Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Old Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1884. THE MANAWATU SEAT.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 199, 19 July 1884, Page 2

Manawatu Standard (PUBLISHED DAILY.) The Old Daily Newspaper on the West Coast. SATURDAY, JULY 19, 1884. THE MANAWATU SEAT.

In his address at the nomination of candidates, Mr Fraser defended his omission of the subject of the Gorge Railway, in a somewhat

lame manner. First he said that he felt a certain delicacy in bringing it forward until some questions had been asked regarding it, and then he partly put the possible blame on the reports of his address which appeared in the newspapers. But surely Mr Fraser will not affirm that the omission of such an important question as the constructhe Gorge Railway could have curred in the reports of his speech, had he made it a subject of comment. But he admits that he did hot refer to it, so there seems no need to endeavour to make a scapegoat of the Press. If Mr Fraser was waiting for some questions to he put on the subject, it was obviously necessary for him to bring the matter up of his own accord. Why did he not also wait until the electors asked him about Education, for instance, before giving his views on that subject Extending the argument a little further, why did Mr Fraser say anything at all, until he was ques--tioned ? The real fact of the matter is that Mr Fraser not being a resident in Manawatu is consequently as ignorant of our requirements as an outsider might reasonably be expected to be. When the Gorge Bridge was under discussion Mr Fraser said, at Palmerston, that the Government should undertake the work, it being a main road. Someone in the Hall said it was not a main road. Then Mr Fraser went to Feilding and said he would be in favor of having it made a main road, and one of the audience there enlightened him by saying it was one already. Mr Fraser's reply was, " Well, they told me in Palmerston that it wasn't. Now, all this goes to show what are really the facts of the case. It is pretty evident that Mr Fraser's knowledge of the Manawatu district as to say the least extremely limited. Surely a representative of a district should be competent to give accurate information regarding roads, bridges and railways, to the members of a constitiuency, and not have to seek information on these subjects from them? Mr Fraser's reply to the question of tolls on the Manawatu Bridge was practically, that he would compel a handful of small settlers that are already taxed very heavily, to be further saddled with the cost of building that bridge. Later on he discovered what steps had been taken with regard to it, and freely confessed his ignorance of them, and somewhat altered his views accordingly. Now that he has discovered what has been done with regard to the Gorge bridge, he has veered round to precisely the same views as the other candidate, who not only knew what steps had been taken with regard to the proposed erection of the bridge, but can actually claim the credit of having been the originator of them and to have carried them to a so far successful consummation. On the education question, also, it is evident that Mr Fraser's views have quite recently undergone a considerable change, He has in this also recognised the expediency of adopting precisely the same opinions as those which were plainly expressed by his opponent in the first instance. The Impounding Act, has we think, not received its full share of attention of late; in fact, in his addresses proper, that highly interesting subject has been completely dropped. On the land question Mr Fraser will not give a decided explanation of his views. He would like to cheapen land for those who want to buy it, and to raise the value of that which is already bought ; and in railways, he would make it the test whether a Government is fit to remain in power or not, whether they can efficiently control the railway system. All these go to show a certain simplicity is almost " childlike and bland," in Mr Fraser's ideas of politics, that cannot fail to have been noticed by the electors. Certainly the candidate offers to give up the position if he found himself unable to fulfil his Parliamentary duties, but this rather reminds one of the man who didn't know whether he could play the German flute or not, because he had never tried ! It is too late to ascertain the incompetency of a candidate, after he has been elected. Mr Fraser's own words are that his candidature " has not been of his own seeking." Whose seeking has it been ? The public around Palmerston know full well. Mr Fraser has been inveigled into offering himself as a candidate, by some of those who objected to Mr Macarthur as a representative — not on account of the measures he upholds, but on account of some old petty grudge that existed on the score of some action with regard to a certain road, or, in a few cases, through some other differences of a private nature. The two candidates have now occupied the same public platforms, on different occasions during the contest, and will any unbiased elector venture to compare the one, with the other in point of ability to represent this district in Parliament? That Mr Macarthur will be returned we have no doubt, whatever, and we have reason to believe that many of Mr Fraser's supporters have ere now recognized the same unmistakeable writing on the wall. We will go a little further and say that Mr Macarthur will be a representative of whom any district may feel proud, and who will yet most undoubtedly make his mark in the House, as a man of wide experience, and a capability for the administration of local affairs that but few men possess. We venture to say that after the battle is over, Mr Fraser's partizans will freely admit that in electing Mr Macarthur the district made a wise selection and one that did credit to the intelligence and discrimination of the proverbially discerning and critical electorate of Manawatu.