OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS POLITICS.

Auckland Examiner, Volume 2, Issue 54, 24 December 1857, Page 3

OUR SUPERINTENDENT AND HIS POLITICS.

In course of a recent Provincial-Council dehate. Lawyer Merriman .made two remarkable observations; one borrowed —the other original. The original observation was that our Provincial Council would stand till its end. The borrowed observation was that every lion. Provincial Council member who gets up to talk on an empty stomach fills bis stomach with lucifer matches. Though the latter observation may be witty, and seemed -to have been appropriated on that very account, I am unable to discover either the point or smartness of it. Even its “Joe Millar” is concealed from Nevertheless, f am willing to allow that whan Lawyer Merriman said the Provincial Council would stand till its •end, 1 felt-constrained to agree with him. But however Jong that sapient body may stand 1 have not a shadow of doubt as regards the sort of end ll will achieve. Whether that end be near or remote matters little. Before our rump-packed little Parliament met 1 predicted that the Provincial-Governni-.nt-ehcspii “ crew” would prove little else than a par.-el of “swabs.” Doubt *s to its character and capacity is now impossible. It stands self-revealed a low, unprincipled, immoral body, whose every ant is In a former article I said the threatened ino'ion of Dr. Lee might ensnare as great a fly as John V’illiam--i»on. Let us see whether it has not ensnared not onh John Widwmsoii** self, but John Williamson’s crew. Examim-T readers are of course aware that the motion I refer to had for object Provincial Council purification .At’ present it is f nil as Vulcan’s smithy. Dr. Lee would purge it of Provincial Government Contractors, Provincial Government public werks Officers, and Provincial 'Government pimps. Unless the Provincial Council is purged it will soon become an intolerable nuisance. In saying this 1 sav no more than has already been said to the Provincial Council by somo of its own members. While I ee’s motion was under debate, Buckland declared that the ■simple question was whether hon members should or should not “keep themselves with clean hands.” He •doubted tlrat contractors could altogether set aside priYar.e feeling in voting money which “would go into their ■own pockets.” Lynch thought the Council had “quite ■enough paid members in it already.” “ I bel’eve” added that plain-sailing Councillor, “ the system quite rotten. Three-fourths of the Council will soon be mere nominees and tools. Independent men will have no chance.” When sentiments such as. these are openly avowed by men like Lynch and Buckland we may be sure “ all that flitters is not gold” in the “ politics” of Superintendent Williamson ; we may be sure that Rumpism has ripened into utter rottenness ; and that Busby was not wide of truth when he declared the actual Provincial Palaver less regardful of truth, or principle, or any thing but its own selfish interests than any legislative body within the father ample range of his exoerierce. Merriman does, it is true, defend Provincial Council prii ciplcs, or rather perhaps I should say, Provincial Council want of principles. He is mouth-piece of that ’wonderful body, and scatters his petits mots with dazzling Like Ivanhoe, with Desdicfiardo on his shield, our Provincial Law Officer flies at -ill the other animals in our political “ menagerie.” It is not, however,.al together unamusing to witness the rhetorical feats ofitSiis bumptious gentleman wh > equals Wrax.all in the “ divine art” of— Misquoting, misstating, Misplacing, misdating. He has a habit of repeating himself. In course of one speech I have known him say half a dozen times over the very same things. No inemoer of Council wastes more « f Council time, or draws such large drafts upon credulity. Caleb Quotem never was -busier among Windsor Wags than he among Auckland Legislators— ' I’m parish clerk and sexton here, My name is Caleb Quotem ; I’m plumtar, glazier, auctioneer, In short I am factotum. To be sure our Provincial Government Law Officer, our Provincial Government Advocate General and Windbag Universal,is neither glazier nor plumber, nor parish ■cier.k nor sexton ; still he undoubtedly is Provincial Government factotum. He glories in being so considered, and labors hard to impress upon Provincial Councillors a conviction that without him no Provincial Govenment work can be dona.

What .humane creature can help being afflicted whan when poor Mungo wails out—‘ Mungo here, Mungo there and Mungo ebery where. Me wish to him heart, him was dead.” What biped of penetrable stuff can help being penetrated deep as the pit of his own stomach when our Provincial Government factotum says—Alas gentlemen Provincial Councillors I’m sore beset. It is Provincial Law Officer here, Provincial Law Officer there, and Provincial Law Officer everywhere. Were our political Caleb Quotem merely given to talkative self-glorification I should not deem it worth while to notice him. But he is busy and mischievous as well as vain and loquacious. He is main pillar or prop of that rotten abomination ca’kd Auckland Provincial Government. In part, if not altogether, to his pernicious.counsels we owe the disgraceful “ dead-lo"k” and actual upper-handism of Jack Cade politicians. Acting under his advice, our Superintendent adopted measures so strangely compounded of the false, the foul, the foolish, and the “ flabby,” that even Secretary Stafford was disgusted. Infraction of the Constitution ; making mistakes in unmistakeable cases; tampering wjJi public documents for party ends ; and letting loose upon ns a blatant beast” miscalled democracy. These are some of the crimes fairly chargeable upon those who have made crime crimes pretext, and one infraction of law the .justification of anoiner. These are some of the crimes

in commission of which factotum Merriman had lion’s sm> re.

Choosing to forget, or seem to do so, that tho “ deadlock” was John Williamson’s work ; that accepting Pol* jei.’s resignation and Lsueing a new writ for the Suburbs before Committee appointed by Provincial Connoil to enquire and report with regard to alleged personations, could perforin its function was first of many miserable •levices by which he shabbily achieved a shabby object: that having brought about an illegal state of things, ho made illegalities past a pretext for illegalities present or future; and that having manufactured political necessity for appr >priating public money without an Ap: ropriation Act, like thorough-paced hypocrite as he is, he pleads that manufactured political necessity in jnstifi'a'ion of political crimes.

Necessity we all know has over been the tyrant’s p e». Lawyer Merriman demonstrates that it now is the plea of sophists, and scourge of fools. PrunKen with conceit, and grown bold through impunity, he dares to stand un the unblushing defender of illegalities. Nay, he would have us be content with illegalities because forsooth, according to him, in Provincial legislation from its very commencement tho illegal gave law to the legal ! ’

With disgust I listened while this flippant sophist scoffed at those laws he is paid to explain, enforce, and defend. Wise men argue that legislators have no right to hope that the laws they over-ride will by others be obeyed. It would much grieve me to find factotum Merriman suffer the nruel fate of a certain Divmedes who was himself devoured by those horses he had taught to. feed on the flesh and blood of men. But upon the punt that Merriman deserves the fate of Diomedes as much as ever Diomedes himself did, I am quite clear PU3LICOLA.