The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, November 1, 1890. BEHIND OUR BACKS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 526, 1 November 1890, Page 2

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

Saturday, November 1, 1890. BEHIND OUR BACKS.

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

By our Tauranga files to hand we notice that Mr Arthur did not conduct himsel quite so badly at Tauranga as he did at Opotiki—at least his language was not so degradingly vulgar, though it'was quite as pointed in its insulting reference to the six hundred and twenty-four electors who voted for Mr Rees, and his reference to that gentleman was equally insulting. A verbatim report of the address at Taurangal ’appears in the Tauranga Evening News, from which we quote “You will be justified in asking ‘who is this Mr Arthur, and why should we be asked to put him in ?’ and I will explain to you why I am a candidate for election in this constituency. Last year Mr Graham, the member for the East Coast failed, and it became necessary to elect a. new member. A large number of. my friends asked me to stand, and I said to them, ‘lf you bring me a requisition largely signed I will do so? This was done, but as soon as I came out the publicans (I will not call them sinners) said “ this will never do, we must have a contest of some sort,” so they brought out a pugnacious individual, Mr Rees, who was ready to fight anyone, and whom I beat by 5 2 votes. I pride myself upon beating Mr Rees, and I think I have just cause to be proud.” We confess that we never thought Mt Arthur capable of going behind our backs to slang the people of the district in this way, and for a man to speak in that shockingly disrespectful way of Mr Rees, behind his back, after the fair words that were used in Gisborne, and the smug expression of friendship towards him that was exhibited by Mr Arthur, makes us wonder what is the distinguishing feature between gentlemen and —— Sensible men will see little cause for pride in beating a pugnacious individual ready to fight anyone. Anyone who has the minutest spark nf patriotism left within him, will consider politics as something more than a matter of play to be entered into in a frivolous wav. However, Mr Rees will, if he stoops to notice the behind-the-bush tactics, know how to deal with one who resorts to such shameful weapons. And speaking in the name of those who voted for Mr Rees, we assure those fellow-electors before whom these voters have been slandered, that it is a deliberate lie that they were the tools of publicans. We wonder whether Mr Arthur’s friends, with the absolute proof now before them, will still neglect to look about for some other candidate who will have more respect for the district in which he lives.