“I AM NO ORATOR, ETC.”

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5, 27 April 1914, Page 5

“I AM NO ORATOR, ETC.”

[To The Editor Stratford Post,] Sir,—l sallied forth to the meeting on Friday night fully prepared to listen to those flights of oratory delivered by Mr King. Indeed, during the week, one of his henchmen made it a proud boast that ho had been school-' ing up the Electric Light candidate, and that the opposition must he prepared for some pills. To digress awhile, I remember once reading of a noted German scientist who, having discovered a new drug, determined to experiment with it on some fishes. Ho discovered that the drug acted on the brains, instinct, intuition or whatever it might be called in fishes, and that of the number lie said the only fish not affected was a small sole. However, Mr King’s Stratford effort was nothing to cavil at'; indeed ho should bo deserving of our pity. Particularly was he so when he had flown to the dizziest heights in the histrionic art and was “dealing out stoush” as he calls it, to his opponent; and I could not help likening him to a poor unfortunate who had got the tango on the brain and was practising some steps which he proposed to introduce into the dance by way* of improvement. I can indeed imagine His Worship in the words of the immortal Shakespeare (abridged) to-night saying: “I am no orator as Nathaniel is. . . , hut were I Nathaniel and Nathaniel William there were a William would .ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue in every wound of the Electrical ComIpany which would move the stones of Stratford to rise and mutiny.” Mr King touched on his Worship’s connection with the liquor traffic and made some caustic remarks thereon.

Doubtless this was clone to please liis friends who wear the blue ribbon. I am sure, however, that Mr King’s action in this matter, however much iet may have pleased the friends who are. his chief concern, will rebound on him and that he will ere long be hoist with his own petard. I should like to tell Mr King that if every man holding a license in New Zealand conducted the business on the same lines as Mr Kirkwood, there would be less heard froip the wowser element. As for Mr Kirkwood using his position as Mayor to assist in the cause of the trade,it is as preposterous and ridiculous as it is unfair, and the kind of drivel which one must be prepared to listen to from Mr King. Comingnow to the general municipal politics, Mr King’s speech was a resume of Mr Kirkwood’s; in fact he had got most of it off in good parrot fashion, and with the exception of the sop that Mr King held out in the way of a bridge, the platforms of both candidates are apparently identical. There is only one duty then which behoves the electors, in my opinion, and that is to return the man who will carry out the duties of Mayor with the dignity and decorum which should attach to the position. If Mr King’s remark to one of the interjectors the other night “to stop his yap” is a sample of what he would deal out at the Council table and on the occasion of public functions I am assured he is not the right man.—Yours, etc., “ELECTRA.”