JOSEPH IVESS, Esq., M.P.C.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 169, 15 July 1873, Page 2

JOSEPH IVESS, Esq., M.P.C.

The district of Inangahua can claim the somewhat questionable honor of having been represented in the Provincial Council by ihe gentleman to whom we have paid the compliment of placing his name in large capitals at the head of this article. Mr Ivess, during the late session, made several speeches, the chief aim of which appeared to be to render him obnoxious to his follow Councillors, and an object of contempt to the public generally. He succeeded admirably. Elated with the success he then achieved, he has since sought to distinguish himself by making at Reefton a more rabid speech than any with whiqh he favored the Council. And again his ambition has been gratified. He has distinguished himself. He has abused and vilified all the members of the Council, with the exception, we believe, of Mr O'Conor and himself, to, his heart's content; buf, acting' no doubt upon different principles from those which actuated the original Joseph, this Joseph has made the Evening Mail tho Benjamin,. not of his love, but of' his hatred, and has served out to it a mess five times greater than that bestowed upon his brother members. The reason ofsuoTv/a distinction being accorded to this journal is, that on one or two occasionsr— half apologetically*; we; admit, for we looked upon the subject of our remarks

as scarcely worth the ink that flowed from our pea in committing them to paper — we commented upon the bad taste and malignant feelings displayed by Mr Ivess in his Council speeches. All kinds of unfounded charges and nasty insinuations are made against the Mail, but to these we shall make no reply, for really, we do not care to lower ourselves by bandyipg words with the representative of the Inangahua, mindful as we are of the old adage that warns us of the inevitable cousequences of handling pitch. We prefer to hand Mr. Joseph Iveaa over to the tender mercies of the Grey River Argus, which thus discourses on his address to his constituents : — "In the political firmament a new constellation hath appeared. Ooly through the media of powerful telescopes adapted to peculiar Bights is its brilliancy distinguishable, so far removed is it from this mundane sphere — "up above the world so high " — but there can be no question about it being a constellation. Its resemblance to the Ursa Minor of the celestial system is too well marked to be mistaken. It distinctly presents its tail to the pole-star of politics. " To come down from the canopy, and from metaphor to common narrative, we may say that we refer to the recent appearance on the political platform of the representative of Reefton in the Nelson Council, Mr Joseph Ivess. Like many of our most worthy politicians, the bearer of this name, found as he was, not in a pit, but in a printing-office, rs rising to be a " ruler in Egypt." There are no external reasons why he should not do so; though it may not be the alpha and the omej;a of all ambition it is sufficiently laudable to be excusable; but it must be done by divination, after the fashion of his great prototype, not over the necks of Other men, and at the sacrifice of their sensibilities, their reputation, and the truth. In consideration only oil? the belief that that is what is being done, and that the representatives of our own districts deserve to be defended, we notice the speech of Mr Ivesa at Reefton, on Saturday eight last, and we do so desiring ,to " nothing extenuate, or set down aught in malice." The representative referred to, as a representative, may be more deserving of commiseration than condemnation; his youth politically, his ignorance socially, and his activity personally, may all go to furnish excusa

for him; bufy if it is within biro, be must be taught to extend . to others equal courtesy. Though he imy be a member of a Council,, it isy neither his mission nor his privilege,, tor attribute baBB motives, as he has done, to his seniors, his superiors, and hia colleagues. For remainder of news see fourth page. Holloway's Fitls.-~ln general debility, mental depression, and nervous irritability there is no medicine which operates no like a charm as these famous Piils They purify the blood, soothe and strengthen the nervcß and system, give tone to the stomach, elevate the spirits, and, in fact render the patient sensible of k total and most delightful revolution in his whole system. They may be commended most unreservedly as the very best family medicine in existence. Though so powerfully efficacious, they are singularly mild in their operation, and may be given with implicit confidence to delicate women and young children. They contain not a grain of mercury, or other noxious substance, and cannot do harm. Delicate females, and all persona oi sedentary habits will find these Pills a blessing. . ' 1858

There is a peculiar mixture of naelan. choly and amusement provoked by a perusal of Mr Iveas'a speech, the melan« choly, we are Borry to »ay, predominating. This will be best illustrated by a few extracts, taken in the order of their delivery. He is an easily pleased good fellow withal. He begins" by saying— " Since I had the pleasure of addressing the electors . . . I have had the pleasure of attending the session of the Council." Happy temperament to be, in such a situation, so readily capable of the reception of pleasurable sensations ? For a moment, and but for a moment, he is modest also. " Being a novice, I entertained serious forbodiogs." " But " and the "but" comes all too quickly — "I soon found out the character of those with whom I bad to deal." Did he ? And, if he did, what did he find ? Injthe absence of Dr. Carr, it would doubtless, be interesting, for the gentlemen in question to be provided with a diagnosis of (heir mental and moral peculiarities, and it is a pity that Mr Ivess leaves so much to supposition as to what he means. Suppose we suppose that there were others spending part of their time in the study of character, how would this supposed solitary student fare ? A supercilious scribe, who is more plain-spoken than polite, has gone beyond bare insinuation in that particular,. Does he like the picture ? Frankly, tb^e men who constitute the Nelson Council are a fair specimen of their fellows, nor, we daresay, do they fear being " fouud out " even by so skilful an anatomist of "character.*' Bather, they would say " Amen " to bis prayer, if he would *' ever pray "— '• O, wad seme Power the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us." Pursuing the perusal of the speech, we find in the following sentences, and notwithstanding the previous avowal of pleasure, a real original aphorism to this effect—-" Representatives are often called upon to discharge disagreeable duties," with the illustration as follows: — " Aod I had some painful and disagreeable duties to perform." And who has not? Who had not in this same session, yet who but Joseph lets it be implied that he was the one Abraham who oflered up Isaac? Our subject, however, was himself a sacrifice. "I have been unjustly attacked by the Evening A at?, which is actuated by motives of malevolence. No doubt my conduct was felt to be disagreeable to the Nelson Government, and I was quite prepared for newspaper censure, but I was not prepared for such gross misrepresentation as had appeared in the columns of , that paper." There is a good deal more about the Mail—how be " incurred the displeasure," " became obnoxious," to that journal, and how in its "presumed reports" all " the poison was extracted, aod anything favorable excluded" The facts, we believe, being that the Mail's reports were' the most correct that were published, and that its editor, '| actuated" in this great case "by motives of malevolence," is under ordinary circumstances about the best representative of bonhommie that could be met in a long day's walk or in the columns of a sheet of double demy. Strange how the temper of the times get changed, and things go generally out of joint, when the spirits of great men walk abroad! * * * • • Higher game is not free from the far and wide range of our friend's great blunderbuss. He has an opinion on the railway and the Premier, and this is it ;— " In my opinion the whole thing is a piece of political clap-trap on the part of Messrs Yogel and Curtis." And he adds — it is to be presumed in a political sense — " No doubt these gentlemen think to profit considerably by this stroke of policy * * The continuation of the speech is one series of personal insinuations , which cannot possibly be justified by any plea of public interest or policy. At the cost of facts he does heinous wrong, not for the first time, to his colleague at Charleston. He does the same to others whom he does not name, but whose names it should be his duty to give, if he could or dare. In what language can the following sentences, for instance, be characterised? —sentences referring to the unquestionably wrongful expenditure by the Government in procuring signatures to petitions agaiDSt Separation :— " There were four members directly interested in the payments. These I had to contend against. I bad to contend against docile supporters of the Government, directly under their patronage and control." This, it is needless to say, is not only a reflection upon, but a very grave charge against, the entire body of the Council— mcD, many of whom held their seats when he was in swaddling clothes, and who are likely to do so, aged as they are, long after he has been laid out in his political

shroud. , " Motives of malice," he says, have been attributed to him by Mr Guinness. There may be in that assertion as much of the element of romance as there is in others; but, even if it be not so, no unprejudiced person can peruse this speech without concluding that it exhibits a thoroughly evil spirit — unprovoked, reprehensible, and calculated to retaliate upon no one more than the member himself and his constituents.