Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1873. "MEASURES. NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 281, 19 June 1873, Page 5

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, JUNE 19, 1873. "MEASURES. NOT MEN."

The Council election for this district is over, and we must congratulate the electors upon the result. They have followed the course which we would have indicated to them in direct terms, had we thought it necessary to do so ; but, being satisfied that they required no teaching in the matter, we abstained from giving our reasons for advocating the claims of Messrs. Bastings and Brown. It is, however, fitting that we should now place our opinions upon record ; and we intend to do so with freedom and frankness. There were three candidates, viz., Mr. Horace Bastings, Mr. J. C. Brown, and Mr. Vincent Pyke. Of these, the first is so well known throughout the district and province generally as to need but little advocacy. Without Mr. Bastings in the Council for the last two years, and in the Executive for the last six months, it is a fact that the large public works schemes which have been proposed, and in several cases initiated, would never as yet have been heard of; and it is to Mr. Bastings' great energy, business knowledge and tact, as well as to his administrative powers, that we owe these things. To refuse him a seat in the Council, and to deny him oar support as an Executive officer, would have been as ungenerous as it would have been suicidal The second candidate, in the order in which we have named them above, is Mr. J. C. Brown, also well known; and as it regards him, we are going to speak very plainly, and without any affectation. Mr. J. C. Brown is, and always has been, a man of singular activity and energy — possessed of an amount of perseverance which of itself is no small recommendation ; but in ability and erudition, second, perhaps, to many other candidates to and recipients of provincial honors, but decidedly equal to a good number, and superior to some. Mr. Brown has represented this district for a number of years in the Provincial Council, and more lately in the General Assembly; and although he may have, and doubtless has. occasionally, in common with others, both superior and inferior to him, made mistakes — errors in judgment, and so on — he has on the whole been a most valuable representative, doing what but few have done, viz., devoted almost the whole of his time to the service of his constituents. A cry has been raised that Mr. Brown would have accepted office under Mr. Reid's proposed Executive, and that he consequently was looking out for the ! " loaves and fishes." Mr. Brown's i explanation of the reasons why he J accepted office were, in our opinion, i very satisfactorily explained in his address to the electors at Wetherstones, and demonstrated that his chief aim was the good of his constituents. He was quite entitled to accepts office if he thought he was likely to work with his proposed colleagues, and if he did not possess the confidence of the Council, it was in their power to reject him. So far as "loaves and fishes" are concerned, every member of the Executive receives them, and is entitled to them, just as much as the laborer is entitled to his hire. Mr. Brown cannot be justly accused of any grasping after place or pay ; had he felt inclined, we are satisfied, whatever his abilities may or may not be. he might have secured a fair share before this; as it stands, he has never received one sixpence beyond the honorarium, and that is what every member receives Mr. Brown has been of infinite service to this district, and to this town of Lawrence. Fory ears past, even before Lawrence was a municipality, many votes of- money were obtained for local improvements by the industry of J. C. Brown ; and whatever his personal enemies may have to say of him or against him, we are not ashamed to own him as a good, a true, and useful man — we speak of

him now politically, and in the personal squabbles in which others indulge we decline to have any thing to do, or to allow them to influence us in our candid discharge of public duty. The third candidate was Mr. Vincent Pyke — a man of vast and varied ability, well educated, possessed of rare and pleasing gifts as an orator, while as a statesman he possesses large experience, and as an Executive officer has proved himself worthy of all the trust reposed in him. Mr. Pyke came before the Tuapeka electors just after resigning a lucrative Government appointment. Of course he knew his own business best, but why Mr. Pyke stood for Tuapeka when he might have easily got in for Mount Ida, or some other district really hard-up for a member, we cannot imagine. We hold Mr. Pyke in great esteem, and even more than ebteem; but, so far as the representation of Tuapeka is concerned, we may aptl)' use his own words when referring to Mr. Gillies' candidature against Mr. Macaudrew, viz. : That it's well to be off with the old love Before you are on with the new.