Poverty Bay Standard. PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Thursday, December 8, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 1009, 8 December 1881, Page 2

Poverty Bay Standard.

PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY, THURSDAY AND SATURDAY MORNINGS. Thursday, December 8, 1881.

We shall sell to no man Justice or Right; We shall deng to no man Justice or Right; We shall defer to no man Justice or Right.

Tomorrow, the ninth of December, 1881, the year of grace, will be the most memorable of any day in New Zealand’s calendar, since she was placed in possession of the privileges ■of a “ glorious constitution.” For the first time in her history will the people be engaged, on the same day, m the same pursuit, namely, the election of representatives to sit in her Common Council for the next three years; and, for our own part, we ehall thank the political gods when the strife is over. From “ morn to dewy eve ” the contests will rage, and after them the electors will have a season of political rest. It may, possibly, be expected of us that, on this eventful morning, the last of our issue before the final struggle, we should “ come out strong” as it is called, and give a “ slashing leader ” either for or against certain candidates; but we think there is little necessity for that. The minds of the electors are pretty well made up, and, with the exception of a few waverers, whose minds, if they have any, are inconstant as the moon, they have decided which “ party ” they will support; therefore, it only remains for us to point out the injury that may be done to a good cause, if party is not sunk in the individual. As a rule it is essential that the individual should not be considered, and that principles alone should be supported ; but in the coming election principles will be entirely prostituted, and set at naught, if the individual who professes them is not an important factor, in calculating the sum of their result. Exception, in this instauce, while it may prove the rule, justifies the necessity for its observance. Throughout the whole of the colony we much doubt if any constituency will be so thoroughly non-plussed as that of the East Coast. We purposely refrain from what would be a self-improved task of selecting a candidate from the three gentlemen who are pledged to support the only G-overnment which has ever rendered, this district any material assistance, as the best man to represent us. We do not withhold our pen because we are in doubt, but in order to let the election be a free and unfettered one, as far as they are concerned. Those gentlemen have not been weighed in the scales and found wanting. Their actions cannot be scanned, because they are new and untried; and we have nothing but their promises, and their individual ability, and personal acquaintance with the politics of our time, to guide us. On the future of either Mr. Mr. Locke’s, Captain Poetee’s or Mr. Gannon’s political career the electors can look hopefully, but the case is different with Mr. McDonald. In no sense —not even by his most ardent supporters—can it be truthfully said that he has not disappointed their expectations, and betrayed the confidence reposed in him. The greatest stretch of whieh the human imagination is capable cannot cover the political infirmities of this candidate, whose actions in the past and professions of the future, are bis most inveterate aceusers. Had Mr. McDonald a spark of political magnanimity in him, were he not swayed

by an ever-green groivth of jjanity and conceit, he would retire from a contest in which victory will only bo another name for defeat.

We do not permit the idea that Mr McDonald will head the poll, except from one circumstance; and if he should do so he will, as we have before pointed out, become the “ butt ” of Parliament, for he will represent neither the wealth nor the majority, but an insignificant minority, of the electors of the East Coast. At the best Mr McDonald’s position will be most equivocal; aposition which, while it will not be an enviable one to be placed in, will materially lessen any actual or reflected influence he might exercise in the Council of the people. However, on this point the electors are as free to judge as we are. The intelligence of this electorate, as a body, disengages us from the responsibility of doing aught else than reminding them of what is expected at their hands to-morrow ; and what they do on that day they will have to stand the consequences of for three years to come. Of course this will be so whatever candidate is elected ; but with the difference, that if either Mr Gannon, Mr Locke, or Captain Pohteb is the “ coming man,” he will truly represent the majority of the electors ; but if Mr McDonald is the man, he will not be the chosen of the people, and must represent a minority only. Electors : Look to it and do yonr duty, which is this: Pick your man out from the other three candidates, and “ block ” him at the head of the poll.