The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1883.

Inangahua Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1265, 30 April 1883, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI- WEEKLY. MONDAY, APRIL 30, 1883.

A ■ pdbuc man who is not worth abusing is not worth much, and the degree of abuse that is levelled against a. public man is sometimes a very fair criterion of his merits* It is so in the .case of Mr Wakefield in his Candidatare for this district Mr Wakefield has had a conspicuous Parliamentary career and has been distinguished as an uncommonly hard hitter, as well as a keen and incisive political writer. So long as he-was in Parliament his opponents kept their hands off him, and in his own part of the country he is- too well*known, .and too highly respected for them to- venture to- assault him. Bat now that he has come for-

ward to contest an election in a district where he is personally an entire stranger, every fcarliameutary foe that he has made by his bold, outspoken attitude as a politician, eagerly seizes the opportunity of having a dig at him. Such an attempt we see in the article of the Dunedin Morning Herald of the 19th of April, an article every line of which ' is manifestly prompted by jealousy and spite, and seasoned with the mean intention of influencing the electors of this district against Mr Wakefield. ißut the writer,, evidently misunderstands the temper of &c electors of this district, for they are much more likely to be influenced in favor of Mr. Wakefield than against him by a tirade of coarse abuse like that They cannot help noticing too, that in spite of the evident intention of the writer to depict Mf.> Wakefield and his career in the darkest colors, he only succeeded in showing that he was a man of great influence in the House, who kept Ministers trembling lest he should do something terrible to them, and whom it took the premier himself to keep in check. But the whole, thing, of course, is -sheer moonshine. The Premier, Sir John Hall, was a close political associate of Mr.,^Wakefield. one probably would be more astonished than he to read the extraordinary statements made about him by the Morning Herald. The latter part of the article is a fine specimen of the style of critioism adopted by Mr. Wakefield's opponents in thiß election. Having nothing to say against him themselves they rake up the records of the past four years, and put in all the nasty things his political opponents have said of him. They take care not to reproduce any of the testimony which the leading public men of the Colony have over and over again borne to his talents and his principles, but they scratch up every spiteful bit of Billingsgate that a debate may have drawn from his antagonists, and they say, •' See what a shocking character Ahfe candidate is r They do not see that if,, anyone was disgraced by these coarse attacks it was not Mr. Wakefield, but those who attacked him. Besides, the electors of Inangahua do not want to know What this man or that man said or thought of Mr. Wakefield ever so many years ago. They are pretty well able to form a correct judgment for themselves of a candidate's merits, and all the more so from the fatf that throughout the eledtion Mr. Wakefield has displayed a candour and straightforwardness which are acknowledged even by his opponents. ■;,■■.< '■/■■