OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 12, 5 March 1857, Page 2

OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS PROMISES.

Just on the eve of taking an office which only a highminded man should fill, Superintendent Williamson emphatically declared that he would not harbor such paltry feelings as had been ascribed to him. Although by no means so good a dialectician as Samuel Taylor Coleridge who talked as birds sing, he certainly did talk in tolerable English his detestation of vulgar party favoritism. But Progress officials who trusted in him—at least so far as believing him resolved not to harbour su<ffi essentially vulgar feelings as common rumour (often a common liar) ascribed to him—speedily found out their mistake.

In office, he soon forgot the promise made out of office, and by sending to the right about only Progress officials demonstrated the essential vulgarity of his animus and incurable malignity of his nature. Whenever opportunity served some poor devil of a progressionist was dismissed, and in some cases when opportunity did not serve, the screw was put on to make it serve. Every one has heard of Osborne, the pound-keeper, who, for having the audacity not to vote for Dr. Jonah, was ignominiously cashiered. w Osborne’s case is but one of many to all of which special attention shall in due tims be given. 1 have a rod in pickle, and will at the earliest convenient time lay it on briskly. Mercy to such vulgar trafficers in party fudgegraphy and low-minded profilers by party profligacy as he who at this moment degrades the Province by his Superintendency would be unjust to the many honest people who suffer from his presumption. His becoming Superintendent at all, considering his known past and probable future, upon the text—Where Angels fear to Tread the fool will rush in, is the very best practical commentary I know. Of certain Bourbons who claimed to rule France by Divine Bight, it was said that they learned nothing—forgot nothing. Superintendent Williamson, although not even fiftieth cousin to right royal people of any kind, like these Bourbons, learns nothing—forgets nothing. His administration of affairs has thrown oil upon the fire of party fanaticism ; made Provincial Parliamentary Government a laughing stock; associated democracy with vulgarity, and affected devotion to principle with real devotion to pelf; made coute qui coute holding of public office a means of relieving himself of private embarrassments ; aud petty but organized terrorism a means of coercing opposition into acquiescence, or silence. Not one of his official acts bears the impress of manliness, or the stamp of common honesty. His Education Bill involves dead robbery, and was altogether a dead take in. It was an ingenious device to rob Peter without paying Paul, It had no better basis than the footpad or burglar assumption that They should take who have the power, And they should keep who can. It made the ipse dixit of some the rule of conscience for all, and, although professedly unsectarian, d'd, de facto, hand over to sect appointed teachers what they call the “ soundly religious” indoctrination of our children. No educational measure can be unsectarian which directlyjor indirectly makes any one man pay for the religious instruction or perhaps obfuscation of another. An educational system quite on the square, while guaranteeing a sound commercial and artistic education for every child, would have nothing to do with the theologic, dogmatic, and religious teaching of any. Considered however as a means of finding snug places for embarrassingly eager supporters, and thus extending his personal influence, the Education Bill was not a bad stroke of business on part of our Superintendent. That Bill passed because it never was discussed. An organized opposition, with debating power, wovld have crushed the life out of it. It is not the only measure by which Superintendent Williamson has signalized himself, and damned to eternal fame his blunderingadministration. The affair of Dr. Jonah capped the climax of administrative insolence and official fatuity Had he been ’worthy to rank among the master spirits, who, sometimes with, oftener without, what is called “classical education,” rise up beacons of liberty and saviours of nations, even political opponents would however reluctantly, have acknowledged his superiority. As it is, they are compelled to despise as well as differ from him. 7 hree months of his government have sufficed to convince every considering man, of both our political parties, that he is now essentially what he was —that the outside of him has been changed, while the “ iuward linings” are just as ever ; and that his propensity for splenetic partizanship will occasionally manifest itself, as did the feline propensity of the cat which, according to a well known fairy tale, turned into a Princess, did act exactly like one until some mice chanced to cross her path. ;-W When Lycurgus, by the introduction of his levclliugdownward system, had'deeply offended the Spartan aristocracy, a mettlesome young member of that aristocracy struck out one of the great lawgiver’s eyes. Did he avenge the injury? Yes ; but in an odd sort of way ; for instead of dealing with his hot-headed assailant upon the lex talionis principle, he, by expostulation, quite cool, and nobly kind remonstrance, so sensibly touched him that, all at ouce, he became not only a convert but a fast friend. There’s magnanimity ! magnanimity on

both sides, and scarcely less on the side of the injurer than of the injured. By what they considered unjustifiable ambition, and the attempted introduction amongst us of a le.veilingdownward system, Superintendent Williamson gave much offence to those who, rightly or wrongly, consider themselves the elite of Auckland. Bot where’s his magnanimity ? Has he, like Lycurgus, conquered their contemptuous dislike, by shewing himself more than their epial in patience, in self abnegation, in all that constitutes nobilitv of soul—the only nobility a wise man cares one straw for ? No ! Has he, by any one act, clearly selfsacrificing, or even unmistakeably disinterested, made them ashamed of having twitted him with the lowness of his origin, the vulgarity of his tastes, the defectiveness of his education, the coarseness of his manners, or the thoroughly canailleish nature of his political aspirations. Again I say—No ! Has he, or his editorial toady, won over by force of magnanimous kindness any number of opponents. Once again, 1 answer No ! Called from Italy at a time when Toryism was at a tremendous discount in England, the late Sir Robert Peel took office—failed to command a majority—and went out; but, nothing daunted, he set manfully to the work of organizing his famous Conservative party. Against terriffic odds he went on, month after month, fighting the battle of Conservatism, and such w-as his mode of operating upon foes that he converted them by platoons,” they, night after night, walking over from the Ministerial to the Opposition side of the house. What followed no reader need be told. Sir Robert’s subsequent strong government—perhaps the strongest ever known m Europe, was a consequence of bis admirable tact in the business of turning foes into friends WITHOUT TURNING FRIENDS INTO FOES.. Had Superintendent Williamson been a willing pupil in the school of “good Sir Robert,” as Englishmen of all parties at length learned to call him, he might have been almost as successful here as that great master of po’itics was at home, and thus have completely taken rhe sting out of any sarcasm levelled either at his personal character or his political career. PUBLICOLA.