South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2521, 20 April 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1881.

Mr Vincent Pykb the member fertile Dunstan has just commenced a stumping tour. His political reputation, for a long time, has been on the wane, and his salary as chairman of the Vincent County Council has been

we presume of healing the wounefs that a much worn political career have received, Mr Pyke has taken up a very old war cry. “ The land for the people ” sounds well Though very hackneyed it is always popular. Frequently the faults of the musician are forgotten in the sweetness of the melody. The plaintive notes are familiar as household words. No other tune in the repertoire of stump harmony possesses so much intrinsic value cr imperishable grandeur. We confess that we like the air. It has a sympathetic ring, and it awakens & large amount of emotional feeling, Mr Pyke has also a voice of moderate range and he sings with tenderness. But alas! when the features obtrude the charm is dispelled. The music is sweet, the words sound pleasantly, but there is no soul, no expression. Poor Vincent! He may rub his threadbare reputation with land mixture till his fingers ache, but it must always look shady. We do not find fault with his sentiments. In his time he has given expression to many excellent ideas and aphorisms. The music might do, if the musician could only be kept in the background. New Zealand, like Ireland, probably wants land reform. Southland and central Otago want better settlers than rabbits. But the key-note must be struck by some other musician than Mr Vincent Pyke. The member for the Dunstan has quite outlived the good opinion of every sensible elector who has watched his political career. He may designate himself a reformer and he may take up the land cry, but who will believe in his sincerity ? No American travelling circus has ever produced so slippery an acrobat. If ever Sir George Grey had a dangerous friend it was Mr Vincent Pyke, What is called the Liberal party in Parliament owes its dismemberment almost entirely to the truculence and indecision of this unreliable representative. Why docs Mr Pyke raise this land cry ? Simply because it is popular and answers his purpose. Mr Pyke, we fear, will have to try something else. The squatters may applaud his melancholy music, but the electors, we trust, will be on their guard against a politician who is as slippery as an eel and as treacherous as the Goodwin Sands, The people of Otago, yes ! and Canterbury, too, want land reform ; they want the big estates broken up and subdivided, but they must have trustworthy politicians to do their work, Mr Pyke has been tried and found wanting, and if the Dunstan electors are true to themselves and the colony they will look round for something better than a jumping Jack who has been discarded by Whigs and Tories alike, and who is now shrieking out “ Land Reform ” as a dying, despairing effort.

The electors should not allow dust to be thrown in their eyes by the

spurious land reformers that are coming to the front. Mr Vincent Pyke and his Land League are simply a parish vestry organisation. Their patriotism has a limited range—it is confined to Otago. Indeed, if the leader of this movement were to be candid it might be found that his patriotism is not of a very unselfish character. The member for Dunstan is anxious about the future. He has compromised himself with the Liberal party. Distrusted at home and abroad, in the Vincent County Council and in the House of Representatives, he rests uneasily. He is anxious about securing another lease of political existence, and hence his vigorous denunciation of the Otago squatters. But with all his assumption of hatred Mr Pyke at this moment is just the man that the squatters want. He knows perfectly well that without the assistance of Canterbury, Auckland, and other parts of the colony the Otago squatters with their extensive sheep walks will never be disturbed. His duplicity in the past has tended to put these very squatters on a safer footing than they ever held before. Mr Pyke knows that as regards the squatters, 'he and his land league are in the position of one of Whitelaw’s patients. They are under the “ camisole ; ” their hands are tied, and they can do nothing. New Zealand requires something else than mere settlement. Many of her settlers are not to be envied at this moment. Along with settlement the colony requires prosperity. How best to make the population prosperous is the question that the electors must discuss. And, as a safe preliminary step, they will do well to avoid political shufflers for the future. The member for the Dunstan has proved himself the prince of shufflers, a trimmer of the basest kind. If great reforms are to be obtained, and who will deny that they are badly wanted, the country must look for young, ardent, and straightforward representatives.