The Hastings Standard Published Daily WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27, 1897. THE AWARUA ELECTION.

Hastings Standard, Issue 461, 27 October 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily WEDNESDAY, OCT. 27, 1897. THE AWARUA ELECTION.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The Appellate Court on Monday last was called upon to decide the strictly legal aspect of the Awarna election, and the decision has been to uphold Mr Ward, who is, according to the law of New Zealand, capable of occupying a seat in the election chamber of the Legislature and to exercise all the functions thus conferred updo him and to claim all the perquisites and privileges appertaining to the position. That is the decision of the Court and we accept it without question. It is law, pure unadulterated law, but what a commentary the decision is upon the criminally lose manner in which Acts of Parliament are passed. The argument of Mr Theo. Cooper, the leading counsel for Mr Ward, was clever in every respect. The reading and meaning of words which to a lay man would be in the present tense was argued into the past tense, and the argument was sound and unanswerable. Mr Cooper was successful because the Act under which it was sought to disqualify Mr Ward is composed of a series of absurdities. The draftsman and the Legislature together have produced an Act of Parliament for which both ought to blush. Mr Cooper suggested from the peculiarity of the language that the draftsman thought himself a better grammarian than the framer of the Constitution Act. The Appellate Court could have given no other verdict than that Mr Ward was by law entitled to the seat, and the argument of counsel amply proves this. The defect in the law is not the fault of Mr Warf, and if he chooses to take the fullest advantage of it he cannot be blamed or reproved.

Although the construction of the Act has been found to favor Mr 'Ward's position there is no doubt whatever that the Legislature never intended that such a loophole should exist. Mr Ward has crawled through that hole, and if he and the Party supporting him are satisfied they are welcome to their enthusiasm. There is a great gulf between the legal and the moral aspects of the case. The legal view has been decided for the learned judges, but the moral view is ours. The people themselves must decide upon the morality of the thing, and while right thinking men and women will unhesitatingly eondemp the attitude taken up by Mr Ward and his friends, their number is few and their opinion will scarcely weigh in the balance with that other and greater section of the community whose standard of morality could not possibly take in the immorality of the Awarua election. To this section Mr T ,\ard will appear more in the light of a martyr, and his election, to Parliament will be regarded as a great and glorious tri umpll for the man. The narrow personal g iin is all that they can appreciate;

tHey cannot understand the wrong done to the colony, or the danger which lies in Mr Ward's success. The member for Awarua is to be congratulated for several reasons, the chief of which is tbat he will now staud well in the favor of the unthinking. He has posed as a martyr all through bis troubles, he has howled about being persecuted by political foes, whined about his services to the country being the main cause of his financial embarassment, and now to find that the highest Court in the country has upheld his election is indeed a triumph. It also something to boast about that he is the first undischarged bankrupt to occupy a seat in the New Zealand House of Representatives.; Exactly why Mr Ward has stood so much censure, has undergone so much worry and trouble to get back into Parliament, has yet to be told, and when the truth is known there may be something for reflection. The Liberal Party have now got their Wizard of Finance, and if they are pleased so ought the Opposition to be, for there is not wanting evidence that Mr Ward's reinstatement will have a detrimental bearing on the Party. The errors of Mr Ward and all the discredit attaching to him will fall upon the Party, the members of which will always be taunted and flouted with Mr Ward and his financial affairs. Besides this some of the rank and file of the Party are getting restive and have shown strong determination to go "on their own," a fact which has given and is giving the Premier an infiuity (5f trouble. To this section of tha Party, and it must be confessed tbat this section has openly disavowed Mr Ward, the decision of the Appeal Court will not be so irritating as the fact that the Government actively supported Mr Ward in his crusade against Parliamentary morality and the principles of the Constitution. Mr Ward will cause dissensions not only amongst the rank and file of the Liberal Party, but also in the Cabinet itself. We look upon his return to Parliament as the greatest misfortune both to the Government and the Ministerial Party, and an affront to the democracy of New Zealand. If Parliament is to derive any lesson from the Awarua scandal, that lesson will be shown in the character and scope of the measure which the House will shortly be asked to discuss, and which will have for its object the prevention in the future of any repetition of the Ward business.