Page 4 Advertisements Column 1

Dunstan Times, Issue 251, 15 February 1867, Page 4

REQUISITION. To JAMES MACASDREW, Esq,, M.11.R SI",— We, th-e undersigned Electors of the liovince of Otago, have the honor 1 to request that you will allow yourself to be romiuated for the office of Supcrtendent of Otago. From the truly beneficial measures introduced by you iu the early days of the ; Province, despite the many disadvantages under which you then laboured in your endeavors to develope its latent resourses, we believe that your administrative talent applied to the more advauced position of Otago at the present time would devise measures which would tend greatly to the advancement of the Province in material prosperity, and in asserting its proper position as the leading commercial centre of the Colony. We feel that your legislative abi'itiesai - e so well known, and so widely and generally appreciated by the great body of the people, that we are quite convinced, in the event ■ of your placing your services at our disposal, you will be returned by an overwhelming majority of the Electors of - Otago. We are, ?ir. Yours, &c. Signed by above 150 Electors. -TO TLIE ELECTORS OF THE PROVINCE OF OTAGO. GENTLEMEN —Having received numerously signed requisitions to become a ■ candidate for the office of Superintendent of the Province, I have, although re luctantly and at the latest moment, felt it my duty to comply. Gentlemen, although I cannot say that I myself entertain the same feelings with regard to my ability to conduct the affairs of the Province which many of my friends appear to do; yet it would be affectation upon my part to deny that its progress was ■ much more satisfactory during the period in which I had an active share in the administration of affairs, than it has been of late years; that is to say, the material re sources of the Province were much more rapidly developed, and to a greater extent in proportion to its means, than they have subsequently been; and however much or little this distinction may have been attributed to any influence of mine, I believe that few who are in a position to know the facts of the case will dispute the truth of this assertion. Gentlemen, it is useless mincing the matter I feel that a great po'itic.l wrong was done to me in 13G0, and that the Provice has been greatly the loser. 1 have no hesitation in saying that, had the principles of the policy which guided me remained in the ascendant during the hey-day of the gold discoveries, our settled population would have been largely in excess of that which it now is. We should, in all likelihood, have had the Panama terminus to ourselves. We should certainly have had ft dry dock, and possibly a railway, and the importance of every interest in the Province would have been proportionately enhanced. Gentlemen—Such I believe are the impressions of many of thoje who have urged me to come forward upon the present Whether, in the event of its being my lot again to resume the reins of Government, it would be possible to make up any leeway, I cannot tell—much would depend upon yourselves. I can only say for my part, that adversity has deprived me of none of the aspirations which prompted me, now nearly 20 years ago, to take an active part in the formation of the settlement of Otago, and to devote the be3t of my life to the promotion of its interests. 1 am well aware that iu responding to the wishes of my friends, I shall be placing ■myself in no enviable position—the mud . creeks will be stirred up to their lowest depths. Misfortunes which were primarily caused in the interests of the Province, will be (as they have been) freely stigmatised as crimes, by those who call themselves patriots and the apostles of propriety, and whose malignity so successfully persecuted me years ago. I have frequently thought that it might have been more conducive to propriety, and better at least for the good name of the Province, had such men loved their adopted country more, And hated me less. Gentlemen, it is a consolation to me to know that, notwithstanding the misrepresentations which political rancor has so assiduously propagated, there is not a public man in ?ew Zealand, who, personally or relatively, has derived less pecuniary benefit from the public than my-