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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 183, 15 July 1884, Page 2

That “a prophet can find no honor in his own country,” and, we might add, no credit, has been proved by the late elections, and now again by the appearance of a most remarkable advertisement which we cull from our Wairoa contemporary. It is evident that our Wairoa friends have proved less obdurate or more confiding than their experienced Gisborne brethren, a circumstance which has apparently been made the most of, and a correspondingly strong dose of “ gammon ” has been administered. On a previous occasion we expressed our intention of refusing to insert any more “cheap” election advertisements, but we think that, in the present instance, we are justified in departing from this wholesome rule, and we give the following in order to show that our Wairoa friends must have a strong digestion indeed if they can swallow it: —

Electors of Wairoa—l claim your votes in the interest of the people—that is your own. Mr. Locke represents the present Government, and sheep, money, land, and the interest of the few against the many. He and his supporters, the squatters and Napier merchants, are all Conservatives, they have never done anything for you or the Wairoa, and never will. I represent the Liberal Opposition—men with their hopes and sympathies, labor, and other principles in regard to land, both Crown and Native land, which will throw open all lands to you and the people fairly. I am against all cliques, and for the happiness of the many as against the selfishness of the few, and I am against giving up this fair country to the tender mercies of a sham aristocracy. Do not be led away by persuasion or slander, or specious promises, but vote for one who will so long as life lasts, labor for the welfare of the whole people.—l am, yours faithfully, W. L. Bees. The effrontery and charlatanism contained in the above is sublime, and the preposterous assertion that Mr. Locke represents “ the present Government, sheep, money, land, and the interests of the few against the many,” is only excelled by the audacious assertion that he (Mr. Rees) represents “ the Liberal Opposition—men with their hopes and sympathies, labor, and those principles in regard to land—both crown and native—which will throw open all lands to you and the people fairly.” When Mr. Locke came forward last time he declared to support the present Government so long as they remained in power, but in the event of their going out he should hold himself free to take up any position likely to prove most beneficial to the interests of the district. As to Mr. Locke representing sheep, money, land, and the Conservatives, we should like to know which is most entitled to our sympathy, respect, and the honor of being considered the working man’s candidate—either the man who has from the ranks of labor raised himself up to a moderate position of independence by steady toil and honest industry, or the parson-lawyer who must of necessity take every advantage of and exists upon the weakness and follies of human nature. If being the most active agent of Mr. Thomas Russell's clique, if being the paid servant and solicitor to one of the most notorious land-sharking companies (in whose interests he is now, and has long been, acquiring —-we cannot say buy-ing—-all the native land obtainable in this district,’ with a view of handing the same over to the great pawn-shop cormorants and land monopolists), if being a “feeder" to the hydra-headed serpent, the Bank of New Zealand, which is rapidly entwining its folds round these colonies and crippling its young life; if being a worshipper of and leader of that sham aristocracy which, to suit his present purpose he now pretends to sneer at,—if to be all these entitles Mr. Rees to be called a Liberal, then he is one, but not otherwise. To all those who are conversant with the chequered career of Mr. Rees for the last few years of his existence the concluding paragraph of the above address cannot fail to prove intensely amusing, and can only be taken as a remnant of the cant which invariably taints any speech emanating from a class known as “ clerical renegades.”