Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1890. Persuasion, not Force.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 11 November 1890, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 11, 1890. Persuasion, not Force.

♦ At this election, as at others, the New Zealand alliance is making an effort to persuade the electors to subordinate everything to the question whether a total prohibition law fhould be passed. We regret very ! much the action of A r Glover, the salaried oilicer of the Alliance, the other night, as the advice tendered

was not in our opinion wise, nor j unprejudiced. The electors, within a f r\v wjeks, have to select one who will, in their estimation, best represent their interests in Parliament. They have, to do so, to consider the position the candidate holds amongst his follows his ability, his power over himself, and his consideration for the opinion of others. Mr Glover appears to think all these are of small moment, pro\ idod the Candida to is prepared to pass a law which, to the Alliance, is most necessary. Whatever Mr Glover says and urges deserves consideration, but still the facts remain that his advocacy of temperance has the clog of money i interest attached to it, and that ho 'has no interest in the district, the electors of which he asks to make a sacrifice for the temperance cause. We, though upholding sobriety as far as we are able, earnestly trust in the interest of this electorate that the total abstainers will carefully ponder over the claims of the three candidates before giving a blind vote to secure one benefit, and lose many in its place. We urge that this is not the election when such a choice has to be made, as if the law was passed to-morrow, how many districts would avail themselves of it ? Would this electorate in any one single subdivision ? What the Alliance has to do yet, is to educate the electors up to the advantages of total abstention, and then make an appeal for a law which would be bound to be carried. Force, to Englishmen, goes a long way to making them obstinate, therefore persuasion is more needed in this matter. No reliance, so says the president of the N.Z. Alliance, Sir William Fox, can he placed on politicians, they nre fill humbugs, wherefore the straining to get men to throw away their birthright simply on the promise of a politician ? As this election is being fought on certain and important principles of taxation, let us consider the possible, as against the impossible, and select the candidate whom we know to be sound on. taxation, and who is free from that "humbug " which Sir William Fox believes most politicians are imbued.