PLACE-HUNTERS.

Evening Star, Issue 3711, 14 January 1875, Page 3

PLACE-HUNTERS.

To the Editor. “We may be sure that these lessons will not be lost.— {Vide, ‘Guardian,’ January Bth.) Sir, —I sincerely hope that your ideas of what “ journalistic courtesy ” means are not of such a character as shall compel the exclusion from your columns of the following notice of an article which appears in the * Otago Guardian ’ of this date. That article seems to me such an extraordinary one, on account of the plainly expressed sentiments it makes public, that it ought not to be passed over in silence. < hose who have the interests of the Colony at heart; who desire to see our Governm*nt famed for its honorable procedure, and who yearn to recognise in our parliamentary representatives the characteristics of ability, honesty, and unselfish patriotism—those, I say, ought to lay to heart the shameful lesson taught them in the article I ref' r to. Too frequently have the people of New Z aland had this taunt thrown at them—“the majority of your representatives are mere place-hunters and not one. but several members of the General Assembly have openly dec’ared, in almost plain language, that a numberof their confreres are like so many cattle—to be bought at a certain price How true, or how false, are such disgraceful charges, let the writer of the ‘ Guardian ’ article testify : “To appoint outsiders to seats in the Cabinet is bad enough in all conscience ; but to confer judicial office on a persistent and unwavering opponent is simply to demoralise the Assembly,'’ Thus, what might justly be construed by generous minds as a proof of a liberal minded overnment is denounced by a supporter of the Government as an act calculated “to demoralise the Assembly.” In what way cmld it possibly “demoralise the Assembly ?” Because, forsooth, the Government did not select one of its own most servile and fawning followers. Truly, this is a novel method of demoralising the presence of Governmental corruption.

Again, says the writer in the ‘Guardian’ : “ These two appointments ” ie., the appointments of Messrs Bowen and Gillies Government all their strongest and most consistent supporters.” Read that, ye firm bei evers in the patriotism and disinterestedness of your representatives, and say, was there ever a more unblushing statement of motive to servo your interests brought under your notice So, then, it is not the policy of a Government, nt-r the wisdom and justice of its legislation that is to secure it support, hut its means and willingness to bribe our representatives with hopes of comfortab’e billets. ‘'We maybe sure that these lessons will not be lost,” and so ought the constituencies of Otago to he sure that this lesson taught them by the ‘Guardian’ will not b- lost.

- Sir, I am not a full believer in tho Vogel schemes, nor yet do I altogether agree with the political views expressed by the Mtar, but sosner than witness the lamentable sight of “ plkce-hunters,” and miserable turncoa's governing ihe Colony, I would heartily vote for a continuance of the Vogel regime, and would give my warm support to the consistent. though, in some cases perhaps mistaken, political views enunciated by writers in the Evening Stab.—l am, &c., Honesty. Dunedin, January 8.