The Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2392, 1 December 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1870.

Thu Province should seriously consider the tactics of the supporters of the Executive in the Council before the next election, in order that they may avoid the error of re-electing them. Politics ought never to be made the means of prosecuting private quarrels, nor of forwarding purely private ends. The interests involved are too great to bo played with, and the consciousness of this. amongst honorable men frequently induces th*m to bury personal differences, and to unite in effort to obtain a common good. At Home this is very often done. Had it not been so, many of those great reforms that have conduced so much to .England's progress, could have been attained only by the sword. In this Province it ■would seem us if such sacrifice of individual feelings to the public good does not enter into the catalogue of public virtues. Log-rolling, backbiting, and political dodgery are looked upon as allowable means to the furtherance of private purposes. The latest development of the tactics of the “ artful dodger ” is in the history of

the Tuapeka petition. We expect that the local journal will try to excuse that extraordinary insult to the electors of the distiict; but wo hardly think it possible to gloss over the transaction with so much plausibility as to satisfy the most ignorant of them. If however they are so steeped in prejudice as to sanction the outrage upon their privileges that has been committed by their representatives, it would be a benefit to the country at large to disfranchise them. In order that they may be fully acquainted with the facts, we will give them simply and—if it bo possible — impartially. We need not tell the electors of Lawrence that when the Public Works scheme of the Genova! Government was first made known to the country, there was great excitement in the Tuapeka district. Meetings were held, and speeches were made. A member of the Provincial Executive, who has since opposed it, praised the scheme as a great boon to the country, and recommended the people in the district to seek to obtain some of the advantages derivable from it. Acting upon this advice, a petition was prepared and numerously signed, not only in the two districts, but in Dunedin, addressed to the Provincial Council, at that time engaged in considering his Honor’s message requesting the Council to take into consideration the advisability of adopting certain works named by the General Government. In order to ensure its presentation, and to give weight to its prayer, that petition was entrusted to the Mayor of Lawrence, who arrived with it early last week. So anxious did he appear to have it duly presented and well supported, that he personally waited upon the principal merchants and tradesmen in Duncciin, the greater number of whom signed it. By what means he was induced to delay its presentation, he can best explain. The whole Province knows that upon the most flimsy grounds the Provincial Executive opposed the General Government’s proposals. The pretence was that the people should have an opportunity of considering them. Now the inhabitants of Tuapeka and Tokomairiro had considered them, and petitioned the Provincial Council that their district should be included in the scheme. They knew the debate was going on, and they asked to be heard in the usual constitutional way. They even took the precaution, under date November the 18th, to address circulars to the members of the Council, not one of which was allowed to reach the person to whom it was addressed until some hours after the Council had divided. Now every man connected with that treacherous move knew that the petition was addressed to the Provincial Council, and that in the proper course it ought to have been presented by some member to the Council, There was plenty of time to have done it. If the members of the district declined, there were others who would have undertaken the task. Had it asked the Council to reject the offer of the General Government, it would have found its way into the House on Tuesday last; but as it shewed there was no necessity to appeal to the people, it was burked in the first instance, and then used as a dastardly means of insulting his Honor the Superintendent. The last cowardly dodge was done in this wise. Mr Brown waited upon his Honor on the morning previous to the division, to ask him to appoint an hour for receiving a deputation who had charge of a petition, of the contents of which he professed to know nothing. At his own suggestion and request, his Honor accordingly appointed the following day—the day after the division, Every member—wo do not know who they were—but every member of that deputation knew the contents of that memorial; knew that it ought to have been presented to the Council ; knew that it had been withheld until it was useless ; and knew that presenting it to his Honor was only flourishing a flag of triumph in his face, telling him his Executive lead power with the Council to thwart his wishes. We tell these honorable members, no matter who they are, that they made an unworthy use of the name of every man who signed that petition, and that every subscriber to it is bound individually to resent it. It was signed that the Council might hear the opinions and understand the wishes of the memorialists ; but, instead ol that, their time, their wishes, and their names were made use of to play a practical joke on the Superintendent, who was anxious that the prayer of the petition should be complied with. A more deliberate insult to all who signed that memorial could not have been perpetrated. The whole matter is worthy of investigation by a select committee.