The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1890. ELECTIONEERING TACTICS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2131, 29 November 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1890. ELECTIONEERING TACTICS.

With the exception of some rowdyism which was indulged in the principal cities and the disgraceful scenes in our own districts recently the elections are being conducted very quietly throughout the colony. It is painful and humiliating to witness acts of violence in connection with elections. Candidates do not deserve such treatment. Be the candidate ever so humble he is deserving of respect and consideration. He may not deserve the confidence of the majority of the electors, and he may not get their votes, but he commits no offence and breaks no law in offering himself as a candidate. On the contrary he puts himself to great expense, trouble, and inconvenience, and has to submit to worries, annoyances, backbiting, misrepresentation, vilification, and slander very frequently of the grossest kind. Some may say “ Serve him right for offering himself as a candidate,” but

supposing no one offered himself, what would be the consequence ? It is very fortunate indeed that men are so ready to offer their services, and it is a most extraordinary fact that they are considering how paltry the reward is. Ihe paltry sum of £l5O a year cannot possibly prove a temptation to anyone. No one in social life would do the same amount of the same class of labor for the same amount ot money. Independent altogether of the worry, anxiety, trouble, and expense of an election campaign, members have to sit night after night in the House till three or four o’clock in the morning, and then be ready at 10 o’clock the following morning again to attend to committee work. Let no one make any mistake about it at aU. If,a member of Parliament attends to fiis duties no man works Larder or longer hours during the three or four months be is in Wellington, and when he is at home he is at the beck and call of his constituents at all hours and at all

times. The expenses, too, are great, Before he is elected at all the best part of the first year’s honorarium is gone, let him be ever so economical. We have heard of mea whose elections cost them three times the amount of the three years’ honorarium put together, and then did not get elected, whilst it is impossible to point to a man who has made any money out of

politics. Sir Harry Atkinson has had a better chance of making money out of politics than any man living, but he is still poor by all accounts, and so on with every one of them. It is, therefore, surprising that men are so ready to offer their services, and the only way it can be explained is that politics have a great fascination for some people, and that tradition has surrounded the position with a certain amount of eclat which renders it sought after by others. The illtreatment of candidates, the slandering, the backbiting, and the dirty, paltry tricks which are frequently resorted to to gain elections, together with the abuse which is heaped upon members, is disgusting many men, and the result is that many would not submit to it for any consideration. There will always, no doubt, be found a sufficient number of men ready to go into Parliament, but if the men of honor, of education, of intelligence, and of ability begin to regard the position as beneath them, then the Parliament must deteriorate and the result will be serious to the people of this colony. It is therefore desirable that proper respect and courtesy should be extended to candidates. To abuse them or use violence towards them is very wrong. If a candidate offers himself and the people do not want him they can give him a broad hint by passing a vote of no confidence in him. That is quite legitimate, and that does him more harm than violence and abuse. To abuse him is to create sympathy for him, and very frequently instead of doing him harm it secures him a great many votes and wins his election. There is always the excuse that larrikins are responsible for disturbances at election meetings, and that the electors have nothing at all to do with it. That is all very well. If the electors frowned down the larrikins the disturbances would not take place. There are always more men than larrikins at places of the kind, and they could always put down any unseemly conduct if they desired to do so. The men who stand by and see an inoffensive man illtreated are just as much to blame as the larrikins, and it certainly is no credit to them to witness such conduct without making any attempt to put it down.