WANTED A SEAT.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 175, 5 July 1884, Page 2

WANTED A SEAT.

The following is from the Auckland Herald 1 —“ Amongst the passengers by the Hinemoa yesterday was Mr. DeLautour, who comes &b a stranger to seek a constituency. Our readers will scarcely believe us when we say that he comes here after deliberately voting to upset a Ministry which contained an Auckland man (which has not always been the case), and which proposed that Auckland and the North Island should be treated fairly. He comes too laden with 210 ill-gotten sovereigns, for which he was an enthusiastic seeker. Mr. DeLautour is in many respects a very excellent man. He is a painstaking member, never speaking on a subject till he is well prepared. He is earnest and impressive in his utterance, and his speeches are most effective. He was in a fair way to win an enviable position in the House, but in late sessions the ground he had gained was lost somehow by his connection with the East Coast Native Lands Company, of which he is a salaried servant. There was a time when Mr. DeLautour would have had a “ good show” for an Auckland constituency, although he has no interest or stake here whatever; but that time is past, and these two last instances recorded in Hansard of how Mr. De Lautour voted was an effectual barrier. No Auckland comstituency could get over them. Mr. DeLautour has bidden farewell to his constituency at Mount Ida, in OtagOj because lie has ceased to reside there. He had, at all events, the right to say that he had represented them for a number of years, and that of itself constituted a claim. But the reason which compelled Mr. DeLautour to take an affectionate farewell of Mount Ida should prevent him seeking a constituency here, for he has no more affinity—indeed, much less—with the electors of any district here in the North than he has with the residents in Mount Ida. Mr. DeLautour has not yet quite made up his mind as to which fortress he will storm, which of our legislators he will oust from his seat. That, indeed, will be a matter of deliberation between him and his friends in Auckland. Rumour has it, however, that he means to try the Bay of Islands, and to defeat Mr. Hobbs on his own ground. It is against all the principles of a goed colonist to send away a man of capital; and as Mr. De Lautour has 210 sovereigns which he has obtained to enter into “ the contest against wealth,” we should like to see them spent here, and “ the money kept in the country,” or, rather in this case, the provincial district. Notwithstanding that feeling, however, it would be very wrong to mock Mr. De Lautour with delusive hopes. We believe he likes frankness and honesty, and therefore we are compelled to tell him that he has no chance at the Bay of Islands or anywhere else in this quarter of the colony.

We may soon have a distinguished visitor to the South Seas—a novelist in search of fresh sense tions. Jules Verne is having a vessel built in which he proposes to go in search of romantic material for literary use in the Antarctic Ocean. The three articles on the Socialist agitation which have recently appeared in the Quarterly Review were written by Mr. W. H. Mallock, and are to be republished together in a cheap form by Mr. Murray. Carlyle’s prolific use of words is being dis. cussed. In “ Sartor Resartus ” alone it is found that the vocabulary contains about 7,500 words, whilst the whole of Slmkspeare’s vocabulary is put down at 16,000 words, and that of Milton at 7,500. A sentimental writer asks, “ What is more cunning than a baby’s hand?” Well, four kings and an ace are 99 per cent, more cunning, and rake in tin pot nearly every time. This may not bo the right answer, but it will do to bet on. At an auction sale in London recently, the original lease of the farm of Ellisland to Robert Burns, with the poet’s disposition of it to another tenant, was sold for the compel atively trifling sum of £33. “ Did you put your arm round her waist ?” aslved the counsel in a breach of promise case, cm 1 ’ adm ‘ri2d the plaintiff. She as.ced me to, and I never decline a pressing invitation like that.”