CORRUPT REPRESENTATIVES.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume I, Issue 60, 29 March 1873, Page 3

CORRUPT REPRESENTATIVES.

to the rcuiTOa. Siß,~Some time ago the Charleston Herald—* newspaper occasionally forwarded to me by an old Tauranga i'riond—made a statement to tho affect that a local member of the House* of Kepreeentatives had received a douceur of £lO for obtaining a rise in tho salary of a telegraph clerk. ; On being challenged to prove tho statement by a contemporary, the same journal remarks : —" We ! know not whether oar contemporary is feigning | surprise at such a mild peccadillo as that referred to, but if he is not we would say to tho writer, if he would hate his eyes opened—become intU | mate with one or two political ' loafers,' men who Have little eke—perhaps nothing—but their " representative fees" to live upon, and then tell y ur readers how much it would take to excita your surprise. Not alone do we reiterate tho assertion iuudo, but we could also elate others committed by the same gentleman as a member of a lesser representative body," Can this be true P If bo, I should imagine it to be the plain duty of the Herald to expose the corrupt member. My reason for asking you to publish this is that, as we are now probably on the evo of elections for ! representatives in the General Assembly and Provincial Council, electors may seriously as>k j themselves this question:—Should not men bo , possessed of considerable property qualifications be lore they are allowed * » become eligible as representative*, at least, in the General Assembly ? I, for one, believe they should.—l am, &c, Awxiotrs.