Our Wellington Watchman.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2707, 22 September 1887, Page 2

Our Wellington Watchman.

. Wellmgton, September 21. "If you liave tears, prepare to shed them now!" A sad sad thing lias happened ," Our Bob' has had, to put it in the vernacular, a bad whacking 1. Yes 1 Doininie Stout, who has so often hoisted others, has himself been hoist; his moral pantaloons have, so to speak, been tightened and he lias suffered the moral biroh on that portion of his plump porsoh whore it would do him most good—his ostentatious selfesteem. A brother Scot was the ruth-' loss operator, Scobie Mackenzie his name, Naseby his dwelling place,' and M.H.R., mi posse, his occupation. And the worst of it is that no one has any sympathy with the pragmatical pedagogue, but that all are laughing at him. Poor! poor Bobby!

1 should like'to s.ee the great Stout set out upon that "chairing up" expedition'to Naseby, armed with his one solitary election speech, often delivered but almost new. I should have liked to mark his haughty crost, his panting eagerness for the fray, his dog-gone certainty that he would wollop Scobie. I should like to have heard his strident " Sri-ir!" to have marked the cockiness of the man, as he was questioned, contradicted, and confuted, small by degrees and beautifully less, until the ramping raving " cliawer-up" became mild as mothers' milk. Then I should have liked to' see him sneak back to his Dunedin middin with his narrative as limp and drooping as a fat man's paper collar in the dog-days.

Sympathy! How can I sympathise with such a man ? The tacties of the Government during aud before this election campaign have put Ministers outside the pale of sympathy. They have brought forward men for election throughout the country whose candidature is an insult to the, people of New Zealand; men who the Government simply intended to use as fabile tools. Moreover, everywhere opposition candidates have, with Ministerial connivance, been bullied and browbeaten and not permitted to speak. The services of the police even, as' in. Napier recently, have been called in to. suppress the Englishman's, the free-' mail's birthright—the right of free expression of opinion at public meetings. Then these Ministers have subsidised the foulest rags in the. colony, which have been filled witli lies, and filth; they have pi'ostitutod their position and the publio service by employing men as' ••journalistic" bullies and mohawks whoso employment has been a contamination to all concerned. ■ Thoy have done other and worse things which perhaps in the present state of the libel laws it would not be useful to particularize. Sympathy ! No! I blush for the name of Freedom when I think bow it has been be-mired by these political scaramouches. But, there is every reason to believe that the people are—if only at the eleventh hour-finding out the true character of these political banditti aud swaggers, and that they will be hoisted out into political darkness—there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Talking about "religion" and bad language, I sincerely trust that those who have any true reference for true religion will remember at polling day that Mr Hogg was the first man who attempted to stir up religious prejudice in this election. This he did in his own paper, and in those editorials of his last June, in the Carterton penny dreadful. If Mr Hogg was a religious man, if he led a Christian life,. I would perhaps have pitied his bigotry, but would not have reproached him with it. As it is, the bitterness infused into this contest in the Wairarapa is due to Mr Hogg and to him alone, and I respectfully say to Christian electors: " Don't you forget it."

..And all tho time this man was writing scurrilous diatribes against .honest Freethought he was the nominee and blind boot-licker of Stout and Ballance, both notorious' Freethinkers until they found ii didn't pay, and I respectfully say to the Freethinking electors of your district; "put a pin in that spot."

And then, the brave Mr Hogg, after bogging-the unfortunate Carterton Nancy, after getting the poor ignorant thing to flounder with her gaiters on in the deep mud of theological controversy, left her to scramble out as best sho could without assistance. Hang it J Even'thieves are supposed to stick together. If an honest man is the noblest work of God, surely a coward is the chef I'CEurn of the gentleman who is never mentioned in good society,. Mr Hogg has shown himself a coward, and I 'respectfully say to the elector! generally, " Don't you forget that"'-.

More by token, theelectors tio 'notappear as if they.'meant to'-forget these • and • similar matters, if the nominations'at' lasterton and. Greytown can to regarded as any criterion. The noisy party were—as noisy parties generally.: are—very mucta iiMho minority at both places, and there is a good deal of rejoicing here at the facts.

I fear there is a vast amount of unholy politics in this letter, but readers must forgive aud take heart of grace for I trust this is the last time your

Wellington Watchman will so offend for many a day. ' Then what can one write about? About the weatlier ? Well, there is no, weather here to speak about; there is a considerable quantity of dust, a gleam of sun now and again, and rain clouds banging over' us, like a funeral pall.'