The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JULY 12.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 181, 12 July 1884, Page 2

The Telephone. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, JULY 12.

As will be seen by a communication from our Wairoa correspondent, published in our last, Mr. W. L. Rees has again mounted the rostrum and held forth in a manner which bids fair to outrival his renowned alter ego, Capt. Jackson Barry, of whale-riding celebrity. Why Mr. Rees should so constantly ride the whale “ philanthropy” is incomprehensible considering that ne can 11 spout ” better than any known species of mammalia, On the occasion above referred to he again assumed the old role, and posed before the meeting as the liberal philanthropist and working man’s friend, whilst his oratory was of the usual clap-trap order, and his hearers were solemnly and pathetically exhorted to seriously consider the great responsibility and “sacredness” of the trust reposed in them by the Franchise Act. He then appealed to their consciences, and admonished them that they had no right to give their votes for friendship or any such shallow reason, but it was their bounden duty to give them to the man “ who was likely to do the most good.” Had Mr. Rees added “ for himself ” we could have understood that he was pleading in his own behalf. But as matters stand there is little doubt but what his advice will be strictly followed by the constituency again returning the man who has proved that he is not alone “ likely ” but sure to do the most good, not for himself, but for the whole district. Mr. Rees has so long occupied a sphere of such practical usefulness in this place by watching over the interests of Mr. Thomas Russell and the natives, and converting the latter’s land into Company’s scrip, and has given such convincing proofs of his entire and self-sacrificing devotion to philanthropical objects, that it would be wrong in the extreme to take him from such a fruitful field of labor as this district presents to a man of his proclivities. Has he not on all occasions evinced the most benevolent spirit by eagerly availing himself of every opportunity to relieve others of the cares and troubles which attend the ownership of valuable possessions. We need only point to the “Eldon-Chambers” case to make ourselves understood. To relieve its owner from its troublesome possession was good of him, to let the same and collect the rents for years was remarkable, bnt to gratuitously dispose of the latter imposed such an overwhelming amount of obligation upon

its owner that he felt it incumbent upon him to prevent such devotion by an appeal to the Supreme Court, and it was only at the pressing invitation of the latter that our benevolent canuidate could be induced to allow the owner to resume the cares of occupation. Bus an ungrateful public refuses to believe in his good intentions, and they, together with the press, have therefore been brought under ban, and the sordid leanings of the latter loudly denounced. On a late occasion Mr. Rees expressed his astonishment at the public supporting this journal, and described it as a “ bastard of Fads," and further volunteered the statement that we only represented a loss of /’jo a week to our owners. No doubt the wish was father to the statement, and we can only say that if our list of subscribers contained the names of many such as our detractor, there would soon be a strong probability of his words being realised. That Mr, Rees is deeply indebted to the press for much forbearence, in more senses than one, is best understood by the total absence of any published electoral address in our contemporary or elsewhere, and we have little doubt but what he will eventually understand the difference between the use and abuse where it is necessary to make an argumentum ad crumenam.