The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1882.

Kumara Times, Issue 1713, 27 March 1882, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. FRIDAY, MARCH 27, 1882.

The minds of many would-be politi ticians are very much exercised over the contest for the Wakanui seat iu the General Assembly. As our readers are aware, the first election was declared uuli and void, and thus a second battle: royal is forced upon the electorate. Mr Wason, who had been declared duly elected, declines to stand again, and the fight is now virtually between Mr Saunders and Mr Ivess, for although a third candidate will probably be nominated, he is believed to be a dummy in the interest of Mr Ivess. The old residents upon the Coast will remember the last-named gentleman when he was in Hokitika a good many years aco ; and, so far as we recollect, he only dis tinguished himself in one matter, and that Was in working himseif tooth and nail to reduce the wages of compositors to starvation point. He was tolerably successful in that direction, and the result was that hardly a man who understood his trade would remain in any printing office in Westland. So far as Hokitika was concerned, the hand.were chauged almost weekly, until at. last the paper had to be brought out by a crowd of poor little urchins, whose proofs and revises took longer to correct than tbey did to set up. Since Mr Ivess left Westland, however, he has become a big man, that is, if starting

newspapers all over the colony is a sign of greatness; but as for becoming a politician, in the true sense of tl;e word, that is a thing he would never be able to accomplish ; it is not in his line. He can spout frothy nothings at a pulilic meeting, and that is all. On the other hand, we have Mr Saunders, a man of proved ability, who for upwards of a quarter of a century ha< taken an active part in the politics of the colony, and has gone through that lengthened career with clean hands, and that is saying a great deal more than can be said of some of the mighty politicians whose names are even now supposed to be towers of strength. Mr Saunders is in one respect a politician of the old school. He takes the rou»h O weather with the smooth, and whenever a painful duty is before him, he never shrinks from it. But lie is in every sense of the word a reformer of a most advanced type. He is not the wellknowu individoal, " the man with a grievance," but is a man who devotes himself heart and soul to the well-b ing of the colony. Far different is he from the solemn swell who goes up to Wellington to attend the session with as much conceit in his narrow mind as would suffice a whole brigade of political nincompoops, and as much starch in his shirt-collar as would at any given moment he found iu the Queen's laundry \ who may occasionally sit out a debate after a languid fashion, but who believes that the system of " pairs" is the most gtoriou3 institution of the age, who is a dumb dog, who cannot or will not bark, and who holds with a death-like grip to the opinion that the assumption of an air of intense respectability is all that is is required to stamp a member of the Assembly as a political gem of the veiy first water. Mr Saunders has done more good for the colony in his time than would a thousand of such persons as we refer to ahov*, even although they each and all lived to the age of Methuselah. Mr Wason, comes in for his share of abase from those who know nothing whatever about him. When he was iu Parliament, he was most decidedly oue of the most hardworking members. It is true that he was a strong party man, and worked for his party manfully and honestly ! but now, because he withdraws from the contest in favnr of Mr Saunders, he is held up to ridicule, and most unreasonably and disgracefully abused by persons who, in venting their personal spleen, show themselves as ignorant of political amenities as a Maori pin is of of the manners and customs of the inhabitants of the satellites of Jupiter. Every reasonable man must admit that at the present juncture, the admission into the ranks of the Assembly of an honest, veteran politican—we may say statesman—would be a gieat gain to the colony ; and, in spite of what may be said in certain quarters, it is difficult to imagine for a siugle moment that the Wakanui electors will be so blind to their own interests as to reject a person of sterling worth like Mr Saunders in favor of an untried man.