The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published Every Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday Morning. Friday, December 13, 1889. SUPPORT THE PARTY OF PROGRESS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 390, 13 December 1889, Page 2

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

Friday, December 13, 1889. SUPPORT THE PARTY OF PROGRESS.

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

To-day the electors of the East Coast will have to choose their representative. The different addresses and speeches made by the two candidates have served to mark more and more clearly the distinguishing features of their political creeds. Mr Arthur, the Tory, is in favor of big estates and absentee owners who shall escape taxation. Mr Rees, the Liberal, declares for bona fide small settlement and taxing all absentees and foreign investors. Mr Arthur supports the rule of the few, Mr Rees that of the many. Mr Arthur would gladly see the country occupied as huge sheep runs, excluding the small farmer, and giving employment only to a few shepherds and cooks, while Mr Rees desires the existence of prosperous settlements, where men shall live instead of sheep. . It is not, however, so much to the often-told tale of the political differences between Mr Rees and Mr Arthur that we are anxious to direct attention, as to the evident anxiety of the squattocracy to exclude Mr Rees from Parliament, and the unfair means resorted to for that purpose. ‘ Regarding Mr Arthur’s suitability, especially under present circumstances, there cannot be two opinions, The remarks made by the Napier Evening News, the Wanganui Herald, the Wellington Post, and other papers all go to prove that Mr Arthur’s election would virtually disfranchise this district. There must therefore be something more beyond the success of Mr Arthur, and different from it, animating his supporters in this struggle. Thatsomething is the strong repugnance borne by the land-grabbing class to Mr Rees, and their fear of his influence in Parliament.

To keep Mr Rees out of the House of Representatives is the aim of the Poverty Bay Herald and the selfish and unscrupulous clique to whom its unwise proprietor has chosen to devote his E. To accomplish this end, no oods are too base, no insinuations too vile, and no treachery too deep. The number and malignancy of the false accusations Set afloat against Mr

Rees by his opponents does credit to their energy and imagination, if rot to their honesty. The truth is, as Mr Rees said last night, that the landgrabbers hate him with a mortal’hatred because he espoused the cause of the natives against them, and their anger is intensified because he has also taken the part of the workman and small farmer. This bitter antagonism, this malevolence of spirit, is the natural consequence of the position taken by Mr Rees between the native land owners and the European landgrabbers. It was only strengthened by Mr Rees identifying himself with the interests of the mass of the community. Let the electors be roused in time. From many places come the notes of warning. A large section of the most influential daily press, including papers hitherto opposed to Mr Rees, has spoken without equivocation; With one voice the different organs of the Press declare that if Mr Arthur be elected this district will be practically disfranchised.

Are such momentous words to be disregarded ? At any rate, if the squatters and would-be aristocracy, the snobs -and; toadies, the slanderers and renegades, who follow Mr Arthur, pay no heed'to the advice tendered from so many quarters, let the working men and those amiable but weak citizens who have* been taken captive by a friendly word or a shake of the hand, remember that they may be helping to ruin the district, or at least retard its progress and - increase its difficulties, by supporting a -gentleman who has nothing to recommend him but that he may keep out Mr Rees, but against whom, on ths other hand, there is such an array of charges as will practically disentitle the district to fair consideration in the councils of the country, Are the working men. fools enough to be turned against their natural leader by specious and unsound arguments and half-statements of the truth ? Do they not know that those who seek thus to deceive them are enemies at heart, while professing to be their friends ? Do they not see that if these people succeed in returning Mr Arthur and defeating Mr Rees, by their aid, they are closing the doors of hope against the working classes and their children, at whose distress they will but scoff ? ' When do Mr Arthur and his friends approach the working men but when "they want to get something from them ? What, during seventeen years, has Mr Arthur done for the district ?— Nothing. What lands has Mr Arthur been instrumental in cutting up for settlement ?—None.

What-expense or trouble has Mr Arthur ever gone to for the public; benefit or "the public recreation?—None.With what good works in science, literature,tcharity, education, religion/ or athletics has Mr Arthur ever been connected ?—None.

SELF has been the sun of his system, the centre of his actions.

He does, indeed, now profess to be animated by a desire to do good, but he is to be free to do exactly what he thinks proper, and to be bound to nothing. Will the people be so void of understanding as to return a man who simply asks for their assistance to make good the title to his own estate ? If they do they will deserve neglect, and they will get it." ‘ ■- ■ ;

We call upon all who have the' interest of the district at heart to be true to themselves, and when they; go to the ballot box, to— VOTE FOR - "

REES AND PROGRESS.