The Auckland Examiner. Thursday, July 30, 1857. “PUBLIC GOOD." COMING ELECTION.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 1, Issue 33, 30 July 1857, Page 2

The Auckland Examiner. Thursday, July 30, 1857. “PUBLIC GOOD." COMING ELECTION.

The tide has turned. Governor Browne declines to grant a dissolution, and Superintendent- Williamson is checked in his headlong career of irresponsible insolence. Unable by way of corruption to obtain for himself a fresh lease of power he must cease to be Superintendent or cease to be “master of the situation.’’ Supplies can only be obtained through the P-o--vincial Council.

The two thousand three hundred pounds recently raised on the strength of public houselicenses will soon be “used up’’and, notwithstanding what his partizans aver to the contrary, even economical John will iiod it difficult to carry on without cash. The Anti-General Government article in Saturday's New-Zealander makes evident the fact that our Superintendent is quite in a pet because not allowed to have all his own way. Anxious for a fresh and rarher long lease of irresponsible power, or (what amounts to same thing) with no other check upon his proceedings than would be affo-ded by a Provincial Council of his own choosing, he flies into a passion and begins to bully the General Government. It would not surprise us if he proposed to upset the General Government coach as a punishment for their mpe tdunce in notallow’ng him to regulate the motioi sof its driver. After the dainty bit of Anti-General ’ Government blackguardism just referred to, nothing will surprise us. .Our angry Superintendent having issued his writ for two new members for the Suburbs, it would seem that he has not only made up his mind co break with and insult the General Government, but also to try another fall with the Provincial Council. Politicians with a fine sense of honor will rather choose to retire from public life than eat their own words or discredit their own principles. But qualms of conscience disturb not the repose of our Superintendent who stands revealed a very peculiar sort of patriot.

Historians tell of an Andrew Fletcher who would have sacrificed his life to serve his country but would not do a base act to save her. Patriot John Williamson cannot reasonably be expected to make sacrifices so heroic. John Williamson, in fact, is not at all like Andrew Fletcher, and rather than resign the Superintentendcncy will set about doing what he has taken so much pains to make us believe no Constitutional Superintendent could do.

We shall not have Io wait long for the coming contest. In that contest Mr. Charles Southwell, whoso connexion with this journal is no secret, has been invited to take part bv several citizens who are disgusted with party games and factious politics. They have invited Mr. Southwell to stand for the Suburbs because they believe that Auckland, sick of factious strife for factious ends, is prepared to enter upon a new path. The politics of Mr. Southwell are thoroughly independent, and have for their immediate object a union of such

members of both our political parties as are anxious to stay the plague of party strife by a Coalition Government. Mr. Southwell is for a policy of peace, progress, honesty, and conciliation. We subjoin his Address to the Electors of the Suburbs of Auckland which states, with exactitude and sufficient minuteness, the policy he will support as well as the principle by which he will be guided. ADDRESS TO THE ELECTORS OF THE SUBURBS OF AUCKLAND. Gentlemen -The highest right-of man is the right to elect those who make the laws. Were suffrage perfect all voters would vote for ALL candidates. But in no country are the people perfectly represented. Here the theory of representation approximates to perfection, though in working out that theory we have failed. Our Electoral Roll is notoriously corrupt. None deny its impurity. Party spirit made it impure. Party spirit kept it so. Nor is a corrupt Electoral Roll the only political evil which Auckland citizens may trace to party spirit—that impure fount whence so many political evils flow. Never since Forsaith formed a coalition of all the bigotries to prevent Brown being made Superintendent has Auckland had a chance of developing its resources or fairly running the race of civilization with neighbouring colonies. Distracted by party names, party passions,and party chicane, our citizens wasted in party contests those energies and abilities which would else have Icen equal to the work of making this capital of New Zealand the metropolis of arts as well as empire. Party madness profited a few and the many were sacrificed. In all states, young or old, great or small, some men profit by party strife. Did talent rule they would be nobodies, and therefore they hate talent. -Did worth rule they would be nol-odies,' and therefore they' hate worth. Their instincts make them the natural enemy of those virtues and abilities, without which men are “as mites in cheese the more t-be worse.” Auckland ought to be the admiration of older states, she is their laughingstock. Immigrants arrive ; observe with great astonishment our natural advantages, and with astonishment still greater our artificial measures for 'not turning those advantages to account.

As in such cases invariably the bigotedly religious unite with the factiously political. Need I remind you of the cry raised against Brown fur a purely party purpose, or of the attempts made by a coalition of all the bigotries to misrepresent his principles, asperse bis motives, and blacken his fame. Which of you forgets, or can applaud, the intrigues, the calumnies, and despicable meanness, which eventuated in the election of Colonel Wynyard. Which of you forgets, or can applaud, the faction fights which preceded and followed Mr. Brown’s election to the Suptrinttndency, or that series of mishaps, inanities, blunders, dark as darkness treacheries, and clear as daylight fooleries, which distinguished the Government of his “Progress backward” successor. Which of you forgets, or can applaud,.the more reecut party dissensions and personal antipathies which eventuated in a dead-locked Provincial Council, and a practically irresponsible Provincial Government.

If elected to represent you in the Provincial Council, I shall combat with all my force the unpatriotic spirit of both parties. On this broad ground I rest my claim to the suffrage of independent party-sickencd citizens. I have much in common with both Constitutionalists and Progressionists, but will not eat dirt, or be dragged through it, by either the one party or the other. All my votes shall be given for the Province and the People. I will support the party that offers good measures, and Oppose the party that offers bad measures. I am not a party man, but will join with men of either party to carry out wise measures. Nor will I conceal my belief that life cannot long be kept in either of the political parties by wbichthis Province has so grievously been afflicted. I am much mistaken or ere long the good men of both parties and of no party will sink minor differences and meet on the broad platform of public good. Nowhere is party feeling stronger than in Auckland The fact is deplored alike by good Constitutionalists and good advocates of Progress. What should hinder union between these ? In old countries the coalition of rival partizans is often looked upon with suspicion, and always resented as an insult. But this is a young country. We are neither impeded by aristocratic pretentiousness nor fettered by class privileges. Here there is room for new lupments and a political necessity for new political combinations. In our midst are men willing to govern us honestly while able to govern us wisely. Why should these men hold aleof from each other because hitherto accustomed to march under different political banners and pronounce opposing Shibboleths? Their mutual hostility is mutual insanity. The state requires their aid. If rendered in the self-denying spirit of pure patriotism an eud would soon be put to corrupt Government. Faction now carries matters with a high hand because our politicians who hate faction do not combine to resent the machinations of those who love it.

Should your elect me I will, to the full extent of such abilities as I possess, labor to bring about that coalition of honest politicians without which Progress is a dream and the Constitution a chimera. My resolution is never to enter the Council unless able to do so unfettered. Since taking part in the politics of Auckland, through good report and through evil report, I have pursued the even tenor of my way. Many have objected to my outspokenness, but none have accused me of fearing to speak out. Should you make me your

representative, I will endeavour to maintain that reputation for plainness of speech which no man denies me. Pledged to nothing but the good of the Province I shall not deal with people who rule as if they were public masters but as if they were (what they ought to be) public servants. A satirical poet has taught us that when dealing with friends we should Be to their faults a little Hind, Be to their virtues very kind, And fix a padlock on the mind—.' But for the same reason that nations have no cousins members of our Provincial Parliament should have no friends. Their sole undivided aim should be the good of that people whose interests they are appointed to watch over, defend, and promote.

The Provincial Parliament should be composed o? men resolved upon correcting abuses abolishing useless offices, preventing extravagant expenditure, pushing forward reproductive public works, and making jobs impossible. If any one say, No Provincial Parliament can do these things, I reply—77 is the duty of every Provincial Parliament to make the attempt. I have, hitherto, uniformly opposed Superintendent Williamson because he lias stimulated the party passions he should have striven to allay, because his appointments have been sops to the Cerberus of faction instead of free-will offerings to merit, because he has songht to defile the sanctuary of Justice by thrusting into the Resident Magistrate;-.’ Court a creature of his own whose strongest recommendation was avowed party bias,and because he has neither performed the promises, nor redeemed the pledges, he made before his election.

Were Superintendent Williamson really an unpartizan Superintendent, he should have my cordial support. Did he really rise superior to the vulgar feelings which have been assribed to him, I would applaud him. Could I see a dispositien on his part to govern upon honest principles, to crown merit, scourge incapacity, set his face against jobbery, and his heel upon jobbers, I would say— Behold a Superintendent who merits all the honor we are able to confer upon him! Let John Williamson rule in the seuse here indicated and, whether Provincial Councillor or humble citizen, by voice and pen I will proclaim his virtues and extol his policy. Should he deserve it, ray support will be hearty. Should he persist in his present unstatesmanlike course, my opposite will be resolute. I do not believe in the virtue of ignoran :e, hut have faith in the virtue of intelligence. It seems to me that the best Government is a Government of the best, and I should be sorry to see the educated politically handed over to the uneducated. At the same time I profess democracy, at humble distance but in the same sense, as it was professed by English Sydney, Irish Grattan, and American Washington, who though widely separated on some points, agreed in considering that the more intelligent the Governed the more admirable the Government. I am for Progress and the Constitution. Let me explain this enigma. I am for the Constitution, inasmuch as the Constitution is a Charter. By that Charter our liberties are guaranteed. It may be an imperfect guarantee, and I believe it is; but to act unconstitutionally would be to act illegally, and no illegal act will meet my approval. Obedience to law is essential to public safety. As, however, we do not happen to be either Medes or Persians, I see no reason why when laws are proved defective we should hesitate to mend or abolish them. But respecting law as our best anchor of safety I would act in the spirit of the Constitution so long as the Constitution is the law of the land I am for Progress, inasmuch as that without it Representative Government is fudge and Respouble Government humbug. By Progress, I do not understand what is implied by the partyphrase Progress-backward but Movementonward, freedom, intelligence, development of our industrial and mental and moral capacities. Any other kind of Progress than this would indeed be Progress-backward, and to retrograde the Province should decidedly object. Advance Australia—is a favorite motto with the people of a neighboring colony. Advance New Zealand—would not be a bad motto for the people here. Many despair of our future. I do not It is true that party feeling runs high. It is true that corruption is strong, and that the people are made sport of by cabals, cliques, and coteries who knock them about as schoolboys do shuttlecocks. It is true that we are ruled less for our own good than for those who are set in authority over us. It is true that Legislative blunder.rs have hammered us with a“thimpinglegpcy” of difficulties in the shape of unsettled Land Claims, and a complicated Native Question. But while fully sensible of these truths, and others in appearance almost as formidable, I am far from despairing of our future. All British Colonies have been very much what our colony now is. Their history is a history of shams, nepotism, jobbery so extensive as to defy calculation, and mismanagement so gross as to stagger belief. Judge Halliburton, speaking not long since to a British audience on the subject of North American colonisation, said “he felt aglow of honest indignation on his cheek as well as of shame, when he thought of the gross ignor, ance, the gross neglect, the great injustice, that had been exercised towards, and practised upon, the colonies ever since {he colonies were settled.” Judge Halliburton proceeded to expose the ignorance of “ those imbeciles who had regarded the growth of the colonies” and said—“ It was hardly credible, but he believed he was correct in declaring that there had never been one Colonial minister who was ever in the colonies, unless, perhaps, he passed ihrough them as a crow did, and learning as much about them. At this moment, he believed, there was not a man in the Colonialoffice, wielding the destines of more than one-

third of the globe, who ever saw a foot of it, anil if that was a state of things that suited Englishmen, it did not ami would not suit intelligent <o'oni.<t c .” Now, Judge Halliburton (better known as Sam Slick) may be accepted as one of the best authorities on every matter connected with British legislation for British colonies. Evidently, then, the caseofNew Zealand is not an isolated one. Our colony has suffered from c wses precisely f imilar to those which delayed the growth of other colonies. Stop their growth the Downing-street “ imbeciles" could not, and £ am firm in the faith that they cannot stop the growth of New Zealand.

I conclude with three observations The first is that if elected to a seat in the Provincial Council. I will endeavour to do my duty. The second is that holding promises no less binding than oaths, my promises will be kept. The third and last is that should a majority of you prefer the politics of party to the politics of principle, I shall still subscribe myself Faithfully yours, Charles Southwell.