AUCKLAND TITTLE TATTLE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 153, 10 June 1884, Page 2

AUCKLAND TITTLE TATTLE.

THE THREE CANDIDATES. BY OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT. In political circles there is a great deal of interest manifested over the forthcoming election for the East Coast. The Grey party are jubilant over the fact of the “ Grand Old Man” having mustered up courage t<a pay Gisborne a visit in order to champion the cause of W. L. Rees, and consequently they gloat over the mistaken notion that the plausible lawyer’s election is now sure. lam inclined to the belief that the giver of tea parties to the little boys and girls of Gisborne will find when the election comes round that he has overestimated his popularity, and |will find that even Mr. Gannon has a better score in the contest. Mr. Gannon would prove himself, if elected, a far better representative than] the wily lawyer, whose object, doubtless, is to get into the house in order to play second fiddler to the “ pious” lawyer, who last session made such a bungle in trying to get the New Zealand Native Lands Settlement Company’s barefaced bill through the House. This wretched association is evidently moving heaven and earth to obtain power in the House; and, surely, after the determined attitude taken by the people of Gisborne in opposing the passage of the bill I refer to, it is not reasonable now to suppose they will stultify their past actions by returning Rees to Parliament. Better, a thousand times, to be represented by the late lamented departed Mac. If he did you no good whilst sitting as your member, he did no harm, because no member of the House took any notice of what he said, whether good, bad, or indifferent. It would be otherwise with Rees. Gifted so strongly with the gift of the gab, he would talk until the House became disgusted, and in all probability on these occasions members would either embrace the opportunity to take a nap, or adjourn to Bellamy’s for something more refreshing than the dose Rees is capable of administering. The fact is, there are already too many lawyers representing their own interests in the New Zealand Parliament, and the sooner Peter the Great’s resolution is put into practice in this Colony the better. Your readers have all read that at the time this then powerful Monach visited London and beheld such a crowd of lawyers, he said there were only two in the whole of his kingdom, and when he returned there he should hang one of them. It is full time many of the lawyers of New Zealand were politically hung up to dry. The friends of Mr. Rees arc terribly irate at the prospect of Mr. Locke being the favorite candidate in the field, and through their organ, Labour, they have, after a spasmodic effort, put the following question : —“ Cannot the landocrasy there produce something better than a Samuel Locke to represent them? Seriously, it is an insult to any decent electorate for such a man as Mr. Locke evidently is, to offer his services as their representative. What will our representative institutions come to if such men are returned ?”

The reply of all sensible men to the last sentence is that there would become some prospect of our laws being founded upon A righteous basis, and not on the corrupt lines on which they are at the present time established. Those who know Mr. .Locke best will appreciate this little attack after the principle that naughty boys never cast sticks and stones at a barren apple tree. Rees’ party evidently fear Locxe, but they have nothing worse to hurl against him, than to find fault with his English. Of o ? thing I am assured, whether Mr. Locke sp ks good English or not, if elected he will act honestly and conscientiously in the in! crests of his constituents and of the Colony. Tnat is more than the minions of the N.Z.N.L.C. are capable of. Mr. Locke is not a talker, but a worker. If Rees should be returned, it would be a calamity to the district, and, to quote the X. Z. Times, it would “ constitute him the greatest political bore and nuiu ice in Australasia.” It is to be hoped the good people of the East Coast Electoral District will act sensibly when the day of polling comes, and steer clear of the clique that has long misrepresented the district. Turning aside from what is now uppermost in the minds of the people of Poverty Bay, let me write a few words about what is going on just now in Auckland. The tea-pot section of the community succeeded last election in getting in a majority of Licensing Commissioners. The result is now that the Licensed Victuallers are sitting in sackcloth and ashes, consequent upon all the public houses having to be closed punctually at ten p.m. It is believed that this arbitrary action of the Commissioners will arouse the British Lion of Auckland, because it is evidently an infringement upon the liberty of the subject. To close the hotels at ten o’clock in a commercial and maritime city like Auckland is simply monstrous; and if what I hear Is correct, the public will be made the sufferers in being called upon to pay enhanced prices for refreshments and accommodation. The action of the Auckland Licensing Commissioners just shows what tyranny would be practised were the teetotal section of the community to gain more political power than that already possessed by them I noticed your popular boni-face and jehu, Mr. S. M. Wilson, who has been lionising here during the past fortnight, and purchasing surprises for the good people of Gisborne, has been very much interested in watching the proceedings of the Licensing Commissioners from day to day. He will probably have much to say on the ten o’clock bi siness when he returns home.

I noticed in the Telephone an advertisement suggesting it was better to patronise the sweep you know than the one you do not. In the midst of so many fishy sweeps that are got up, so long as all of us delight in a little speculation, it is refreshing to know that there is at least one sweep promoter in Auckland who acts on the square with his patrons. I refer to Mr. “ John Bull,” who has here given great satisfaction by the straightforward and business-like manner in which he has conducted a number of consultations. Special representatives of the Observer and of other newspapers have attended Mr. John Bull’s drawing, and they testify that nothing could be fairer than the manner in which they are conducted, whilst the fortunate speculators have always been paid honorably and without delay. This gentleman has now a consultation open on the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase, and also one on the Melbourne Cup. If Poverty Bay people are intent on a little bit of “illicit” gambling I advise them to try their luck with John Bull.

By way of conclusion let me say that Mr. Richard Laishley, jun., notorious in thia Colony as the author of a book on Education much of which was made up of worn-out platitudes and foreign quotations, and erstwhile chairman of the Board of Education, continues to make himself ridiculous in England by purchasing up as many empty titles as he can get and palming himself off as a great man from this beautiful land. Everybody is heartily sick of the rubbish constantly appearing in the Star respecting this young man’s doings ; so much so that the following letter has been addussed to the editor of that journal: — “Do stop filling your paper with rubbish about that cheeky boy Laishley; we all know him and of what he is capable.—l am, &c., Samuel Coombes.” Mr. Laishley is also a lawyer!