A Coming Man.

r Douglas McLean, as he stood before the Napier constituency to make his maiden speech on an electioneering platform, showed by his manner and matter that he will be a marked figure in colonial politics. Inheritor of a large landed estate, which places him at the head of A colony of Scotchmen, he is neceesarily accustomed to questions of land administration, management of labor, native land laws, live stock, foreign markets, and general trade affecting colonial products. The practical training grafted by these interests on an intelligence naturally thoughtful and considerate, and developed by a University education, give him, as a speaker, advantages of address which are granted to few. The vein of sympathy which permeates his reasonings attracts even opponents. His manner and gesture are totally free from «brummagem» or stagey effort. Speaking with concentrated thought he constantly varies his attitudes, and at times assumes poses which strike one as peculiar and almost comical in their complete self-abandonment, and at others are as keenly demonstrative as those of the native Maori orators by whom his father Sir Donald McLean was so greatly esteemed. He speaks as man to man, not as a clever politician or special pleader. His thoughts are genuine and strike home. His mind attacks the kernel of any subject in regard to its influence on the whole body politic and throws away the husks of political strife which envelop it, and his habitual attitude of thought has the judicial directness which places the English Bench of Justice before all other legal tribunals for independence and equity, and which is equally due in his case to independence of position and devotion to his duties. For as the «Laird» in his own community, he is accustomed to have all matters submitted to him and to find his dictum held absolute by his Scottish adherents with clannish fidelity. His views are broad and enlightened on political questions, and he draws amply on his experience of travel in other countries to guide his decisions on the burning topics of the day. Douglas McLean will replace the present occupant of the Napier seat in the next New Zealand Parliament, and is bound there to carry weight in the future legislation of New Zealand. He is therefore a figure of interest to political readers, and the above sketch of first impressions at his maiden speech may serve to familiarise him to the public as a non-partisan, yet conservative politician, of whom any constituency might feel proud.

The Labor Candidate Hutcheson's mental condition is causing his friends anxiety. His policy has now more kinks in it than any coil of rope he ever ran out, and he was discovered the other day endeavoring to sew a seam in a gaff-topsail with the blunt end of a marline-spike. But he still promises to be a dumb-dog, and that covers all deficiencies.

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Somebody or other who calls himself "the Napier Democratic Union" (says the Napier Telegraph) has written a letter to Mr. Hornsby, late of Napier, recommending him to the electors of the Wairarapa as a consistent Liberal. This must sound strangely to those who remember how he slanged Mr. Seddon, Mr, Smith, and the late Mr. Ballance during the two or three years he was in charge of the Waipawa Mail.

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Mr. Charles Wilson. Seddonite candidate and ex-Conservative journalist, writes locals in Granny of the successful meetings he holds. One of these was at Newtown on Tuesday, «specially for Ladies.» Three females turned up, and then, after a pause, a fourth entered with unsteady gait and a wild look in her eye. The candidate gallantly assisted her to the footpath, and the meeting adjourned sine die.