The Wairoa Bell. AND Hobson County Gazette FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st.

Wairoa Bell, Volume V, Issue 213, 1 September 1893, Page 5

The Wairoa Bell. AND Hobson County Gazette FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER Ist.

There was a time when men were counted as of less value than property, and their political rights were measured by the value of their possessions, but as time has passed on the common people (so called) have asserted themselves and laid claim to the privileges which were before denied them ; and now it is becoming an established law that all men shall have equal political rights, and that the possession of any amount of wealth shall confer on a man no further rights. This seems to be the main plank of all Liberal platforms, and such phrases as “ the government of the people by the people,” and “ one man one vote ” all voice the popular cry. The justice of the claim put forth we do not wish to dispute, but with the Rev. J, Berry we see* danger ahead unless steps are taken to better educate the people in the questions on which they will be called upon to exercise their judgments. So few men seem to care about careful euquiry into eveu the most prominent questions of the day, that it seems like giving over to chance rather than to careful thought the decision on important questions. Liberals, whose aim is the good of men rather than the special care of property, should make greater efforts to educate the people than is now being done. Those who do not study new pro • posals should really have no voice for or against them ; or in other words ignorant ones should not be allowed to pronounce on matters of which they know nothing. The following words of the Rev. J. Berry put the case very forcibly,— * Few of us, probably, would recede from the position of ‘ one man one vote ’ if we could, but I sometimes fear whether we realise its seriousness, and whether we are bracing ourselves as churches to our new responsibility. The position is, that in the State all men are equal, Judas Iscariot has a vote ; Jesus Christ, if here, would have no more. The ambulating publican’s swilltub, and the most ardent temperance reformer at the ballot box are equal. The man who can digest counts as much as the man who thinks. That is what universal suffrage means, and what it has brought us to. Will this help on the coming of the Kingdom ? I believe it will if we all do our duty; not otherwise. The answer as I said before, depends upon us.” There must be a good deal of rottenness about Associations that make loud appeals for ‘ one man one vote,’ and yet when questions such as the Direct Veto or Local Option, is placed before them they hesitate as to what course they should take. If their foundation principle of ‘ one man one vote ’ is right then it should be maintained throughout, and not thrown overboard when it comes in contact with a powerful vested interest. The liquor question has come very prominently forward in this parliament, and will again in the next. Some Libera] Associations stood the test on this question and remained true to their principles, but others wavered and some fell away. It behoves those who love truth and right to band themselves together and stand firm as rocks on Christian principles