The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 242, 19 August 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1879.

Mr C. R. Carter has published an address to the electors in our columns, and as this candidate is somewhat a stranger to the greater number of the electors, we feel disposed to treat him with all courtesy, We do not believe that he will be successful in his present quest, but we have some faith in him as a public man, and some confidence that the result of the canvass he is about to undertake will create a favorable impression upon the settlers to whom as yet he is unknown, and pave the way for his success on some future occasion. He appeals to old settlers for support, but during the many years that he has been absent from the colony his old friends have formed new political ties and possibly new political ideas, and are very unlikely to abandon them at a day's notice at the bidding of Mr C. R. Carter. The address, which will no doubt be carefully read and studied, is very guarded, and on points on which the writer has apparently not made up his own mind, very weak. For instance, when Mr Carter says: " I am in favor of the continuance of subsidies to Local Boards and the amendment of the County Councils Act," he hardly recognises the distinction which exists between Local Boards, County Councils and Borough Councils. All three are represented in the Wairarapa, Does he mean the first only, or all of them, or does he know what he means 1 It is also impossible to make a feebler utterance than to say the County Act requires amendment without indicating in what respect it needs improvement, When Mr Carter says he will be no party to any policy which has the effect of setting class against class, he must indirectly be alluding to the Premier. It would have been more straightforward if Mr Carter had at once said he distrusted Sir George Grey, instead of adopting an evidently roundabout way of saying the same thing, We quite agree with Mr Carter that the financial condition of the colony is a crucial question, and it is exactly on such a question as this that the electors may be expected to

get some information from Mr Carter, as lie is a, good financier, understands the circumstances of the colony, and has specia] knowledge picked up in the Agent-General's offices in London of the way in which the Public Works scheme has been carried out in the home country, While we are,glad to welcome an old settler back to the district who is likely to prove in the future as he has proved in the past a useful public man, and while we quite approve of his coming forward as a candidate for the Assembly as the very best plan lie can adopt to discover his own little shortcomings and to teach the settlers his strong points, we regret that he has steered a somewhat middle course and presented himself rather in the character of a trimmer. We think it would have been better for him to have at once declared openly whether he supported the Ministry or the Opposition. Mr Garter hopes that he will not be deemed presumptuous in expecting support, and we feel bound to say that if he comes forward oil a rail lie will hardly be forgiven on the score of presumption,