemanly to accuse a public man, whatever his political views, of misrepresentation; but can Mr. McNab be held blameless either of misrepresentation or reprehensible ignorance when he opens his remarks by talking about a divided vote for the Liberal partly. It is safe to say that he knew as well as every intelligent man in the colony that the light was njot ohe of established parties but one on the principles of laud tenure. If there was any divided vote it was the vote against the Land Bill. All the votes recorded for Messrs Malone and Okey were votes against the Land Bill, and had Mr. Malone n<(fc been in the contest there would have been recorded for Mr. Okey a majorty which would have very clearly deunonstrated that the feeling of the country is emphatically against the Land Bill.

Mr. McNab’s remarks regarding strong men are interesting. He endeavors to say that Messrs Dockrill and. Malone are both strong men, but manages to create an impression that he is not very sure q(bou]ti Mr. Dockrill by remarking: “It must always have that effect when two men of standing are on one side and are both strong men, and' Mr. Malone was without doubt a strong man.” He is careful not to assert too strongly that Mr. Dockrill is a strong man. and if the light had been between Messrs Malone and Okey it is probable that the Opposition would have had a harder fight for the seat than they had. We will put before readers the circumstances of the contestants and let them judge if the best man has not been cliq^en: Mr. Dockrill stood as ready to follow the present Government in everything; Mr. Malone stood as being free to do what he thought best wlifon the necessity came; and Mr. Okey stood as one with a fixed :j/iften(tion, which nothing could turn him from, of"standing up for the laud tenure approved by the farmers —the backbone of the country.

Mombers of the Opposition throughout the country can rest assured that in addition to doing the best - they could for themselves the Taranaki electors have also done a good service to the colony generally. Messrs. Malone and Okey were the strong men of the contest, and the strongest has been elected—the strongest because he haS' kept up a dogged assault on the seat and because he has never varied a hair’s-breadth in his political views. The Opposition have also reason to be proud in winning the seat because tlie organisation of the party in power—under which it is only necessary to put the Government hall-mark on a man to ensure a certain number of the electors voting for him—has prove ditself useless against public opinion seeking to put into the House of Representatives men who will be a credit to the electorate and who will work for the good of the colony as a whole. The moral of the victory is not hard to discern—the moral is that success for the present Opposition must come as the result of hard work: strong men must be put up as candidates, and must be put up again and again if the electors are deluded into voting against them: organisation must be met by organisation; and the party should always keep in mind that there is inevitably an awakening sooner or later —a child which is tickled by its nurse to keep it amused while the nurse drinks its milk, comes in time to recognise that things are not as they should be.