The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Tuesday, December 10, 1889. ELECTORS! LOOK TO YOUR INTERESTS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 388, 10 December 1889, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, December 10, 1889. ELECTORS! LOOK TO YOUR INTERESTS.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country’s, Thy God’s, and truth's.

In a fight between principles, such as the present contest for the seat for the East Coast District has resolved itself into, we consider the electors should look above petty local influences in deciding which way they will vote. Our contemporary has put the whole question in a nutshell when it says 11 in the country Mr Rees will assuredly be.

nowhere.” We know that there are a great many Liberals in the country districts, who, for personal reasons, cannot vote according to their convictions, and while we sympathise with them and deplore the evil which neces-

sitates their votes being lost to the Liberal cause, we hope one day to see this state of affairs remedied, and a man be allowed to vote as he wishes, without any reference to the wishes of his employer. It is, however, chiefly to the centres of population that we

look for assistance in the emancipation of the district from the misrepresentation by “ mute Miltons ” and those

interested in native land jobbing. In these head centres the Liberals can and will bind themselves together. The landed interest, owing to splits in the Liberal camp, has been in the past enabled to wrest the representation from those who are most fitted to judge of the requirements of the district. We

know, from the confession of our contemporary, that money was raised to put Mr Graham into the House, and from Mr Arthur’s address we gather that he is being assisted in a similar manner. From the Napier Telegraph, which represents the J. D. Ormond clique, we learn that numbers of dual voters there will go by specially chartered steamer to Wairoa in order to record their votes. All these matters show what influence wealth will have upon the election, as well as what strenuous endeavors the anti-Liberals are making. They are also a laughable commentary on the boasting of our contemporary that the result of the election is beyond question. Above all, however, they should form for the Liberals a lesson not to slacken their energies one whit until the poll has been declared, We do not attempt to gloss over the importance of the present struggle ; we know that victory will only

be won by. strong and unrelaxing exertions, and we call upon all the Liberals in the district to devote themselves to the furtherance of their cause, and place, not so much Mr Rees personally, as Mr Rees the Liberal representative, in the position that the Liberal candidate ought to occupy. We have said that the principles of the party ought to override local influences, In this case, however, there is no necessity why it should be so, because they do not come in conflict. Mr Rees is well aware of the wants of the district, and he has promised to endeavor to do three things : to relieve the Harbor ratepayers, to have main roads opened up, and to have the settlement of land furthered. Mr Arthur sneers at all these things as impossibilities, and it is evident that he does not intend, if elected, to make any effort in that direction. For the relief of the ratepayers of the Harbor District, a matter which particularly concerns those in and around Gisborne—that is in the special Harbor District—Mr Rees proposes that he shall ask the Government for a further endowment. His opponents ridicule the idea, but looking at the circumstances we fail to see why they should do so. Even had the Government never interfered, we were promised further assistance, should the revenue from the present endowment prove to be insufficient. Sir George Whitmore, speaking in the House in 1884, said: “A number of members of the Committee [a joint Committee of both Houses had sat to consider the claims of the East Coast district], and other members of both branches of the Legislature had waited upon the Premier, who expressed a great deal of sympathy with the district. 1 he Premier stated that the Government was favorable to this endowment being granted, and that if that was not sufficient—if, after having tried, they found it unbearable to pay all these rates, and could not get on without some further assistance—next session the Government would give a further money grant." Now, while we are aware that one Government is not bound by the assurances of another, still the fact stands out clearly that further assistance to the district was contemplated. A money grant, we know, is now out of the question, but an endowment might be granted. Mr George Fisher, then a member of the Ministry, when he visited Gisborne received the suggestion favorably. There are nearly 400,000 acres of Crown lands in Cook County, and surely out of this an endowment which would materially relieve the burden of the taxpayers, might be selected. Even Mr Arthur’s supporters admit that main roads are necessary for the district. None is more likely than the Grown itself to benefit by an expenditure in this direction. Past promises remain unfulfilled because our representatives have had neither the tact nor the ability to urge their performance. Even the road to open up the Taqwhareparae Block, and which was taken into consideration when that endowment was granted, has never been made, and the enhanced value it was to give to the block has pot been given to it. The importance of land settlement as proposed by Mr Rees, and the advantage it would be to this district, require no explanation from us beyond the statement as an absolute fact that Mr Rees is in direct communication with the Government upon the matter. Despite the sneers of his enemies, Mr Rees will advocate Liberal principles with a wide knowledge of local requirements, and while keeping in view the main points, will secure, with the assistance of Sir George Grey, Mr James Garroll, and the Liberal members of the present Administration, JUSTICE FOR A MNfl neglected district,