ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1291, 27 May 1880, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

THE ELECTION. TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. Sib, —I have read the—may I qall it the unfortunate—dispute between Mr. T. W. Hislop and Mr. Jones, and I am compelled to conclude that Mr. Hislop, however he may have served his constituents daring his representation up to a certain point, has latterly adopted a course highly calculated to nullify the good he may previously have done. So far as I am able to judge, Mr. Hislop has been, and is, working to secure the return of Mr. Reid. He openly says Mr. Jones shall not haye his vote, and, on good authority I have it that he does not consider Mr. Roberts sufficiently well known and respected to stand any show of being returned. He is, therefore, without being sufficiently oandid to admit it, working for Mr. Reid, a man opposed to many of the views he advocated when in the House. Hence I argue that he has from some reason or other abandoned the party -with which he has been connected. Whenever that abandonment occurred, I think Mr. Hislop should have intimated the change in his views to his constituents and resigned, course he has chosen to adopt does not redound to his credit, and if he should succeed in his design in returning Mr. Reid as the representative for Waitaki he will have done the district an irreparable injury. You ask how if Mr. Reid be returned the Waitaki will be unrepresented. Certainly that gentleman will not vote with our present member. Whilst the;one gits and votes with the Opposition, the other has announced his approval of and adherenoe to the present Ministry j he will therefore vote on the opposite side to Mr. Shrimski. Let those electors who would favor Mr. Reid give this matter their serious consideration, for they may" $s wpll send no member to the House, as send one who on all the important questions of the day will vote against, and hence nullify, the vote of the other. Are the eleotors prepared to censure Mr. Shrimski ? Do they [disapprove of his action in the House? Why, then, not ask him to resign, instead of allo wing him to go up to the House in a false position? It would be preferable to adopt such a course ; more honorable, more seemly, than allow him to go to his duty there, and send up another member whose aetion will be opposed to his, whose whole weight and influence would be on the other side, and therefore against MrShrimski. Again, are the intelligent electors of Waitaki prepared by their vote to endorse Mr, Reid's views with respect «

to the honorarium, that no man should bo returned to the House who is unable to afford such a loss of time as such services to the country involve. Without pay, without soriie compensation fot such lobs of time, and absence from business, why, sir, the idea is monstrous ; it is ridiculous, and should, even were his views in every other respect in accord with the electors, stamp him as totally unfit to represent them. Let me ask, Where would the majority of our present representatives be? Certainly not in the House. In short, how many would be there if no honorarium were allowed. Many I could name, old and tried, and, withal, trusted ana respected members, would bo conr spicuous by their absence. Men, I sume to say, who have made a: mark as statesmen and legislators, such as in these

non-miraculous days Mr. Reid will never accomplish. There is yet another view. Are the working classes especially prepared to accept Mr. Reid's idea that the Legislature and governing classes should be selected from the wealthy. I trow not. Let us consider what would be the result. No equality of taxation, no electoral qualification, except property, no free education, and eventually no free press or freedom of opinion, but a rapid drifting into serfdom—the worse that wo have been free ; and such a reduction in wages as would yield a bare existence, just one remove from pauperism—-a return to the old country time-honored institutions, the workhouse, and the periodical local petty charities, such as a loaf and a shilling to every old and infirm man and woman in the parish at Christmas, a blanket in winter or a bag of coals to another, sufficient flannel for a petticoat to Biddy or Mary when the cold weather commences, or an order for a weekly loaf to be doled out to those who attend tho church regularly. My fellow electors, how do you like this picture 1 It is not overdrawn ; to such a state of things are you now tending. You are laying tho first stone of your future workhouse when you, by your vote, approve of the ideas advanced in the Volunteer Hall the other evening. That Heaven may save you from suoh a mistake is the prayer of A Country Elector.