South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2672, 12 October 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1881.

It has been stated, and the statement bears an appearance of probable truth, that the General Election will be held in the first half of the month of December next. While in the majority of the electoral districts one or more candidates are already in the field, three of the South Canterbury constituencies have not yet been asked in the usual way to consider the claims of intending candidates to be considered fit representatives of the people in Parliament. It is well known that the Geraldine constituency will have a choice of candidates, and if common report is true Timaru will not have to seek a fitting representative, and Waimate, we believe, has a prospect of a contested election ; but so far as we are aware no one has intimated his willingness or desire to represent the important district of Gladstone. If it is true that the election takes place so soon, it is high time the electors were moving. The district is a wide one, and comprises within its limits interests so widely different in character, that it is scarcely probable that the election will be an uncontested one. We hope to sec a really Liberal candidate come forward, or brought forward, and we believe such an one would be sure of carrying the day against a representative of the large-estated Conservative class, whose chief wish is to maintain the present state of things, notwithstanding that this class is strongly represented in the district. The extension of the district so that it now takes in the whole of the Levels Plains, Seadown, most of the Timaru Downs, and Kingsdown to the sen (formerly included in the Timaru district) has added so large an agricultural element to the constituency that it is in the highest degree improbable, as it is in the highest degree undesirable, that the electoial district of Gladstone will again be represented by a gentleman whose chief claim to be considered fitted for the office of legislator was that he was the possessor of many acres, and had gotten him much wealth in the district. Such a claim will not be considered of the slightest value by the majority of the electors of the district as now constituted. We do not want Conservatism in South Canterbury. We want progress, and the only thing wo have that is wortli conservation is the spirit of progress that means Liberalism. This portion of New Zealand, and it is only a sample of the greater portion of the colony, needs the present state of things improving, not conserving. The country wants pushing ahead, and if legislative means cannot be devised to push it ahead, at least it should be demanded that no impediments be placed in the way of

its advancement. It is, moreover, not to those whose wealth has grown for them while they slept that the people must look for assistance in forwarding the national life. These naturally are content to let things continue as they are, and look at everything that has given them their wealth through rosetinted glasses. But the days of their success are passed away, a different, set of conditions now prevails, and & correspondingly different system of national management is consequently required. The legislation of the past had reference to the conditions of the past, and our legislators have mostly been men who were familiar only with those conditions and could not change their ideas with the changing character of the population. When the country was peopled by squatters for instance, whose only desire was to be let alone, and to be allowed to occupy their large holdings in peace, it was unavoidable that it should be governed by squatters, and that they should legislate in the direction of their desires; but now that a different stamp of men occupy the land, whom the same kind of legislation will not suit, it is manifestly required that the character of the legislation should be changed correspondingly with the change in the population. There are many reasons why a truly Liberal member should be returned for Gladstone. The interests of the most populous parts of the electoral district as now constituted are so strongly bound up with those of Timaru (and it may be taken as a matter of course that Timaru will return a Liberal) that it is in every way desirable that the members of the two districts should be of the same political faith, so as to be able to work side by side in the legislative field. We have not heard of anyone who seriously thinks of offering himself for election, but it will not do for the electors to wait much longer before casting about for a suitable candidate. They ought not to choose a man because he ban done this, that, or the other in a non-political sphere ; nor because he possesses personal or social qualities, which, however agreeable or endearing can have no influence upon his conduct as a legislator; nor because he is an old resident and has made himself popular in the district; nor because he is a glib speaker ; nor for any one or more of the hundred things which win support for candidates, but which have no more to do with the question of his fitness than with an eclipse of the moon. The electors should take to heart that they have to choose a member of a body by whom laws may and probably will be made, that will materially affect in one way or another, and for good or ill, their pockets, their personal comfort, their tastes, their whole personal and social welfare in short; and this being so they should exercise their choice, if choice is required, with care and circumspection. Not every constituency can get a man to represent them possessed of the genius required to constitute a statesman ; the most that the majority of them can hope to obtain is a sensible man, who, if be cannot originate great political schemes, can at least take a clear, common-sense view of the schemes of others, and will take whatever trouble is requisite to obtain such view; who can look beyond the walls of the building in which his legislative work is carried on, and see the effects of these schemes upon the present and future welfare of the people, and who has sufficient self reliance, sufficient “ backbone,” to adopt and adhere to a straight and consistent course in his dealings with whatever matters may come within his province. These are a few of the qualities the average representative should at least possess. There arc other qualities of a different kind which are indispensible to enable to the representative to exercise those just mentioned with any degree of success. The first of these is an acquaintance with the forms of public business, an acqaaintance which should have been acquired by an apprenticeship in the minor legislature of a local body, if the candidate should have had no previous experience of the manner of working of the higher legislature. It signifies little how wise and far teeing a man may be generally speaking ; it signifies little how correct his his views may be upon all important subjects ; if he is ignorant or regardless of the forms of procedure in public business—if he is not qualified to some extent as a “politician,” as a tactician, as well as legislator, the value of his labors in Parliament will run great risk of being heavily discounted. For lack of this qualification, this knowledge of how to carry a point against opposition, many admittedly wise and clear thinkers have proved failures as Parliamentary representatives, of which Mr John Stuart Mill and Lord Macauley in England, furnish notorious examples. The hour is almost come for Gladstone ; where is the man ?