The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2397, 7 December 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1870.

Vmry few persons who read M r Babtinqs’s loiter, in which he wishes to explain away the “ dodgery ” connected with the Tuapeka petition, will be satisfied with his statements, Mr Bastings must understand public business too well to be deceived in so glaring an absurdity as presenting a |>etition addressed to the Provincial Council to his Honor the Superintendent. But assuming that he really did not know the routine of getting the petition presented to those to whom it was addressed —a supposition that none would more readily have resented, ns easting a doubt upon his business attainments, than Mr Bastings himself—why docs lie not name the member who played upon his innocence 1 Why shield him from the contempt that such an unworthy artifice as deceiving for party purposes exposes him to 1 This lame excuse tallies with the rest of Mr Bastinos’s story. Can anyone suppose that he could be four days in Dunedin, in hourly communication with personal friends, members of the Provincial Council—in immediate and

frequent conversation with the gentle- a men who signed that petition at his * own request—and yet hear nothing the factious resolutions proposed by Mr c Reid and his “ tail,” and of the bearing .1 the prayer of his petition had upon c them 1 There need be no mincing the matter. If Mr Bastings did not know it, everybody else did, that the “ pur- 1 “ pose ” answered by withholding that 1 petition was that the desire expressed in it, of taking advantage of the General Government scheme of public works, should not influence the waverers in the Provincial Council, and induce them to vote against the Government. We say further, that as the Tuapeka petition was complete in itself, and the Dunedin signatures were appended to a separate petition, there was abso-

lutely no reason wny tue in apes, a out. j should nob have been presented the day following Mr Hastings's arrival in town —on the Tuesday. The letter read in the Council yesterday, so far from tending to exonerate Mr Bastings, only the more thoroughly impli- ' cates him in the'attempt to aid the anti-progressive policy of the Executive ; and he cannot fail to be included in the condemnation that every honest r man will pronounce upon tlm whole r affair. He must not be surprised at this, for notwithstanding his bounce about the “ public of the Province ” having “an increasing disrelish _ for u odaiat-incr flu* common wealth.” think-

in<r men are not thus to be put down. If°the “ public of the Province” are to be assisted in such a left-handed way, they can very thankfully dispense with such services. There is something very strange in the mental calibre of men who think they have a right to be offended, when in reality they owe a very humble apology to those whose confidence has been abused. It Mr Bastings were trusted by his fellowtownsmen, it was because they believed him to possess the necessary business qualifications to ensure success. Had they been mistaken in that respect—if there had been the slightest reason to suppose that lie had been artfully misled—the matter might have been passed over. But when a gentleman allows himself to work into the hands of a partv whose object was notorious, a man must be charitable, even to weakness, to believe that there was not with him and them a fixed and definite purpose in common. We do not know—we do not believe that the petition itself would have affected the result of the voting- The men who supported the Reid resolutions were not of the class who can be convinced by reason. They made up their minds that come good, come evil, they would vote as he bid them—and they did so. It must be plain to any baby that to present a petition after the vote was utterly useless ; and therefore, as Mr Bastings is no baby, he should not have risked a single moment fulfilling tire trust reposed in him, as he must have known the Council were liable at any time to bring the debate to a close. The only reparation that Mr Bastings can now make to those who trusted him, is to expose the member of the Provincial Council to whom lie is indebted for his deserved humiliating position. When men in public life lend themselves to such artifices, social morality demands that their names should be known. We cannot doubt where a gentleman’s honor has been so grievously outraged as has that of Mr Bastings, by his being made the subject of so unpardonable a practical joke, lie will feel it a duty he owes to himself and to everyone avlio signed that petition, to give a full, true, and particular account of the manner in which, and the man by whom, he was hoodwinked. The public have a right to tins at bis hands, for a man who could be guilty of such an unworthy course for the sake ol hi.party, would not hesitate to sacrifice the interest of that party or the public to his own. Henceforth a mark should bo set upon his forehead, that all men i might be warned not to trust him with public business. And this will apply equally to every member of Mr Reids party, unless they are prepared to repudiate all participation in or knowledge of the transaction.