Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1898. LAST WORDS TO THE ELECTORS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XIV, Issue 2124, 5 July 1898, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News TUESDAY, JULY 5, 1898. LAST WORDS TO THE ELECTORS.

At last the day so long looked forward to has arrived, when the ratepayers of Te Aroha will have an opportunity of showing that portion of the world at large which takes an interest in their welfare and that pf their promising young borough, which of the two candidates for the brand pew mayoral chair they desire to honour. In our mind there is no room for hesitation but many whose opinions we are acoustomed to respect appear to be dubious. Mr Gavin at one period in the campaign had good reason to put up a petition to be saved from his friends, like many another man Before him in a similar position. Ketrospect in an electoral campaign is a profitless occupation at any time, and one in which it would serve no good purpose to indulge in connection with the contest which we trust will reach a fitting climax to-day in the return of Mr Thomas Gavin at the head of the poll. In that gentleman, we believe, the ratepayers .for a long time had accustomed themselves to recognise the legitimate heir to the throne of our lately reconstructed little kingdom. The fixity of this idea was somewhat disturbed, however, by the untoward circumstances which occurred recently. If by any chance Mr Mills should upset our calculations and secure the verdict, our surprise will be tempered by the knowledge that it will be largely due to the advantages he gained over his opponent by reason of the unhappy taetics resorted to by some of that gentleman’s supporters. What the ratepayers should bear in mind chiefly is not the special pleading of advocates of either candidate at the eleventh hour, but the creditable facts, of which we are now all in full possession, associated with each candidate’s public career. If the light that beats about a throne is fierce the publicity attached to even such a comparatively lowly post as chairman of a public body is none the less of a searching character, even if its radius of observation be confined within the limits of a township district. Mr Thomas Gavin entered upon this contest heavily •handicapped in this respect. He has for several years past continuously resided in an atmosphere of publicity, whereas Mr Mills has just emerged from retirement*clad in all the charm of novelty. AH the sins of omission | and commission in connection with the Town and Doman Boards, the errors of the individual commissioners, the caretakers, the 00-operative labourers, and all the experts from Wellington, are focussed on the unfortunate chairman, who p« rforce stands in a moral pillory, a tempting mark for every uncharitably disposed person to hurl the ga> bags of his wit at. It is ho easy thing for a man to hold and retain the confidence of the people for any length of time. Gladstone himself, than whom the people never had a truer friend, was denounced as a Judas, and a mob stoned the Great Duke of Wellington in the streets of London. What is a mere harmless ebullition of temper in the private citizen becomes in the public man Jan unpardonable exhibition of insolence and want of tact. But may not Buch displays however undiplomatic and injurious, as they manifestly are, not be regarded as the evidences of & man’s sincerity and earnestness of purpose ? We are not apt to measure our words when we feel very strongly on a subject- Mr Gavin’s whole personality is bound up in the Te Aroha Domain, and we'very well remember him saying more than a year ago now, that the one thing he prided himself on most was being chairman of the Te Aroha Domain Board. At the time our mind, we remember, reverted to Queen Mary’s declaration that the word Calais would be found engraved on her heart, so entirely were her affections wrapt up in the then beleaguered city. Mr Gavin spoke on that occasion of his affection for the D )main aind the work he had done and contemplated doing for it in tones of such genuine sincerity as to create an impression in our minds that time has not served to efface. Such an expression of warm and whole hearted devotion proceeding from one usually so undemonstrative, must touch even the cynical as pathetic in a public man, when we remember the vicissitudes of fortune such men are liable to. We grant that as a public man ve th’nk he is too impatient of criticism at times; but we believe the added responsibilities that would devolve upon him as the chief officer of a municipality would tone down any little acerbities of; manner to which we are at present nclined to take exception. For after *

all he is a comparatively speaking young man. At any rate he is a man in the prime of life, and from a purely selfish point of view sound reasons for supportinghim might be adduced. With the high standard of education and experience in the world’s ways discoverable amongst the electors of New Zealand we have no fear that the small section of them who will be called upon to exercise their privilege at the polls to-day will fall into the toils ©f those versed ©f old in the ways of poll' leal intrigue. Let the ratepayers mentally set the two men before them putting away from their minds all that the brazen - throated partizans and whisperers have said of them and think for themselves which of these two men Thomas Gavin or James Mills, James Mills or Thomas Gavin, do they consider, apart from all the bewildering side issues and questions of the right way of introducing water and gas into the borough, is best fitted by nature and attainments to occupy the mayoral chair of Te Aroha. That is what we would ask them to do as our last word.