The Evening Star. FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2914, 21 June 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star. FRI DAY, JUNE 21, 1872.

Sir David Monro, as in duty bound, declares himself inexpressibly ; grateful to the constituency of Waikouaiti for electing him to represent them. He could do no less. According to his shewing, they have proved themselves patriotic and clear-sighted. They have chosen him in order that he may become a living and speaking protest against a corrupt and extravagant Ministry, and he, a veritable Mentor, is going to let the world see what “ prudence ” is : he will make a stand, he says, against this recklessness, put the ship about, and, supported by the clodocracy of Waikouaiti, bring our expenditure into something like reasonable limits. We doubt very much whether this is exactly what the people of Waikouaiti wish. So far as they have been in the habit of expressing their sentiments, they have never looked so far ahead as to inquire very seriously into the real facts of Colonial expenditure. They have always been grumbling and crotchety— not because money was spent, but because it was not spent in their district. Somehow, in common with some other townships built on coast hai’bors, they have magnified the importance of their local position j cheated themselves into an idea that theirs was intended by Nature, with a little help, t« become a large port of import and export j and because those interested only in the general well-being of the Colony, take wider views and refuse to grant money to be laid out uselessly in multiplying petty ports in the neighbourhood of one of the safest and best harbors in Australasia, they are ready to quarrel with them. They have always been loud in their complaints of injustice, and have sought to remedy it by electing in turn Dunedin men and local men, but without obtaining the only redress—as they term it—they care about, a grant of money to spend on their jetty and township. As their former representatives were only plain Misters, it seems to have entered into their minds that they did not carry weight enough for their purposes. They wanted some one bigger—so big that it did not matter whether they knew much about him or not. It was quite enough for them that the man they set their hearts upon was distinguished for something : it does not appear to have been material what. Assuming they want talent, they evidently imagine it wrappped up in a title, no matter for what conferred. He must be learned, because he is a “ Sir ” ; he must be wise, because he is a “ Sir ”; he must be prudent, because he is a “ Sir ” ; he must be able to set the Government to lights, because he is a “ Sir ” ; he must be able to obtain a grant for Waikouaiti, because he is a “ Sir ” ; we ought to choose him because he is a “ Sir,” and they have chosen him because he is a “ Sir,” We are much inclined to think that had Mr Preston been a “ Sir,” he would have stood a much better chance: there is something so aristocratic in the idea. Dunedin is nowhere : it is only represented by two plain Misters, who are known and connected with it ; but they are plebians, Waikouaiti takes the lead : it is represented by a “ Sir.” Sir David Monro to some extent recognises this fact in returning thanks for the blind confidence reposed in him by the constituency. He thanks them for electing him, although they know nothing about him excepting by reputation. This,

however, must be the slenderest of all knowledge so far as he is concerned; for his reputation only extends to his having been Speaker some years, and to his persistent opposition to everything proposed for the benefit of Otago, True, he has had some reputation for a kind of prudence as exhibited in a little clock transaction, and the Motueka election. He promises now to apply that “ prudence ” to the checking of unwarrantable expenditure by the Government. On the principle that a reformed smuggler makes the best exciseman, it is just possible this peculiar “ prudence ” may > be turned to good account in opposition, although it has not availed to let him into a knowledge of the secret longings of the Waikouaiti electors. He knows little of them if he supposes they will be content without checking all expenditure. He should have promised to obtain a Government grant for a jetty, to have insisted on a railway being carried as far as Waikouaiti, and that it should terminate there, to place an additional tax on the importation of corn, and to have richly endowed the municipality, and he would have roused their enthusiastic admiration of “Sir,” to adoration, because for these things the constituency of Waikouaiti have striven strenuously for years.