The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning. Thursday, August 18, 1887. MR GRAHAM’S ADDRESS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 29, 18 August 1887, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, AND Saturday Morning.

Thursday, August 18, 1887. MR GRAHAM’S ADDRESS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

There are one or two points in Mr Graham’s speech to the electors on Monday night to which we would like to refer. On the whole it was a pleasant, well delivered oration, though it smacked somewhat more of the lecture hall of a Mutual Improvement Society than of the political platform. There was a terrible array of mild platitudes and political homilies on the “honesty, reform, retrenchment ’’ ticket, but there was a sad lack of knowledge as to details. Statistics are not always agreeable to listen to, but after all a man who stands forth as a candidate should have a reasonable knowledge of the statistics of the last year or two, of the history of the political struggles of the past sessions, and a fair grasp of the present state of political panics. Instead of these, however, we were treated to a dismal wail about the depression, a lengthy Pecksniffian discourse on the wickedness of carpet-bagging, the evils of borrowing and an amusingly ad misericordiam appeal to the working men for their support. “ Codlin’s the man not Short " says Mr Graham to the working men.” 11 Don’t, don't think of me as a bloated aristocrat, a land grabber, and a friend of the banks and the squatters, I'm your real friend’ don’t you put any faith in McDonald or Gannon.” When Mr Graham was trying to show that he wasinot a Tory, and yet sneering in the same breath at New Zealand Liberalism, he reminds us of that candid politician in the Biglow Papers, who being asked to define his political creed, announced himself as follows i Ez to my principles, I glory In havin' nothin’ of the sort, I ain’t a Wig, I ain't a Tory, I'm jest a candidate in ehort; That's fair an’ square an’ parpendlckler, But, et the Public cares a fig, To hev me anythin' in partickler, Why, I'm a kind of a peri-Wig.

That's just Mr Graham down to the ground, he isn't a Tory, oh dear, no, but then he isn’t a Liberal, 11 He’s jest a candidate in short,"

The speaker was eloquent in denouncing the party of progress—the Liberal patty—as “smashers." Says he : “They are not content unless they can go round ‘smashing’ up something or somebody, preaching dangerous doctrines, inciting class against class, and setting people by the ears. They can touch no question—education, taxation, land nationalisation or anything else—but they must try to set the poor against the rich or something of that sort.” This is bunkum pure and simple, and therein crops out the inner spirit of Toryism under the outward coat of the “ independent ” candidate. If agitating firmly, earnestly, and in a constitutional manner for much needed reforms, if striving to ameliorate the condition of the poor, and endeavouring to prevent this fair land from suffering from the same hideous inequalities of wealth and poverty which exist in the old world be “ smashing,” then by all means we are “ smashers.” But then we suffer in excellent company. John Bright struggling to give the people cheap bread was a “ smasher," Gladstone fighting for justice to free a race from the iron heel of the landlord’s despotism is a “ smasher,’; Garibaldi bleeding for Italy’s wrongs was a “smasher,” nay, the very greatest friend of man who ever stepped on earth, Christ, himself was a “ smasher,” for did he not “ preach dangerous doctrines.”

Be it so, the Liberal party will not go back from the task they have undertaken, by Mr Graham’s nickname “ smasher ’ being applied to them. They can ge t over that.

Then about those “ sturdy beggars." Our immaculate apostle of all the political virtues says, “ the day of the sturdy. beggar is gone. It is no use now sending i a man to the House because you know he is a sturdy beggar at the Treasury, one who will fight to the utmost for the claims of a particular district, no matter whether he knows them tb be just or unjust, and who will make unholy alliances with other members for the purpose of wresting more from thb colony’s purse. It is useless now to send that class of man to the House."

Now we should b 9 far from saying that Poverty Bay should be represented by a mere carpet-bagger of the sample so frequently sent to the House by the South Island electors, for we don't want that sort of man at all. But our representative must nor go to the other extreme and be a man who sits in the ranks of the “ dumb dogs all,” never advocating the cause of his electors. We have great and urgent needs in this district; for years and years we have contributed a big share to the revenue of the colony and precious little benefit it has been to us.

We must have a “sturdy beggar” down there, certainly not one who will sink Into a peaceful slumber as soon as he gets down to the House, and remain in a blissful state of forgetfulness of the people who sent him there, and of their just claims and requirements. What we do want is a man to fight hard for our district, for we have been shamefully neglected in the past. Surely it is not wrong to bring pressure on the Government of the day to do bare justice. “ Sturdy begging 1 ” nay, a persistent hammering away at the powers that be, must be done until we get our rights. And if Mr Graham intends to stand aloof and play the role of political purist, with ears deaf to the requirements of this district, and mouth closed to urge them, he is not the man for this district. A man can be a “ sturdy beggar ” without beinu a carpet-bagger. We only want our rights, that is all, we don’t want our man to play a game of “grab all,” and do any

dirty work to bring us benefit, but the firm, steadfast worker for the good of the district, the man who will see that we are

not altogether left out in the cold in the future, as we have been in the past, is the sort of the “sturdy beggar” we wantOther points in Mr Graham’s speech we shall leave for discussion another day*