THE NEW MEMBERS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4791, 31 July 1876, Page 2

THE NEW MEMBERS.

SKETCHED BY ONE OF THEMSELVES. No. 11. The member for Geraldine, sitting on Mr. Stafford’s left hand, with a projecting pillar slightly interposing between them, is a gentleman who seems to have a prescriptive right to be near Mr. Stafford, and about whose success or non-success as a member no little interest has been excited. Mr. Wakefield has a sufficiently remarkable and definite face, evidencing too as it does more than ordinary intellect, to attract attention, and there is that about his expression at times which makes one believe that he could be sudden and quick in quarrel did not a tinge of discretion make him keep his wrath to himself, not, however, without a frown which bodes all the harm he could do to one who had offended him. Mr. Wakefield may, in many respects, claim a right to owe filial political duty to Mr. Stafford. When the latter gentleman has been the foremost man in this small world of politics wdiich forms the be all and end all for us, Mr. Wakefield besides, acting as his secretary, has been the Telemaohus to his Mentor; and since the member for Geraldine has fairly won his spurs in our small lists of literature, his pen has been devoted with unswerving fidelity to the chief under whose banner ha would seem content to fight, even if all others had deserted it. It would bo useless to disguise the fact that Mr. Wakefield ow'es his seat to his success as a journalist. True it is that but for the casting vote of a returning officer he would not now occupy that seat; but it has been his conduct of probably the most powerful country newspaper in the colony that drew men’s eyes to him as a future representative, and that enabled him to claim at least one-half of the recorded votes at the last election for his district. And in mentioning this circumstance I do not for an instant desire to remove that anonymity which is the proper attribute of journalism, for I am now writing of Mr. Wakefield’s pursuit of his profession, because his success in the profession has led him to Parliament, and, like many of his fellows, he lias written or been responsible for much that I have no doubt he himself regrets, but for nothing, I feel sure, that was not written with honesty of purpose, however much hastiness in temper and prejudice may have made it most objectionable to those who consider it is possible to he personal without being insulting, to be severe without being so vulgar as to make a statesman’s' private and social customs the medium for an attack upon his policy. Indeed one or two utterances of Mr. Wakefield's since he has entered the House have shown that he has not forgotten the instincts of his race, and that he fights like a gentleman, whose rapier is none the less dangerous because Its wearer has been taught to use it after the strictest rules of courtesy. Even in one most bitter and uncalled for speech, in which he attacked Sir Donald McLean, he was not rude; and many thought that he was, after all, but making an attack in flank on behalf of his chief. A rather curious thing about Mr. Wakefield is that his entrance into Parliament seems to have excited the wrath of a person who would fain be there himself, and of whom Mr. Wakefield is in every sense the antithesis. This person had a slight acquaintance with that official life in which some portion of the member for Geraldine’s career was passed, and has also obtained a name in journalistic literature. I do not endorse the double barrelled adjectival certificate which the Hon. Mr, Eox gave to Mr. Wakefield’s somewhat personal enemy. He will no doubt in time learn that the mere power of thinking that no one knows anything better than you do yourself is not alone sufficient to qualify for success, and that sincerity, gentlemanly feeling, and some slight knowledge of men and things beyond the experience of the pettiest journalism, are an advantage. In time, too, a little journalistic honesty may contribute to his improvement. At present he may as well leave Mr. Wakefield alone. There is something of the hereditary hatred of the proletarian of the most ignorant type for the aristocrat in his antipathy, though his proletariauism, like much of its class, dearly loves to scrape shoulders with what is aristocratic. It would be impossible at present to predict success or failure in the future for the member for Geraldine. He has one or two rather important points in his favor. He entered the House with probably more of that contentment with his own abilities to succeed

than falls to the lot of new members generally, and once or twice he made the House aware of' the fact. But he has evidently been clearheaded enough to see that the less he does this tlw better. He has notably profited by the es>penence of one or two other new members, whose snubbing has been dona not ineffectually for them, and he is now plainly determined not to promote hostility by undue assumption. He has much to his advantage. For good and ill alike his name has become ancestral in the annals of this colony, and ~.™ mea o£ a st °ok with whom intellect and % ® een } hereditary. His attachment to Mr. Stafford, as a statesman, has in it much that deserves respect, it unites that personal friendship which often binds old and young with that adherence to a political faith of which the teacher is still the leader. In many respects Mr. Wakefield cannot do better than remain loyal to him to whom he certainly owes loyalty. Mr. Stafford at this moment though without party, and though undesirous of office, occupies a position in which he can do the best work for New Zealand, and is acting with loyalty to his political creed, regardless of personal advantage. He conceives, and that doubtless rightly, that by giving a generous assistance to build up that form of local self, government which he has always desired to see established, he will gain more respect than if he permitted himself, for an apparent temporary advantage, to be made use of by those with whom he has and can have nothing fn common. His words on the Abolition Bill last* year will not soon be forgotten, nor the manner in which he gave that measure his support, as he himself said, as “ one of the rank and file.” Mr. Wakefield may do worse for himself than act with him whom he is proud to call his master. For the rest, the member for Geraldine need not fear. In one political arena, that of publicjournalism, he has made his mark, and that of no faint nature. In the new arena into -which he has entered success awaits men like himself, if they do not ruin that success by the mode of fighting they adopt.