The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25. THE DISSOLUTION.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 166, 25 June 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25. THE DISSOLUTION.

Parliament was prorogued yesterday afternoon to be dissolved on or before Saturday. In a few weeks the general elections will take place for a newly elected set of representatives. In many cases faces which have been seen in the House will be seen no more, and their absence will not be regretted. For the present we have only to consider our own interests. Other constituencies will be affected by the same feeling. It is what member will be best capable of doing his district the most good that will be returned. Liberal or Conserva-

tive will be of little consequence. It is the man and his measures that will in nine cases out of ten carry the day. Sir George Grey is out in the cold. It is likely he will be returned for some one or other of the electorates; but this is by no means certain. The people have got tired of him. It is certain he will never again hold a portfolio ; and

that whatever he moves for and advocates, be his advocacy ever so eloquent, he will not be permitted to be one among the Ministry. People in days aforetime got heartily tired of calling Aristides the just, and the electors of New Zealand are heartily sick of looking upon Sir George as the champion of the people. His day has gone by. His influence has waned ; and he is only now known by his former deeds. The member Poverty Bay wants is one who will carry weight with him in the Assembly—not one who will ask for impossible things, knowing and underderstanding that impossible things cannot possibly come to pass. We want a harbor and a breakwater which our member elect may use his utmost endeavors to obtain for us, but with very scant chance of success ; but still, as

in the case of the much importunity of the widow, mentioned in Scripture, whose prayer was granted, so may our representative secure for us a breakwater. What we do most want are things which are likely to be procurable. Such, we may say, as roads to open up the country, bridges to cross creeks and rivers ; the unsold lands thrown open for sale at moderate upset prices, and with perfected titles. We want a Waste Land Board in our district; a Registrar of Deeds and Titles. These, a member going with a Government in power will have no great difficulty in procuring. Against the Government in power little or nothing may be looked for. No Government can take from us the many natural advantages which our soil and climate present; nor the increase of our sheep and cattle and horses. No Government can stop the exportation of our wool and grass seed ; our tallow and hides, our horses, sheep and oxen ; but a Government can assist us in developing our resources, increas-

ing our exports, and forwarding the interests of a district from which for years they have drawn so largely and given so little in return. The policy of the New Zealand Government of the last ten years has been to foster large centres to the neglect of the smaller ones. But since the franchise now includes men from the lowest to the highest, from the poorest to the richest; and since the districts of the two Islands are represented upon a most liberal basis, the Government for the time being have come to see the necessity of dealing in the same spirit of fairness with the smaller communities as with the larger. The mistake our representatives in the past have made has been in asking for too much ; asking for what a Government could not have granted, however willing. It is not known for certain whether a breakwater for Gisborne would cost Z'Bo,ooo or twice or three times that amount, for when this kind of work has been commenced it must, to be of use and value, be completed. Past experiences in New Zealand has shown that the construction of breakwaters, river dredgings, the deepening of the entrances to

harbors, have cost from three to ten times the sums at first estimated. We cannot expect that in the present financial condition of the country that we shall either get an endowment or a subsidy sufficient to undertake the construction of a breakwater. But we may get, and with a friendly Government at our back there is little doubt but what we shall get, the means for laying a railway between Gisborne, Ormond, Patutahi, and Te Arai, and so pave the way for further opening up and occupying the country, which for want of access is unoccupied. Poverty Bayelectors will be very foolish in troubling themselves about whether a candidate is a Liberal or a Conservative, whether he is a Greyite or for Atkinson or for Sir Julius Vogel, should he be returned, or for any one else. The representative we want is not one who is troubled with fad;—not one who talks about waving fields of corn and smiling homesteads, with other such-like twaddle. The man we want is not one who talks

against time, who obstructs the business of Parliament, but one who will keep friends with those who arc willing to help him for the support he can give. All this may be looked upon as very unpatriotic. But it is the policy of those representatives who have done the most good for the centres at which they have been elected.