THE STANDARD SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 101, 1 November 1873, Page 2

THE STANDARD

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1873.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

On Thursday next the Electors will have to decide which of the three candidates, seeking their suffrages, is to be their Superintendent for the next four years ; and it behoves us to bring an intelligent judgment to bear on the relative merits of each. We shall reprint an outline of each of the speeches made at the nomination, all of which embrace the salient points upou which it is necessary to comment

Of Mr. Lusk the less said the better. That gentleman has, already, said too much and done too little for the sake of his own cause. In the estimation of the Electors of this district he stands condemned as a chief member in a Government which has persistently ignored the interests of the very people he now professes to have so earnest a solicitation for. Mr. Lusk has asked the Electors to judge of his past conduct as an earnest of what he is likely to do in the future. This is precisely the ground the Electors have proposed to take. It is unnecessary to recapitulate all the shortcomings of .his Government, or to remind him of the ( unfulfilled ) pledges he has made with reference to affairs generally in this district. “ By their fruit shall ye know them.” The fruits of Mr. Lusk's past administration, to which he triumphantly refers, are such as have left no vestige of the confidence and promise with which his political career begun. And what does he propose to do in the future ? “ He “ will do his utmost to provide for the “ wants of the country districts when

“provincial institutions are done away “ with.” That seems to be throwing cold water on the fervor of Electors who, like those of Poverty Bay, cannot afford it to be deferred to the Greek Kalends, before their “ wants ” are provided for ; and in view of the fact of another province having been created during the last Session of the Assembly, and fresh powers given to existing ones, Provincial institutions are not likely to roll away so soon as some imagine.

A gross piece of perfidy has characterized Mr. Lusk’s reign, with respect to the sale of the township of Gisborne, and which the Electors will remember as they come to the poll. The whole of the proceeds have been heaped into the Provincial Treasury, and we have had a miserable pittance or two doled out to us in return. To this is to be added the bare-faced trick of withdrawing the sections remaining unsold after each sale held in Gisborne, until a hole and corner sale was held in Auckland, after which all unsold sections that had been submitted to auction and not sold, were open for private purchase. And this, we learn, Mr. Lusk has the audacity to say, was done in compliance with the “ Waste Land’s Act.” We defy Mr. Lusk to prove the necessity for such a course, and adjudge him guilty of great treachery. Then there is the Harbor, —a disgrace to any Government, —without a pilot, not a boat or a man at the service of the port; no steam communication with the capital; no immigration; and other evidences of a general slatternliness and neglect which are too contemptible for further notice, and we •dismiss them from our mind as we now do Mr. Lusk.

We now come to Mr. Dargaville. This gentleman’s address will be found in our advertizing columns, and we think a more unfortunate document was never penned. As we have already said, had Mr. Dargaville considered this district worth the trouble of a personal visit, we candidly believe that much support would have been secured to him on a vita voce explanation of many matters which in their nude state do not explain themselves. But first of all we will take the address itself. Mr. Dargaville says “the “unfinished state of the track from “ Opotiki to Gisborne” prevented his visiting the district when at Tauranga, which is the veriest bunkum. Had there been a good road the whole way, we think it very improbable that Mj. D#rgavilli£ would have come hither overland. Bui as there is not a good road, the Electorsare quietly dropped, as not being worthy ' of a more expeditious sea voyage. The wants of our “ splendid district,” we" have a promised assurance shall, if the candidate be elected, “receive the consideration its resources merit.” What does Mr. Dargaville know of our “splendid” district? And what does he care for it, since he did not think it worth while to visit it? He thinks the Oil Springs require “ stimulating,” and that the “ magnificent lands in the dis- “ trict should be settled with immigrants.” So do we. So, probably, do Messrs. Lusk and Gillies, but did they either “ stimulate ” the one or “ settle” the other ? Mr. Dargaville is too painfully overflowing with promses. If elected fie intends to sweep away the Executive and several absolutely necessary departments ; he is going to make roads, and build bridges in “ remote districts ” — of which Poverty Bay is one, of course. He will give “ every possible aid to “ Road Boards, as he considers that they have nearly always “ judiciously and economi- “ cally expended their funds. ” This highly-sugared plum would have been sweeter if he had instanced the Poverty Bay Road Board as a remarkable instance of not only judiciousness and economy, but of energy, sagacity, and forethought. Mr. Dargaville is opposed to the Education Tax, and will help to abolish Provincial institutions when they can bequietly shelved; and in the meantime will “ economise Provincial Funds.” Mr. Dargaville, elsewhere, has said that he would “ not wait to see how “ the cat jumps, and then go with “ popular opinion.” He also advocated an abolition of many absurdities connected •with our Provincial system, and a reconstruction of the system which controls Road Boards, &c. He also believes that he can save “ something like £lO,OOO a year ” out of an expenditure of £13,000. How ? By doing away with. “ existing departments,” and in “ dispensing with old campaigners in other words, he would

have us believe that he will dismiss most of the Provincial Officers with a “ billet ” as he says, and do the work himself ! We remember very vividly the inauguration of the first Provincial Government of the province of Hawke’s Bay, and the arguments that were adduced in favor of, but prior to, the partition of the Ahuriri district from Wellington. Mr. T. H. Fitzgerald, like Mr. Stafford and now Dargaville, “guaranteed”—he did not merely promise—to do the whole work of the Government with “ one man and a boy.” Experience, we are told, makes fools wise, and although Hawkes Bay’s first Superintendent was no fool, he found out his error, and Mr. Dargaville will be one if he attempts to achieve what cleverer financiers than he have failed in. Shortly, then, we do not place the slightest faith in these promises of Mt, Dargaville’s, and think that he has put himself to au immense amount of trouble in the preparation of political sops which may be filling but certainly not satisfying—being unsubstantial as the mind that framed them. [ We must defer our remarks On Mr. Williamson until Wednesday.}