The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 6, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2874, 6 May 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star. MONDAY, MAY 6, 1872.

Although no definite arrangements have been made for the election of a member for Waikouaiti, expectation points to one having to be chosen in the room of Mr George M‘Lean, at present absent from the Colony. It would scarcely do to allow so important a constituency to remain without representation, although latterly they have been so singularly unfortunate in Oieir members, that it would be almost wise, if it were possible, to allow some other constituency to choose for them. This is the more strange, as there are really many able men in the electoral district, having large interest in it, and identified with the development of its resources and its progress. At present the current is setting in an extraordinary direction. We can understand a Dunedin man like Mr M‘Lean being chosen, because we know no place more interested in the prosperity of all districts in the Province than this City. If the country population is flourishing, Dunedin shares and rejoices in their wealth. There neither is, nor should be, any antagonism between town and country. Every mile of road made in the country benefits the tradesmen in the town. Every goldfield affording profitable employment to our diggers tends to foster commerce, and enrich those who contribute by their labor to supplying the mining population. There is therefore so intimate a connection between the capital of the Province and its remotest boundaries, that what affects one district for weal or woe is shared in by the rest. On these .grounds it seems at least reasonable that an Otago man should be chosen to represent a constituency in Otago. Nor is it any objection to such a proposition that our representatives are divided in opinion on many points. On one at least they all agree ; they have a personal interest in devising and passing such measures as will add to the material wealth of the Province. If their past disunion should be pointed out to show that they weaken their own influence by it, that difference docs not extend to all subjects. They may differ as to the best mode of administering the land, but they all agree that it is desirable to settle an industrious, orderly, and intelligent population upon it. They are acquainted with our local institutions, understand their working, and are free from many of those false impressions concerning Otago and its people that are sometimes so annoyingly manifested in the conduct of the Northern members of the Middle Island. And even granting all that is said as to differencs of opinion to be true, can our Waikouaiti friends imagine that there is the chance of more thorough working together by electing a stranger 1 Yet, by a singular pervex’sion of thought, such a monsti’ous folly has advocates. Is it not plain that by electing one who is not of us; who has been living for years under different influences; who has formed his theory of Colonial politics, amid different circumstances ; whose property and interests are not only apart from, but in some things adverse to ours, a new element of discord will be introduced far more likely to widen than to heal the differences that lead our Otago members to contrary coxirses. * And what has Sir David Munro done to stamp him a fit and proper person to represent the district of Waikouaiti 1 Has he proved himself a statesman ? Has he originated one great movement or given expression to one new thought to eu-

title him to the confidence of an Otago constituency I That for ten years he enjoyed the confidence of the House of Representatives as Speaker is true, although even that did not altogether pass unquestioned, as the controversy respecting authorising altering the clock for a specific purpose illustrates. But that very Speakership shut him out of the arena of discussion, so that his opinions can only he gathered from his conduct in committee. Judging him then by that standard, we venture to say there was not in the ■ House a member so consistently opposed to Otago and everything Otagan as Sir David Monro. No matter what was proposed for this Province, if it clashed with the interests, real or fancied, of Nelson or the North Island, it had his opposition. It by no means follows that a member fitted for the duties of Speaker is thereby to be regarded as equal to the representation of every district in the Colony. The duties of Speaker are onerous, and he who administers them must be well acquainted with Parliamentary routine—wedded as it were to forms and ceremonies—a martyr it may and often must be to red tape. And this forms an additional reason at this crisis in New Zealand’s history, why some man not yet so steeped in the rules of office as ten years’ study and dispensation of them necessarily involves should be elected for Waikouaiti. We fancy the prefix “ Sir ” has something to do with the matter; but we recommend our fellow-settlers to choose a plain Mister, whom they do know and can trust, rather than a “ Sir ” of whom they know nothing as a statesman, and in whose ability and will to serve them they may be, and we believe are, deceived.