The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, DECEMMER 6, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 943, 6 December 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, DECEMMER 6, 1881.

At the nomination.on Saturday lust) we were anxious to hear what Mr Recall's proposer and seconder had to say in his favor. We well knew what Mr Item had io say for himself, but we are accustomed to discount to a very large, extent the partial and flattering notices he is wont to give to himself and to his own public services. One and all too are tolerably familiar with what his parasites say on his behalf. His bravoes trumpet his praises long and loud, but their commendations, renewed at short dates, do not find-.much favor in the political market. His proposer and seconder, however, were worthy men, and the best thing we have heard in Mr Item's favor yet is that he should have been proposed by Mr Bish and seconded by Mr E, Wklcit. Mr Bisn contented himself by referring in «oneral terms to Mr Eknall's past services to the district and the town. He neither enumerated nor particularized t.licm. He did not bring forward even a single one as a sample. He judiciously loft this record to be filled in by the imagination of the audience which listened to him. Mr E. Welch, however, was more explicit, He gave as reasons for his faith in Mr Eenall the assistance he had given to Hutt settlers many years ago, and the Volunteer scrip. We arc not prepared to dispute any service Mr Eenall may have done at the Hutt twenty or thirty years ago. We do not know what Mr Eenall was then, but we do know what Mr Item is now, Mr Rknall may have been a usefu] public man a generation back, but he is certainly a very useless man in the year of our Lord, 1881. New Zealand has changed much during the past five and twenty years, and it is possible that Mr Eenall has not marched with the times. At any rate he seeks to engraft into 'the present contest the old Hutt methods and the old Hutt ideas, and we cannot help thinking that it is a pity to disinter these relics of by-gone days, simply because they are unsuitcd to the present generation. We can quite believe that Mr Eenall understood the wants of the colony twenty or thirty years ago, but when he seeks to test public questions of to-day by the rule of thumb which prevailed during the infancy of the colony, he simply makes a mess of them. Once upon a time he was in the Assembly, ami it is whispered that when lie used to get upon bis legs in the Hou,se', membbvs

won; wont to.walk out and -leave liim to address empty benches. This is the fate of high of Mi 1 Renall's' stamp. They are amusing on;the platform of a public hull, Imtltlieyvdo not interest or entertain' members of a. legislature who are anxious to work aS well as talk, If Mr Rknau, were again returned he might till pages of Hansard, but he would not be listened to in the House. He is ill informed on public questions, he knows little of the colony outside of the Hutt and the Wairarapa, and his chronicles of old ideas, and his recitals of his own past history, would make him, if he became a member for'. north Wairarapa, a man against whom every member in the House would be o|'poscd,imd a man for whose district no friendly consideration would be showed. The votes of past sessions, which have found in employment so many hundreds of Wairarapa working men, would never again be given to an electorate which sent such an objectionable man into tile House. Possibly, however, even Mr RexaljL might by some Ministers be found tractable. We are not quite sure that in former days a way was not discovered t" gently guide his parliamentary career, at any rate after a session at Auckland a grateful Government made him a Justice of Peace, and if some future Cabinet held out to him as a bait a seat in the Legislative Council we might yet find a tribune of the people coining to the conclusion that this branch of the Legislature should be perpetuated. As to the Volunteer scrip business referred to by Mr Wijlcii, we ourselves formerly reaped the benefit of this loan. We were in those days a Volunteer; we got our scrip, and, as most other Volunteers did, sold'it for some twenty odd pounds, its current value, We wen; glad to get the money, but none the less we regarded payment of this kind for services which were supposed to be given, as destrticI ive to the esprit de corps of a Volunteer force, (living Volunteers a bonus of .£2O oi' .!■•')() was a popular tbing to do, but we scarcely consider that it was a right one, There was, after the scrip was gone, an exodus of members from the rifle corps which proved fatal to many of them, i.ir FnTiIKItSTON,' though he was i man who desired to stand well with the people, was too conscientious to support the measure, There were, however, less scrupulous public men who carried the day against him, and endeavored, by a lavish waste of the public estate, to obtain political support, it is claimed for Mi'Renau that if returned to Parliament he will speak and vote independently, The term independent may be applied in more than one sense. What we believe to be th" best sense is when a man holds himself free by binding himself to say that which is true and do that which is right. Mr Bkktham is a good example of this kind of independence. We believe he would sooner lose his seat than swerve from the truth, or do an unworthy action, but can we consider Mr liEX.ul independent in this sense? The recklessness with which he speaks and acts, his unbridled tongue and careless deeds, indicate a spurious independence, which is akin to recklessness. He is more iitted to be a law breaker than ;i law maker, and evenduringthe present cuntestbehasendcavoural to excite the people to rebel against a law to which he was opposed. He is one whose mission is not to build up but pull down. He is a mere political Mohawk. He comes forward fo • ,!'p liberties of the people, but such a 1; I:.' d.slroy these liberties by depriving the people of the protection of good Government. Sheep without a shepherd have indeed more liberty than with one; but they barter their safely for their freedom, and this is just what the people of this colony will do if men like Mr llkxall come into power. There is happily no fear of such misfortune befalling the men of this electoral district. The votes of hundreds of working men on Friday next will be given against Mr Hkxali,, and for Mr Bkktiiam. We arc quite eontent to abide the issue of the ballot boy, If every nmhuldrr in the Wairarapa were disfranchised to-morrow Mr Rknall would be defeated,