The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 1.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 120, 1 May 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, THURSDAY, MAY 1.

The last opportunity of showing that he had some spark of decency left in him—some faint glimmer of the high duties and responsibilities which devolve upon the representative of alarge and influential constituency, who has been elected to fill a seat at the council board, and to have a voice in the destinies of the whole colonies—has been recklessly discarded, and Mr. Allan McDonald has left these shores carrying with him an amount of odium which it would be difficult to find a parallel for in the history of the colony. Had. it not been for this last hair which has been laid upon us by this man leaving his trust in the disgraceful and unprecedented manner in which he has thought fit and proper to do, it was our intention not to touch upon this matter again, but to let the perpetrator go in peace, in the same manner in which the deluded meeting which he called generously forbore to resent the palpable falsehoods with which this Annanias and his plausible wire-pull-ing friend sought to gull and hoodwink the assembled crowd. Well might his alter ego state on the above occasion, in his crude and ludicrously false attempt to wipe off some of the foul dirt which had been so thickly plastered on his pliant dupe by the very hands, and for the sole benefit of the very individual who stood forth as his panegyrist, and only added insult to injury by stating that his friend “ never made a single enemy in the House,” —astatement which would tend to prove more than any amount of logic that the object of this satire must verily have been a thing of pity and a born natural if he “ never made a single enemy in the House 1” We have frequently been asked what all this means, what is the object of all this humbugging and scheming. Although it is incumbent upon us at all times to look sharply after the interests of the public, and to keep a watchful eye upon the progress of events, with a view of giving timely warning of the designs and plots of the enemy, so as to prevent a surprise, yet the time has scarcely arrived for laying bare the skeleton which it is being sought to foist upon us as flesh and blood. At the same time we think that some light may be thrown upon these affairs by calling attention to uninistakeable indications which, when put together and viewed from the present point in the programme, will no doubt enable our discriminating and shrewd readers to see that “coming events cast their shadows before.” In the first place, when our time-serving member found complications closing around him so rapidly after the eventful 18th of last October—when the Kahutia revelations rose up like Banquo’s ghost, just at the time when the feast which he had been at such pains to secure was being spread, and which, in spite of the combined talent of his compeers, has at last resulted in his fleeing from the writs to come— there can be little doubt but what he was most anxious to leave a scene where he could only add to his troubles by staying. At the same time he was under immense obligations to those who had stood him in good stead by keeping the wolf of the law at bay, and rumor says that he was absolutely compelled to place himself at the disposal of those who, for cunning and craft, eminently outvied their pliant Ulysses. Of course his party did not wish to lose such a certain vote, and plans were devised with the intent if possible of turning this occasion to profit. To have permitted him to resign in a straightforward manner would have given the enemy an opportunity of scoring, and stops were taken to “ sound” the constituency to seo whether another worthy successor in the same interest would stand a tolerable chance of being returned. The result must have greatly disappointed two of the trio, who, finding that their chances of succession were about nil, may undoubtedly be credited with concocting the dispicable act which has been played by the man who now is made the scapegoat. The handing over of the Harbor Bill and the association of certain names with the same is rather a significant move, especially when we take into consideration the fact that in all human probability another discarded mis-representative will shortly be indignantly ousted from the Mount which has only been made a tool of by its representative in the same manner as we have by ours, and who most assuredly will dupe us in turn, should we foolishly give him the opportunity, like his pussilanimous friend. The flowery speeches, the ostentatious philanthropy, the proffered aid given with assumed coy reluctance, is only part o£ a means whereby it is sought to gain an end. Having got rid of one of whom it has been said from the Bench, “ We are of opinion that the consideration set forth in the deed to McDonald has not been paid and has failed, and that the transaction was not fair and just, ” are we to countenance another, of whom the same authority said, “ Whoever advised her (Katabin* Kahutia) to bring this action . . . is, in our opinion deserving the gravest censure,” and who had the unblushing effrontry to appear in Court beside the wronged woman, and even now continues to act. in the same shady interest, notwithstanding the repeated adverse ruling which justice has dealt out to them. But the time is scarcely ripe for the full history of all this plotting, and we may rest content with alleging that Mr. A. McDonald is not wholly to blame in this matter, and that he’ is simply being made the scapegoat by those who would not hesitate at any ordinary obstacle which might deter more scrupulous men from attaining their ends, and whose case will shortly be desperate. If the report be true that

Mr. McDonald has really left without resigning (and there is little room for doubt) the rascally course has been taken solely at the request and bidding of certain members of his party who are a disgrace to the colour they boast of, and who have, by this action, done more to destroy the prestige of the coterie of which they form a part, than any action which their enemies could possibly take.