PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Tuesday, October 25, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 990, 25 October 1881, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Tuesday, October 25, 1881.

NoW that the time is rapidly approaching when this constituency will he called upon to make its choice of a representative, it cannot be out of place to make a few remark's upon a subject fraught with so much importance to the whole electorate. No district, we believe, in the \North Island has experienced more neglect at the hands of past administra Ons than that of the East Coast. Ft r a variety of reasons there is no place in ■y the Colony that is really more in need of an able advocate than that in which ■Sre reside. It is manifestly- evident the selection of its representative r should be matter of the gravest concern to aS by whom the welfare of this part of the East Coast is desired. Upoji the choice shortly to be made depends in a great measure, our future weal, or woe. It is an accepted fact that scarcely in any constituency can ‘the best men to represent it be induced to come forward and undergo the incidental to an election contest. such is the case is to be ithat it is so cannot be gainsaid.

is the solemn duty of every elector in the district to vote for the candidate who, in his opinion, is the most fitted for the high and honorable position of representing the district in Parliament, and, at the same time, a man whose intelligence is not to be despised. The electors should support a candidate who is known to them, and upon his public qualifications only, so long as be is a man of whose integrity they have no cause to doubt. All personal consideration should be discarded. Ability in a candidate to express . clearly aud distinctly on the floor of the House the requirements of his district and the wants of the electors, is a point highly essential. “An ignorant man,” says a contemporary writing on,this subject, “is always prejudiced, and, therefore, always liable to be misled.” It

is not in the power of every constituency to return as its represen-| tative an experienced statesman, but the electors may rest contented upon this point, that the better acquainted the man of their choice is with the duties devolving upon a Parliamentary representative and the more familiar he is with the routine of public affairs in the House, the greater the share of political power accruing. It is idle to suppose that a raw recruit, a mere tyro in politics, whose only qualification is of that questionable character known as “ lobbying ” can presume to faithfully represent any constituency, or can hope to gain any political power over his more able brethren. We have observed that those districts always fare best that possess representatives having the power, and the ability to stand in their place in the House and argue against all comers.

Lobbying has become a dead letter, and is in the Colonial Parliaments looked upon as the last refuge of that class of politicians who rank below mediocrity. The democratic tendency of the present age is to return to Parliament, free from all considerations of a personal character, men, whose passport to that high office is their own ability. Now and then the code is departed from, and an ignorant man finds himself among men whose polished utterances in the House are to him incomprehensible, but these exceptions only go to prove the rule. We sincerely trust that when the time comes for the electors of this district to choose their representative, that no fatal mistake will be made. As we have done in the past, so shall we continue to do, namely, abstain from drawing comparisons between any of our local candidates until such time as the whole of them shall have placed before the electors their views upon the important questions affecting this district in particular, and the colony at large.