THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23,1881. THE NEW CANDIDATE FOR THE MAYORALTY.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2384, 23 November 1881, Page 3

THE GLOBE. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23,1881. THE NEW CANDIDATE FOR THE MAYORALTY.

It must have been with feelings of surprise, not unmixed with amusement, that the citizens saw the announcement in the papers of the nomination of Mr. James Gapes as a candidate for the Mayoralty nest year. It ia to bo supposed that when a public man who has served a term or more of office desires to be re-elected, he feels somewhat confident of being able to make an appeal to the good deods he has done. Indeed they—when ho is compared with untried mon—form the groundwork of his claims to a fresh lease of power. That being so, how, wo would ask, can Mr. Gapes with any conscience appeal on this ground to the citizens of -Christchureh ? Do we not all romember the pitiful exhibition on tho occasion of the visit of Sir Arthur Gordon ? Then when the honour of the city was involved in giving the representative of the Queen a proper reception on his first visit here, where was the Chief Magistrate ? Ho collapsed entirely and utterly, and it was left to citizens outside the Council to come forward and proffer out of their own pockets to do that which should without a single moment of hesitation have been taken up the Mayor. It was not a question of money. The Council would willingly have indemnified His Worship for any extra expense that might have been incurred to have saved the public spectacle of the Mayor of tho city being, as it were, poked up to do that which he should have done spontaneously. Even after an amount of hints which would have gone through a buffalo hide, His Worship declined to do moro than subscribe a certain sum to a guarantee fund, which, by the way, was never required. Is this, we ask, conduct entitling a man to again hold the reins of municipal Government ? Turning to another phase in tho public conduct of Mr. Gapes, we cannot but hold him responsible for the whole trouble arising out of the quarrel with the Town Clerk. It was his duty to give that officer notice. We are aware that a quibble has been made about the word " legal," but that does not matter. The Mayor should have issued the notice at the time stated, and the question of legality or non-legality could then have been raised by anyone who felt interested. In view of this and other little matters there can be no doubt that during the past year, though Mr. Gapes has nominally occupied the chair, Mr. Haskins has really pulled the strings and held the power. This we feel sure the citizens are not prepared to endure for another term. Carefully scanning Mr. Gapes' official career during the past year, we are unable to discover one single thing he has done which would entitle him to claim the suffrages of the ratepayers, and the beet advice we can offer him is to retire to the cooler shades of respectability, and not tempt the ballot which will most assuredly relegate him thither, whether he likes it or not.

A HOLT ( ? ) ALLIANCE. Tho " Star," for purposes of its own, has suddenly discovered that there exists in Dnnedin a " well conducted " paper ' called " The Saturday Advertiser." Not only does the " Star " patronise it by calling it " a well conducted paper," but proceeds to administer a little more flattery, and calls it" exceedingly popular" Of course there is a reason for this. Our contemporary never praises or blames without an eye to the one great shibboleth, " Great is Grey and the ' Star ' is his prophet." " The Saturday Advertiser " has a Christchurch correspondent, whose lucubrations up to now the " Star " has treated witb tho utmost contempt. But lo and behold the correspondent makes a statement which will be news to Christchurch people, that the frenzied shrieks of the " Star" on the subject of the settlement by tbe Government of the Maori difficulty havo been the means of turning many to its way of thinking. The selection from the Dunedin correspondent's letter, which is not only headed " A Valuable Testimony," but made tho subject of an article, is as follows : —" I feel inclined to think that the feeling of tho people here is gradually and steadily coming round to tho idea that tho present proceedings at and around Parihaka are but useful from a certain point of view at election times." Now we venture to say that, apart from tho " Star," tho Christchurch corrospoudent of the "Advertiser," and half a dozen other old woman, there is not a dozen peoplo in Christchurch who believe what is hero set down as their faith. In its article on tho same subject tho " Star," with that mixture of truth and humility which is so characteristic of it, says : " "Wo rejoice gratefully at tho many assurances which havo reached us from friends and from those who at an earlier period differed from us in opinion, that wo havo not labored in vain." Once more wo beg loave to be sceptical. Had tho " Star" received any such, with what avidity and in what largo typo they would havo appeared, when 3uchauuuconsidered trifle as a few words from tho Christchurch correspondent reforrod to is so oagorly snapped up. We challenge our contemporary to publish to the world, disguising as ho likes tho personality of tho writer, one scrap of assnraneo from any one on the other side that tho course taken by the " Lyttelton Times" and " Star" is a right one. Nay, wo go f urther, and say this, that were tho people of Christchurch asked to vote on tho subject thero would be found a large majority in favour of an affirmation that tho sentiments, so industriously dissominated by these journals, are not only traitorous, but inimical to the best interests of the colonists of New Boaland.