BEHIND OUR BACKS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 525, 30 October 1890, Page 2

BEHIND OUR BACKS.

THERE was great indignation on Tuesday morning when we published the extraordinary extract from Mr Arthur's speech at Opotiki, concerning a very serious reflection cast upon Mr Rees and those who had voted for him at last election. Many of the best men on Mr Arthur’s side strongly expressed their disapproval of such strange tactics, but they as strongly protested that Mr Arthur would never have made such a slanderous statement, in even the most heated election contest, and that he certainly would have made any charges he had to make openly in Gisborne. We may say that for once we were entirely at one with Mr Arthur’s supporters. But we are afraid that, bad as the thing seems, the evidence cannot be impugned. We have taken the precaution of making enquiries by telegraph from a gentleman in Opotiki, whose word we believe will be accepted as conclusive. He replied, “Yes, most certainly,” the report as given in the Opotiki Harald is correct. And more than that we are informed that the statement was repeated at Tauranga, vide the Tauranga News. Surely Mr Arthur has still got some friends in Gisborne who can induce him, for the sake of the district, to control himself while he is before strangers, and to say to people’s faces anything he may have to say about them. In a matter of this kind the good name of the district demands consideration. There are some hundreds of aggrieved electors who have yet to decide what action is to be taken in the way of vindication, and in the meantime some of Mr Arthur’s friends should try and restrain him.