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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 102, 8 April 1884, Page 2

It has been mentioned that when Mr. McDonald left Gisborne for Auckland he carried with him a requisition to Sir George Grey to come in our midst and deliver an address. The object of getting the ex-Premier here is sufficiently palpable on the face of

it. It is no other than to deliver a stump speech addressed to the “working man,” in order to assist the candidature of Mr. W. L. Rees. It is quite possible Sir George Grey may answer responsive to the invitation, for there is no public man living who so likes to hear his own voice when it produces “ loud cheers ” and “ prolonged applause.” But Sir George’s oratory, sweet and pleasant as it falls upon the ear in a public hall, has of late lost its force and effect. And for the simple reason it has long been discovered that his addresses are “ words, words, sir, and nothing more.” Some five or six years ago Sir George Gbey, when stumping the country, came to Gisborne. He was then head of the Ministry. The Premier made a charming speech. It was brimful of promises as to what he would do for Gisborne, and Poverty Bay, He went away after a stay of a few hours amid the hurrahs aud cheers of the multitude, and not any one thing he promised has ever been made good. He had quite forgotten that such a place ever existed. When after a time Sir George was reminded by written communication that certain urgent needs which he had himself pointed out as absolutely necessary for the prosperity of the Bay were still unattended to, the Premier’s reply was that he had lost or mislaid his notes, —and that was all Poverty Bay ever got from Sir George Guby. Those who know the ex-Premier below that which comes up upon the surface of him, know well that there is no more arrogant or arbitrary statesman living. No politition, however able or astute, has ever been able to work with him for a session. He has a great dread of anyone who is likely to come between him and his sway. Deserted towards the end of his political career by men who refused to submit to his vagaries, or to endorse his visionary and impracticable schemes, or fall in with his dictatorial rulings, Sir George Grey took up the cry of the “ working man.” He had been out-voted in the Cabinet, and without a supporter in the House with any backbone in him Sir George Grey’s last resort for comfort was to go through province after province to obtain the cheers of what he called the down-trodden, the crushed, impoverished, and ground-to-the-dust people. What a dram of brandy is to the tippler, cheers and applause in a wellfilled hall are to Sir George Grey. Both under the different stimulants are soothed for the time. But the frequent drams of brandy lose their effect, when the quantity of spirit has to be increased. So with Sir George, his crave for cheers—the clapping of hands and stamping of feet having increased and grown upon him, he indulges in stronger doses than ever of invective hurled against those who do not agree with his peculiar theories. Str George's talk of late has been little better than drivel—eloquent drivel we admit —a sort of speech which persuades for the moment, but like a strain of sweet music dies out of memory when the sound of it has ceased to fall upon the ear This is the Sir George Grey who has been called upon with mellifluous voice to support the candidature of Mr. W. L. Bees, of whom we shall have to say more anon. Mr. Rees is a fluent, and, on occasion, an eloquent speaker. But if Mr. Rees’s words could be materialized, as it is said to be possible with departed snirits, why then the substance of all the speechesthis candidate ever uttered might, when boiled down, be put into a wine-glass and covered with a strawberry-leaf. The “ work-ing-man” oratory has been played out, and none know this better than the intelligent working men do themselves.