The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Saturday, November 15, 1890. MR KELLY’S ADDRESS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 532, 15 November 1890, Page 2

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

Saturday, November 15, 1890. MR KELLY’S ADDRESS.

Be just and fear pot.; Let all the end's tHou aia'at at t*s thy ctMintay’s, Thy God’s, and truth’s.

The political meeting on Thursday evening was of a most orderly nature, in striking contrast with the disposition shown in other parts of the colony. No candidate could help feeling gratified at such a cordial and enthusiastic reception, though it was almost painful to listen to the speaker, suffering as he - was from a severe cold. The candidate took up rather different lines to what some people, expected. He is just the picture of a man which our contemporary has been painting as being after its own heart. He is not a brilliant speaker, and his addresses are not amplified into beautiful essays. What he has to say is told with a deliberateness that is. not calculated to arouse enthusiasm, and he adheres to the points so closely as to seem almost to finish abruptly. In that respect he is what our contemporary has long pined for—or rather it was put that way because no chance was to be lost in scoring a point at the expense of Mr Rees. But as Mr Kelly happens to be on the Liberal side he must be prepared to accept as complimentary all the abuse that is hurled at him from the other side. The candidate showed -that he had a thorough grasp of political principles, but he made one woful mistake. He gave his opponents credit for much more intelligence than their newspaper organ gives them credit for. He made it very plain that he was a worker in the Liberal ranks, but he assumed that the |

audience were well educated in politics, and he refrained from treating his hearers as though they! were a lot of schoolboys who expected him to instruct them in the first elements of politics. He took much higher ground, and credited his hearers with having the knowledge that party principles were not to be sacrificed because men who represent the Conservative class only recognise the “ principle ” of sticking to office under the most humiliating circumstances, and have not the courage to resent the-summing up of one of their own supporters (Mr Bryce), who contemptuously alluded to them as a band of office-seekers. Mr Kelly took it for granted that all were well versed in political principles, and was contented with further exposing the transparent humbug of “ retrenchment” that can only be made at the point of the bayonet, and is higgled over until it is nearly lost in other ways. . The candidate pricked the bubble reputation which Mr Arthur has tried to gain over the Harbor Bill, at the expense of the Opposition It is just like that gentleman ; even the valuable services of Mr Bell were ignored until the ingratitude was made so public that the ungrateful one was moved by remorse —but Mr Kelly is an opponent, and there will be no remorse about him.

Mr Kelly would perhaps have pleased his opponents better if he had neglected real political questions, looked funny and made quips and cranks about such disgraceful tomfoolery as larrikinism in the House. But most intelligent men think that such tricks are more fitted to call in the use of the supplejack than to be joked about from a public platform. Mr Kelly’s audience were spared such an infliction. Supporters of the Liberal party, knowing it to have almost a monopoly of thoughtful and clever sbeake’S, may have felt disappointed at Mr Kelly’s lack of eloquence, but they can at least feel satisfied that his heart is with the party, and that he is firm in his political faith—a worker and not a talker.