The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1912. THE EGMONT ELECTION.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 104, 18 September 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1912. THE EGMONT ELECTION.

Probably if the totalisator had boon opened on the Egmont election, Mr. Wilkinson would have gone out a strong favorite, but even his most ardent supj porters hardly expected him to win by such a substantial majority as he has recorded. We have no reservations whatever in congratulating him upon his victory, for he will make an admirable local representative, lie is a prophet who has won honor in his own country, in flat defiance of the Biblical precept, and he has won this honor by sheer merit.- There will, of course, be the usual haka of triumph from the Conservative press, but, as we have already pointed out, the election was in no sense a political one, for the difference in the platforms of the candidates was as infinitesimal as the dot of an "i" on an izzard. The contest was one of individualities,; and not a strenuous party conflict. This is amply proved by a comparison of the returns at the various polls with that of the previous election. In many of the individual districts where Mr. Mackenzie easily overtopped his opponent at the last election, Mr. Wilkinson has scored a substantial majority, whilst in others, where Mr. Dive headed the poll. Mr. Astbury now shows a surplus. The victory is not a Conservative one, for as politics now stand the Conservative Party is as extinct as the moa or the dodo, or the pterodactyl, or the plesiosaurus, or any other objectionable beast. Egmont has simply returned a Liberal member to represent a Liberal constituency in a Liberal administration. It is almost a pity, from the point of view of spectacular polities, that Mr. Massey should have adopted the late Ministry's policy along with his occupation of the Treasury Tenches, for this casting overboard of his previous principles has robbed the gentle art of electioneering of most of its interest. So far, he is an Elisha who has worn the mantle of Elijah with considerable effectiveness and grace, and we have no doubt that Mr. Wilkinson will make a most effective train-bearer. At the same time the community may rest calmly assured that should the Prime Minister's performances fall short of his promises Mr. Wilkinson will speedily be found in Opposition. The country is, at present, in the position of having only one party in politics, and it is a matter of supreme indifference to it whether the Libera! policy that it has so consistently supported for many years is administered by Bill Smith or Tom Jones. Mr. Wilkinson has elected to serve under the banner of Hi!! Smith, but he is an honest and a, sterling citizen, who will have no hesitation whatever in transferrin? his allegiance to Tom .Jones if the übiquitous BiU should be weighed in the balance and

found wanting. So far as the important district he represents is concerned, it is safe to assume that its interests will be well and worthily looked after, by a man whose own interests are identical with those of his constituency. The " election has been fought in an admirable spirit by two worthy candidates, and Egmont need have no misgivings at having chosen Tweedledum to represent it in preference to Tweedledee

MR. McNAR'S EXPENSES. The lion. R. McNab, ex-Minister of Lands, was made the victim of a grave misrepresentation in the House recently when it was a lleged that ho was receiving payment from the late Government -in connection with his researches into the early history of New Zealand. It was held up as a reproach against Mm and against the Government that he should have accepted money towards his travelling expenses and the cost of printing his work. Had the Government paid the whole of his expenses it would have been perfectly justified, and the country would have got good value for its money. But as a matter of fact the statement was at once challenged in the House, and a 'return now published by order of the Chamber states that Mr. MeNab has not received one penny of the country's money towards his expenses, and that the whole cost of his valuable contribution to the historical records of the Dominion has been defrayed from his own pocket. It is not unnatural that in the absence of any apology from the member who made the charges Mr. McNab should have announced that the information ho supplied to the Government Printer for his hook would be the last that he would supply. We have nothing but contempt for the individual who made the charges and who has, although challenged to do so in the House, consistently refused to make the amende Honorable. But there is a bigger principle involved. .The work Mr. McNab has been so generously 'doing could not be paid for by the country in the sordid terms of pounds, shillings and pence, for even if it had been reduced to a question of monetary compensation the Dominion would still have oweipliim a never-ending debt of gratitude. Mr. MeNab spared neither his time nor his private purse in making extensive researches in the far corners of the world, and/the attack upon him is a poor reward for his generosity. But for the sake of a country that is very dear to him and for the mass of the •people who have never placed the slightest reliance on'tlie charges made against him, it is to be hoped that he "will reconsider' his decision and proceed with a work of wide general interest and of inestimable value. It is hardly right that the majority of us should suffer for the paltry and contemptible indiscretion of one if his political opponents, and we trust that his magnanimity will allow him 'to ignore the littlenss and the meanness of his accuser. Mr. F. M. B. Fisher, on- behalf of., the Government, has made a belated but full apology for an accusation by one of the members of -liia party, and while Mr. McNab probably does not care twopence for this tardy attempt at reparation, we hope that he will consider it as reflecting in a more generous spirit the feeling of the whole country. His grounds for indignation are manifest, but-we really cannot afford to allow him to throw up his work m disgust. He should have been paid for that work, as a matter, of fact, and it would have been only generous of the Government to have recognised this fact on its own initiative, instead of practically fathering the calumny aimed at him by a conspiracy of tacit acceptance. We are getting far too inanv attacks of this sort upon' men in public life, and it is quite time that offenders in this respect were brought more seriously to book. So long as they are subject to misrepresentation and abuse of this character there is little inducement for public-spirited men to take any part in the social and poiltical life of the country. Mr. McNab has the confidence and sympathy of every right-thinking person in the Dominion, and for the sake of his many friends-he should be persuaded to overlook the pitiable attacks of a few political malcontents.