THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4014, 9 November 1881, Page 2

THE COMING ELECTIONS.

The Bay of Plenty Times says :— Many of the new candidates for Parliamentary bouors are attempting to hoist themselres into power on the old cry of the antagonism of capital to labor. They seem to think, or would hare their hearers think, that it is a very bad thing for the country to be represented by capitalists, especially by those. who have invested coital in laad. They se9 k to make out

that the landed interest must of necessity be antagonistic to the welfare of the com* munity as a whole, and especially those known as the working classes. Now, it is just men of property—whether that property be in land shares or invested in trade—that the country wants as representatives. The man with a stake in the country feels taxation most directly : he most appreciates the judicious expenditure on public works, and is most likely to look after retrenchment in expenditure where possible, as well as to encourage expenditure where it is likely to be remunerative! The man of no property, on the other hand, or the man without a stake in the country has no personal interest in the matter, and hence cannot be expected to keep the same sharp look out to see that °the business of the country is properly managed as the man who feels that he is directly interested in everything that is done. The Hawke's Bay Herald takes this view of the subject, and strongly advocates the return of men to Parliament that have something to lose. Our contemporary says—" It is well that all classes should be represented in the Legislature, but unless a large pre* ponderance of power be placed in the hands of propertied men we shall have revengeful, unwise, and shortsighted laws. What are known as' working men's candidates ' have never accomplished any good, cither in Englaud, America, or the colonies, but they have often brought disgrace upon the Legislature with which they are connected.. The great Liberal reforms of the last century^ have not been brought about by noisy -' demagogues,'" but by the quiet, earnest, well directed efiorts of men of property. The true secret of a nation's success is the harmonious working together of labour and capital. Without labour capital must lay unproductive ; without capital lab >ur is a useless drug in the market. Laws devised solely in what are believed to be the interests of labour, and in antagonism to capital, must result in widespread distress amongst the labourers, for if unjust legislation handicaps capital and makes it unproductive it will go to some other country. Those who are no<v striving to raise themselves to political power by stirring up class prejudices are the worst enemies of those whom they profess to serve—the working! class, as distinguished from capitalists." . These are words of wisdom, and it would be well if the people in other parts .of the colony as well as in Haw'ke's Bay laid them to heart.