South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2710, 25 November 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1881.

Union is strength ; disunion is weakness, as the Liberals of the South Canterbury electorates will find out to their cost if they do not mind what they are about in the present election campaign. There are too many candidates of the progressive party in the field, and if all go to the poll who have presented themselves as candidates the consequence may be that everyone of them will be left out in the cold, and that the electors who voted for them will find that they have thrown away their power by dividing it and expending it uselessly. There seems to be what must be characterised as a childish eagerness on- the part of electors to “ bring a man forward,” regardless of consequences, as if to bring someone forward and vote for him at the poll were the highest duty of man as an elector. Too many people do not know, or forget, that the essence of politics, practically considered, is nothing more than the art of getting one’s own way in public matters. This definition a very little consideration will show is a true and sufficient one. Politics and statesmanship are totally distinct things. The very greatest of statesmen would be

useless, as a statesman, unless he could also manage to make other people adopt and carry out his views, in other words, unless he were also a politician —skilful in getting his own way. Hitherto the politics of elections, using the word politics in the sense given above, have been to a very great extent in . the hands of one class, and they have naturally acquired a good deal of skill in the art of getting their own. way, -through the practice they have had. It is this skill that the people at large have now to fear in in their attempts to use the political power that they have at length obtained. Everyone is familiar with numerous practical illustrations of the ease with which trained men vanquish untrained men of immensely superior strength in contests of an individual kind, and these illustrations are perfectly applicable to cases of men acting in concert. We warn the people that if they do not strive to act “ politically,” if they do not decide, not what they wish do, but what they can do wijjji certainty that comes nearest to their wish, they had better not trouble themselves to do anything at all, for the chances are that they will lose their labor. There are now three candidates in the field for Timaru, for instance, all three of whom will run on similar “ tickets,” as compared with the ticket of what we may term the old-family, the Conservative, the squattocratic party. Now if all three candidates go to the poll, there is considerable danger of all of them coming away again—as they went. It is no secret that strenuous efforts are being made by the old party to prepare the way for a party representative, and that party,be it remembered, consists largely of “ politicians,” men who have had plenty of practice at wire-pulling, men who “ know the ropes ” of crafts of this kind. It would be a great blunder —it is often said that a political blunder is a crime—if the progressive party throw 'away the election by dividing their strength, if they lose the game by reckless playing of the cards. Let the friends of each of the new candidates ask themselves, not whether their candidate is a better man than the others, but whether ho has any reasonable chance of being elected. It signifies little how good a man is if he cannot be placed at the head of the poll, and we do not think either of the two new candidates has anjr chance against the old and tried member. But there is a more important question behind. The old party before alluded to, seeing the opposite camp so divided, will take advantage of the disunion, and that disunion will seriously imperil the election of any one of the Liberal candidates. Everyone remembers the effort made by the squattocratic party to gain the last election, a puerile one no doubt it was ; they will not make the same mistake again, but the circumstances will be so much more favorable this time. They will bp united, while the Liberals will be weakened by division. It must be borne in mind that not only has the most suitable man to be got in if possible, but the least suitable one must be kept out even at the risk of the very best man not being returned. The electors of Timaru will bite their fingers with vexation if they find that their eagerness to bring out their friends results in the triumph of an enemy. This would be bad “ politics”; it would not be politics at all. Instead of having one’s own way, it would be stupidly letting others have theirs. In writing of the case of the Timaru election we have had to refer to possibilities only. If we look to the case of Geraldine the possibilities are seen to be probabilities, almost certainties. There is a strong desire in that district to effect a change in their representative ; but how are those who wish for the change going to work to procure it ? They are taking the very means most calculated to prevent its being effected by bringing forward two local candidates. There is not much “politics,” not much of the art of getting one’s own way, shown in this proceeding. Each of the local candidates, with his friends, hopes to win, hut what business has hope in a matter of this kind. The election becomes a mere gambling with chances when conducted in this way, and “ men, not principles ” would be a proper cry. The chances are that both men and principles will be distanced in the race. Waimate is in even worse plight. There are so many candidates in the field for this seat that we should imagine the issue of the election to be very doubtful indeed, and an inferior man who happens to please a certain section of the constituency may be carried in simply through the other electors splitting their votes among the good men. A third candidate has announced himself for Gladstone; but what he hopes to effect we cannot tell. What he may. reasonably expect to do, for himself, is—nothing ; what he may do for others is of more importance. He may get a number of votes, will certainly do so if he goes to the poll,—not enough to return him we may be sure, but enough possibly to turn the election as between the other two candidates. Electors who throw their votes away by giving them to a candidate who has no reasonable chance of success, cannot value very highly the franchise that has been won for them.