The Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1872.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VII, Issue 121, 22 May 1872, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail WEDNESDAY, MAY 22, 1872.

Immediately following a very tame reply to Mr Saunders' vigorous criticisms on Mr. Lnckie's political creed, there appeared in yesterday's Colonist a small article headed " Nelson Election — Rumored Retirements," the writer of which has apparently studied to some purpose an essay which was published some years ago in one of the Magazines — we forget now which — on " The Art of Putting Things," . wherein was shown how very different impressions might be conveyed by the manner in which the same fact or argument was " put." Our contemporary, who, it cannot be denied, has at nil times a very happy knack of " putting things" in the way best calculated to serve his own ends, after stating that he had heard it rumored that either Mr. Saunders or Mr. Richmond was likely to retire from the coming contest, and that it was to be left to their committees to decide which of the two candidates had the better chance of being returned, goes on to ask with a burst of high-souled indignation, such as he well knows how to assume when occasion requires it : — "Are the electors to be handed over frorae one man to another in this fashion .... as if the intelligent working community of Nelson had no mental convictions of their own ? " Now we interjd to " put " this same matter in au entirely different light. Whether or not it is intended that one of the above named candidates shall retire we do not in the least know, but we venture to hope that such is the case, as, notwithstanding the opinion of the Colonist, we believe that it may be arranged without rendering the electors a mere passive body " to be handed over from one man to another," but rather by asking them to be the active agents, with whose entire approbation the proposed change is to be wrought. Three candidates are in the field, one of whom, Mr. Luekie, professes to be a "discriminating" supporter of a Ministry, a large proportion of whose acts he, when placed under examination by several of the electors at his meeting, unhesitatingly condemned, pronouncing them, as we showed on Monday last, to be impolitic, mistaken, and corrupt. The course adopted by this Ministry is just such as was described by the Colonist in 1864 as the " downward progress" "on the unsafe path towards the gulf of debt which New Zealand is madly following," and yet Mr. Luekie is prepared to afford them a general support, while disapproving of every detail in their policy and administration upon which he has been questioned. On the other side are two candidates whose opinions coincide on many important points, and who are both of them desirous of arresting the downward progress of the colony. They do not, like the infatuated Mr. Luekie, propose to give a "discriminating" support to a Ministry whose actions tbey condemn, but are prepared to offer an honest and wholesome opposition to their extravagant tendencies, and to endeavor to check the spread of the speculative mania that has got abroad, and is now hurrying us ou to destruction. Under such circumstances, it would be the height of folly for two candidates holding nearly similar opinions to go to the poll, and thus divide the votes of the party whose support they seek, and, therefore, we contend that the committees who have been working for these two gentlemen would be acting in the interests of the electors did they consult together, and, after comparing notes, invite him who had the lesser chance of success to withdraw. This election should be, and is, we believe, a pure party question, and not one in which the personal merits of the candidates are in any way involved. Mr. Luekie represents the Ministry, and the other two the Opposition, and the people of Nelson should be invited to rest their choice upon that broad basis, and that alone. It is absurd to talk of the electors " being handed over," &c. They wish a certain work to be done, and it is for them to decide who can best do it for them. To say that the electors are " to be left to the tender mercies or dictation" of the candidates is the purest nonsense, aud none knows this better than he who wrote it. Had he said that tbe candidates were to be left to the dictation of the electors he would have been much nearer the mark, and had not Mr. Luekie feared a combination of the two bodies of electors that are now supporting Mr. Richmond l and Mr." Saunders, we may depend upon itj that the Colonist would not have displayed such a burst of temper

us that to which it gave way yesterday. Onr advice is that the electors should lay aside all personal predilections that may be influencing them, and uuite heart and soul in ensuring victory, not to an individual, but a principle. To the withdrawing candidate their thanks will be due for the unselfishness he ,- displays in sacrificing his chance of a 'seat in the Assembly to the success of the party whose interests he has most at heart.