Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1895. WHAT AN HONEST LIBERAL SAYS?

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XVI, Issue 4938, 30 January 1895, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [Established 1874.] WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 30, 1895. WHAT AN HONEST LIBERAL SAYS ?

lilt CI. J. Smith at the lust general election, was second in a field of eleven for the Christehurch constituency and took his seat as 11 Ministerialist member. He is a native of Newcastle and is still quite n. young man with a reputation for some honest}', Borne ability, and some moral courage. Such a man cannot long remain a Ministerialist because tlm.se peculiar gifts are obstacles to political preferment in tho Seddonian ranks, and iu his first session ho ! found it necessary to choose between \ the Premier and liis own conscience < aud it is to his honour that lie reI mained true to himself at the cout | of offending bis chief, and itis also to I the honour of his constituency that t after hearing his record of the scs- ! sion it has accorded him a vote of thanks awl confidence. It docs not follow that a constituency is Ministerial because it is liberal. For example, tboMiisterton constituency is Ministerial because Mr Hogg is Ministerial, but if by any possible chance Mr Hogg went into Opposition, tho constituency would undoubtedly follow him. Tho Liberal party could exist without Mr Seddon, but Mr Secldon cannot exist politically without the Liberal party, and he is beginning to bo aware of this fact. We now come to what this honest Liberal has to say about the Ministry and party to which he is jattached. First he complains of the vt'eklessness which members in tbe latO session showed in dealing with largo sums of money. JJven the Advances to Settlers Act scared him, ar,'d lie thought that if under this measure the Colony were saved from a hea-7 loss it would bo a remarkable fact'. There is a common sense in this view which is somewhat rare in the Liberal camp. J[ r Smith also holds limt the political control over the railways will b f worso than the Commissioner's control. He has come to know the men who will exercise tho political control, and evidently he does not altogether trust them. Mr Smith also distrusts tho financial proposals of his party. Last session the Govern, menfc borrowed £6,250,000 and on £4,250,000 of this total, interest at the rate of £270,000 por annum has to bo provided Hq is not one of I

those purblind Liberals who stand out that tbo Government has not borrowed and will not borrow, The severest thing perhaps in his speech was an appeal to tho Electors to insist upon purity in Colonial Legislation, otherwise we should have an American Tammany ring in New Zealand. Indeed lie held that party Government, as carried on in this Colony, is a curse to tho country. We have never objected to honest Liberalism, and when we find a Liberal speaking out as Mr Smith appears to speak, "tho truth, the whole truth and nothing but tho truth," we are disposed to trust him as a legislator. It is also gratifying to find that a Liberal may be honest and independent -may even look Mr Scddon in the face, and yet retain the respect and confidence of his constituents. Mr Smith is in disgrace with the Ministry, but he stands high through the length and breadth of the colony as a man of honour and of integrity. He is not merely a representative of Christchurch, lint ho is a public man who represents the truth and morality of every constituency in tho colony.