THE DEAD LOCK.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 11, 26 February 1857, Page 3

THE DEAD LOCK.

(To the Editor of the Auckland Examiner.).

Sin,—A somewhat laboured article in this morning’s “ New Zealander” endeavours to exonerate the Superintendent from all blame in the matter of the interloping fifth Member for the Suburbs. The arguments are good, but the premises that the arguments, are founded on are false. It is stated that the Superintendent was “ imperatively bound” to issue a new writ on Dr. Pollen’s resignation, and quotes the 9th clause of the Constitution Act, apparently in proof of the assertion ;— “ It shall be lawful for any Member of any Provincial Council, by writing under his hand, addressed to the Superintendent of the Province, to resign his seat in the said Council; and upon the receipt, by the Superintendent, of such resignation, the seat of such Member shall become vacant.” To my mind, however, this clausa does not in any way allnde to the duty of the t uperintendent. It simply states that the seat shall “ become vacant.” The 12th ciause-r- 1 * When it shall be established to the satisfaction of the Superintendent that the seat of any Member of the Provincial Council has become vacant, the Superintendent shall, forthwith, issue a writ for the election of a new Member to serve in the place so vacated, during the remainder of the term of the continuance of such Council and no longer,’.’—binds the Superintendent to issue a new writ when he is satisfied that the seat is vacant. Tor what purpose was the reservation made if not to meet a case like the present. One would think that, if no afterclaps were contemplated, it would have been worded —When, the seat of any Member shall become vacant, &c. By what possible process of reasoning the Superintendent became “ satisfied” before the decision of the Committee, appointed to-investigate the legality of Dr. Pollen’s election, was known, rather puzzles me ; inasmuch as the power is, in cases of disputed elections, vested entirely in the hands of the Council by the C- nstitution Act. 'Under these circumstances, the natural inference is that the new writ was issued in order to give Dr. Pollen another, and an unfair chance against Mr. D. Graham, and, if such was the Superintendent s motive, the sooner we get rid of him the better. It might have been an error in judgment, which a schoolboy would hardly have been guilty of, by the bye, and I hope, for the credit of "the Superintendent’s honesty of purpose, it is so. The case mentioned by your cotemporary of an election of four members, petitioned against by Mr. James Farmer, does not strike me as being analogous to the present. I judge from the account of the matter in the “New Zealander,” being otherwise totally unacquainted with the circumstances. One suggestion for the other side of the House. If lam right in supposing that the Speaker authorises or orders the expulsion of strangers, in compliance with the wishes of the House, how is- it that he' does not include Captain Daldy amongst them? Either Captain Daldy or Mr. Graham is seated illegally, and it certainly seems to me that the Speaker ought not to be afraid to back his opinion (and that af the majority of the Auckland people) by a decisive act. If a private individual kept his seat after the’ House was ordered to be cleared, the result, I opine, would soon be arrived at, viz., forcible ejection, if necessary. And yet one or other of the two Members is in the same position, in fact, as the before-mentioned private individual. Apologizing for the length of my scrawl, I am, &c , Green Hand. Auckland, 21st February, 1857.