The Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 33, 8 February 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1871.

Like the heathen king of old, the Colonist has set up au idol, and has made a decree that those who will not bow down and worship at its hiddiug, shall pass through the bunnug, fiery, furnace of ridicule and abuse. The " golden image " to which this Nebuchadnezzar the younger is so anxious to see homage done ia represented by that very worthy man, Julius Yogel, and the furnace has of late been heated "one seven times more than it was wont to be heated," for the particular benefit of two men who staunchly refuse to bend the knee to the idol that was set up for their worship. To one of these martyrs we have to-day to offer our congratulations on having passed unscathed through this fiery ordeal, for it must have beeu a source of unmitigated pleasure lo Mr. Richardson to find at the close of the poll yesterday that not a hair of his head was singed, nor the smell of fire passed on him. Notwithstanding —or perhaps it was owiDg to — tbe sarcasm, the sneers, and the ridicule so plentifully heaped upon that gentlemaD, the electors of the suburbs have, by the choice they made yesterday, most uumistakeably declared that they are not to be browbeaten by aoy journal that chooses to hold that, because a candidate does not agree with it in worshipping any little deity to whicli it has chosen to pin its faith for the time beiug, therefore he is to be assailed with torrents of abuse. The election of yesterday was one of peculiar interest, in that it was the first that has taken place in our country districts since Mr. Yogel's scheme was propounded, and -we have watched with some anxiety to see what would be the verdict passed upou it by the farming population, and it is to us a source of great satisfaction to find that not even the bait of protection which so cunningly concealed the hook that was beneath, has proved sufficient to induce the country electors to swallow the ruinous policy offered for their acceptance. We have made mention of two candidates as having been specially singled out by the Colonist for castigatiou ; the second one we allude to is Sir David Monro, who, for the same reason we suppose, namely, that he declines to bend the kuee to Yogel, has excited the ire of our amiable contemporary, who seems to think that he can say nothing too bitter of an opponent of his fellow-worshipper, Mr. Parker. We helieve, however, that there is little doubt that the electors of Motueka will follow the good example set them by those of the Suburbs, and, by their selection of an opponent of the present Ministry, will show that they too are not to be bought by the golden promises of the Colonial Treasurer, or to be dictated to by his devoted follower the Colonist.