The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JUNE 17.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 159, 17 June 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, TUESDAY, JUNE 17.

To those who have watched the contested election for the East Coast from its commencement until its termination the result has not caused any surprise. So large a majority of votes was scarcely looked for it is true, but it was felt from the first that Mr. Locke’s return over his opponents amounted to a certainty. It is not difficult to trace the cause of Mr. Locke’s success. What this candidate told the electors the electors believed. The candidate made no rash promises. He enunciated his policy in very clear language, and by that policy he stood firm. He did not allow himself to indulge in invective, nor in offensive personalities. He met his opponents in open field, and gave both of them fair fight. While Mr. Rees and Mr. Gannon were firing volley after volley at each other from the platform and through the advertising columns of the local press, Mr. Locke continued to pursue the even tenor of his way, trusting to his wellknown and long-tried integrity as the weapons with which he preferred to secure his success. Mr. Rees and Mr. Gannon will have gained at least one little bit of experience during their canvass. This is, that a show of hands, or the applause, or cheers, or the hip-hip-hurrahs from a multitude gathered together in a public hall is really no indication of public feeling. If these gentlemen had studied their Shakespeare, in “ Julius Caesar ” and “ Coriolanus,” they would have known this, and would not have trusted to what they deemed was the vox populi. Take the show of hands at the nomination. There were some sixty held up for Mr. Rees and about thirty for Mr. Locke, while only sixteen hands were held up for Mr. Gannon. The opinion of those not experienced in electioneering, under a free franchise and the ballot box was that Mr. Rees would head the poll by a large number and that Mr. Gannon would be no where in the running. Public excitement at public gatherings only requires time to calm down, when the true feeling comes out. For instance, at the nomination had the show of hands decided the election, Mr. Rees would have been at the head of the poll, instead of which he finds Mr. Locke close upon two hundred votes above him. Mr. Rees and Mr. Gannon tacked themselves on to what is called the “ Grey Party.” But both candidates knew quite as well, as all who are informed upon the subject, that no such a party exists. Sir George Grey’s warmest friends and staunchest supporters know well that Sir George will never again be entrusted with the reins of government. That no one of any independence of feeling would or could have worked with him. “The old man eloquent ” has allowed himself to sink down into one of the “has beens ” and it may be said more shame to his friends for having permitted him so to fall. Poverty Bay does not want a member with theories and crochets and ideas of “principles of government” which are not workable, nor likely to be workable in the present generation. The district wants roads and bridges and the unoccupied lands opened up. These will not he obtained by flowe y speeches, nor by denunciations, nor by any other means than a straightforward, untiring advocacy. The electors have had sense and understanding enough to see this—hence Mr. Locke’s success and the complete failure of his opponents.