TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 224, 13 June 1873, Page 6

TOPICS OF TALK.

Mr. Gilltes, it turns out, is really a hanafide candidate for the Superintendeney. His speech, as reported by our Dunedin contemporaries, is made up of curious contradictions. Notably conspicuous is his miserable, bid for Dunedin support in the matter of the Harbor Trust. We never had a great opinion of Mr Gillies as a politician or a writer, he being cast in a peculiar narrow groove that can see nothing outside his own mental horoscope, and can give no credit for the. least spark of good faith and disinterestedness to anyone—all of these latter good qualities that are contained in this Province being stored under the waistcoat of John Lillie Gillies. Those who are not with me are not only against me, but they are guilty of ail the moral crimes that human nature is capable of. That is the gospel as laid down by Mr Gillies.and the 'Bruce Herald,' and is hardly one that should be held evefa by the Speaker of the Council,, not to speak of the high.office of Superintendent. ;., Henceforth may Mr Gillies be always found in such fit company, and no other, as on the nomination day iu Dunedin, when his name was coupled with that of Jock Graham. Mb Macajstbeew, in his speech on the nomination day, referred to the country districts that required opening up, and, in particular, alluded to a tramway up the Shag Valley to Waihemo, which we have advocated in our columns far some time. Such a work is of the very first importance, and should be made the ultimate object of every, one who wishes well' to Mount' Ida, The district must judge as to Wfso they are likely to such a work irom—an administration headed by Mr Macandrew, or one led by Mr Gillies, with his clodocratic tail. Not jpnly should Mr Macandrew be supported, but-he should be well supported. Every elector who has. received a benefit from MrMacandrew'a vigor at Wellington, and in the Province, should give him his vote—not that it is necessary to secure his return, but as an encouragement to him in an office that is underpaid, and secures for him Unmitigated abuse from even such men as' Mr Gillies. Those who are on the Electoral Roll can alone vote for the Superintendent—aminer's right. nil extra qualification for the election of Provincial Councillors.

The 'Daily Times,' an organ that is no friend to Mr Macandrew \pr his supporters, in a sensible article on the, forthcoming elections, has the follow-' ing:—" We cannot give better- advice to the electors than we have given before on this subject. Choose as your representatives those men only. who. have shown their- ability to conduct their private affairs with success. Do not choose a..man who has made a mess of his own business, who has been half-a-dozen different things and failed in them all, and who has taken up politics to keep the wolf from the door. Do not choose a man on account of the number of things that he will pro- , m'se to get done for the district. Do riot choose a man who sturts impossible theories, and who defends them with a certain dialectical style. Elect one who has become known -as a shrewd, fiard-headed, practical man of business (he need by no means be rich) —the port of man you would choose as trustee for your wife, and children—the • sort of man you would go to for advice if you. were making an investment, these are the men we want now—men who have got a character to lose,- and who are willing to give the same attention to public matters that has secured > fhe success of their own affairs. If it is possible to substitute Messrs Oliver, Davie, and Major Rithardson for. Messrs Mervyn, Brown, and M'Dermid, it would do a great deal for the character of the body which they would join. We take the names at haphazard, and without at all asserting either that the men we wish removed are the worst, or those we should like to see subsiituted the very best. We have arrived at a climax in the conduct of affairs, and if the late exhibitions in the Council do not have the effect of making un \he country to take mare

interest in the elections, there can be no doubt that we shall in /the* future sink to a lower depth than we have ever -yet reached. Unless we take steps at once to reorganise our Provincial Legislature, a few more years will render it impossible to do so. If we do not introduce a more respectable class quickly, the end of it will be that no respectable man will.care to write M P.O. after his name. What the management of public matters will be then we can guess, though we do not care to prophesy. At any rate, the present elections will pro.ve ex r ceptionally interesting, as a sort of test of the depth of the public disgust." Me John M'Lean spoke some strong sense at Oamaru last week. He gave the names of Mr Reid's celebrated Waste Lands Board, that, we suppose, the latter gentleman kept his office as long as possible to bring.into existence. They were, said Mr M'Lean, George Duncan, James Allan, James. Shand, Mr Lumsde-j, and Mr. Reid himself. Only three Taieri men! two of whom are determined opponents of the Gold"fields—more especially; of the Mount Ida Water Scheme. . Our late members could hardly have been ignorant of this.