A WICKED STAB IN THE BACK.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 524, 28 October 1890, Page 2

A WICKED STAB IN THE BACK.

We do not know whether Mr Arthur con siders distance an excuse for making insulting statements with impunity. We hasten to disabuse his mind of such an idea, and to warn him that if he ever expects to get a good hearing in Gisborne again it will be necessary for him to explain away or apologise for the statement he is alleged to have made at Ogotiki. There he explained to the electors that it was much against his will that he came forward on the last occasion, and then went on to make a scandalous, insulting, and untrue imputation against the old East Coast electorate. “It was at first thought that he (Mr Arthur) was to have a walk-over,” he said) “ but at the last moment Mr Rees was put forward BY the publicans, knowing- that a walkover would be very DRY’ work, and that a contest would mean a wet one ” tyide report in Opotiki Herald). Surely Mr Arthur, when he uttered those words, must have lost his senses —or his judgment. Had he spoken in that way to a Gisborne audience they would know how to deal with the speaker, but to go'*to another part of the district and deliberately tell comparative strangers to us that the last election was fought in the interest of “ the publicans,” for the words can mean nothing else, is unfair. It seems to be hard for men like Mr Arthur to understand how men can act from any motives excepting those of a pecuniary nature. When Mr Rees last spoke he treated Mr Arthur as an old opponent in a gentlemanly manner. Mr Arthur brands bis old opponent as the tool of a few publicans. If Mr Arthur thinks so little of Mr Rees as that he would consent to become the tool of “ the publicans,” or so meanly of “ the publicans ” of Gisborne and Poverty Bay that they would be parties to such underhajid trickery for the sake of their own pockets, we can tell him at once that his judgment is at fault or that his political prejudice has distorted his mental faculties.

But Mr Rees and “ the publicans” are capable of defending themselves, and it is more with regard to the unwarranted imputation that is made against the electors at large that we have to deal. Such statements are not likely to give the electors of other parts of the district a .very elevated opinion of the electors of Gisborne who could be led by the nose in such a manner. Possibly, it was Mr Arthur’s aim to explain in his way why Mr Rees got large majorities at all the centres of population, while Mr Arthur, who was to have the walk over, only got in by a small majority, and that with the assistance of a block vote of sixty from the extreme north of the electorate. But the worst feature of this wicked slander is that the district itself is made to suffer. It was only the other day that we took the editor of the Waipawa Mail to task for saying that there were more loafers than workers in Gisborne, and now we have to meet a much worse slander, which has had weight attached to it by reason of its having come from the district’s present Parliamentary representative, and uttered by him in a distant town, in the coolest manner possible. To say that six' hunared and twenty four electors are the nominees of publicans is a terribly serious charge for a sucking politician to make against the district which has been his home for years. As yet we have not had a word to say for or against Mr Kelly, considering that he should first be heard before any criticism is atttempted, nor do we intend to depart from that rule, but we would commend to the consideration of the party that is supporting Mr Arthur whether a spirit of loyalty to the district does not demand that he should at once be withdrawn from the field, and if the party wishes to be represented let some gentleman be selected who will be above such—we were going to say treachery, but we will leave our readers to judge as to the right term. It is but a few weeks since Mr Arthur was in Gisborne and was given a patient hearing for an addiess that a high-school boy might have been condemned for uttering, and in conclusion he made a piteous appeal that his opponents would not be hard on him while he was away. The appeal was heeded, and by way of return a majority of the electors (the Waiapu block-voters excepted) are branded as public house nominees 1 1 And this behind their backs in a place where there were no Gisborne people present to nail the lie while it was yet warm.