THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1893. THE FUNNY CANDIDATE.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2568, 14 October 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 14, 1893. THE FUNNY CANDIDATE.

ThiS futiny candidate, who regularly makes life app«aMa>? at evo 7 election, has made his appearance ear*? antl ™3" merously this year. In Duiieditl, & £J- r Nicol, who «=©11» papers on the streets; and also on the train to Invercargill, is ambitious to give his country the benefit of his wisdom. He was early in the field, and delivered,.or, more strictly speaking, attempted to deliver an address to a crowded hall in Dunedin a couple of months ago. He repeated the attempt last week, but a hall packed with people, amongst whom were ladies, took possession of the place and behaved so rowdily that the lights were put out, and all left without giving the candidate a chance of delivering his address. In In Christchureh a gentleman namtd Fulisten lias also had a veiy disorderly meeting, but ho succeeded in raiding his speech, so that it has got into the papers. His chief claim to the confident of the people is that he is a Birmingham commercial man, that he gave good advice to Lord Chamberlain, and that he talked politics with Lord .Randolph Churchill. This is on a par with the claims o£ Mr I. It. O. C. Graham, of Ashburfcon, whose greatest qualification is that he is a cousin of Mr Cunninghams Graham, the Radical English M.P. Mr Fuuaton is opposed to Party Government, and would elect the Upper House. He would deal with politics ou a commercial basis, and would subordinate all other interests to commercial development. Some of his . idejis are crude, but the amusing feature ! of all i 8 the guilelessness with *}»s l»e

gives positive assurance that the reforms which he proposes—which includes a State Bank—will all be given legal effect to the first session after he ia elected. Mr Funston is evidently a man who means well, but has only a limited acquaintance with politics. At the close of his address several foolish questions were put to him, but he declined to answer them, and rushed off the stage in disgust. Funny candidates will be to the end of time, but the mischief of it is that they often manage to catch a few votes, and do harm to the legitimate candidates. What we would like to see is two candidates representing the two sides of the House, and fair play to be given to both, but we regret to say that we see very little prospect of this in the coming election, and consequentty the Liberal Party is in danger of losing the battle.

Hard times.

Nothing is at present said about capital leaving the colony, but, notwithstanding that there is complete silence on the subject, the country's life-blood is being drained away secretly and surreptitiously to replenish the empty coffers of Australian institutions. There never was a time when money was so tight and so scarce, and the reason is that it is being sent over to Australia to prop up the rotten institutions of that country. Nothing is to be gained by going into details on a subject of this kind, but we venture to think that before many months are at an end people will come to realise the folly.of our banking system. The six mouths grace given to Australian banks will soon have expired, and thence—forward they must provide gold instead of paper. At present paper is a legal tender there, everyone is obliged to take bank notes in payment of his debt, and it is by this means the panic was brought to a close. The six months during which paper money h»3 been made a legal tender will have expired soon, the day of reckoning will follow, and hence the reason that all the gold is being drained away to Australia. This is hard on this colony; it is hard ou us, just as we were climbing the giddy heights of prosperity, with every prospect of reaching its summit, to be thrown back like this through the fault of our neighbors. The rate of interest is now gjing up and that means that our industries will be handicapped, that trade will be dull, that there will be lack of employment and general stagnation. Every man who has had an overdraft in a bank has been warned to reduce it, and if he becomes angry and tries another bank he will find the other bank is putting on the screw as tightly a 3 its neighbor. We are fortunate, in one way, in this colony, for by an Act passed last session, our banks cannot now be rushed. If a run should take place the Governor has power to proclaim bank notes a legal tender, and the moment that takes place the run must cease. It is not the slightest use to keep it up longer for the banks have nothing to do only print bank notes and distribute them, and every one must take them. It is a rotten system, but it is the only way of dealing with an unreasonable rnu ou banks. But at the sametiine it is a terribly risky and unbusinesslike method, and only that the people are very foolish they would not tolerate this sort of thing any longer. It is a pity the people cannot see that they are marring their own and their children's prospects, in not taking the matter in hand aud insisting upon a .•State Bank being established. This is the only remedy. The failure of the Glasgow banK brought on us the hard times of 14 years ago, and now history is repeating itself with regard to Australia. How soon we may have other failures no one know 3, but they are sure to come aud then we shall suffer from their effects. It is said that a burned child dreads the fire, but the scorching which bank failures inflict do not appear to frighten the public. However, we are afraid that we are in the beginning of another season of depression caused by the scarcity of money, and perhaps this may teach U 3 a practical lesson.