THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1868.

Grey River Argus, Volume VI, Issue 424, 1 October 1868, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1868.

Ever since the return of the present representative of the Westland Boroughs to the Assembly, our Hokitika contemporary has lost no opportunity of striving to disparage him, and his endeavors in the interest of the County, in the eyes of his constituents. It appears that the defeat sustained by the then proprietor of our contemporary, Mayor of Hokitika, and self-elected champion of Westland generally, could never be forgiven, and that the irritation then caused to that gentleman's feelings had descended as a sort of heir loom along with the plant, to the present conductors of that journal. Perhaps a little of the old element of mischief is still left, and to this we may possibly attribute the slight display of temper which is occasionally manifested when anything is advanced which , can throw credit iipon our representative. We are not ac all surprised, therefore, that the " West Coast Times'' of yesterday should have returned to its old " role" of throwing mud at Mr Harrison ; but we are surprised to find the reasons for its indulgence in this favorite pastime stated so ingenuously. We are told that " Mr Harrison is the member for Greymouth solely, although he enjoys the honorary designation of member for the Westland Boroughs. It was Greymouth that returned him to Parliament- In Hokitika he polled only a small minority of votes. Greymouth was faithful to him almost to a man ; and [mark the insinuation] he testifies his gratitude by a neverslumberiug antagonism to Hokitika." This, then, is " the head and front of his offending," and that he is supposed to have exhibited "extreme sensitiveness under criticism," and jealousy of Hokitika. We do not care to bandy words with our contemporary in order to prove that the supposition upon which his whole argument is based is not a fact, and that all the abuse which ' he has heaped upon Mr Harrison for some imaginary offence is only so much labor lost. We are not aware of his having ex- ' hibited more then ordinarysensitiveness, and are rather afraid that the feeling has been shown more in another quarter, where it has been known to exist ever since Mr Harrison's election ; unless it can be said that the letter which he recently transmitted to the Hokitika Committee, in reply to their insulting telegrams, showed his sensitiveness. We have already stated our opinion that the letter in question was a calm aud manly reply to as deliberate an insult as was ever offered by a section of a constituency to their representative, and that as such it will be accepted Vy the great body of the electors — by those who returned him to Parliament, and who have approved of his political conduct ever since he became their representative. If, as our contemporary says, he is only an " honorary" representative of Hokitika, he deserves all the more credit for having so earnestly watched over the interests of that town as well as the one which is said to have returned him ; and instead of throwing obstacles in his way, they ought to have given him most material assistance. But what did they do 1 A small body of electors in Hokitika. met together and appointed a delegate to proceed to Wellington with a petition, which he is supposed to lay before both Houses of Parliament, thus entirely ignoring their representative, and telling the House, in unmistakable terms, that he did not represent their opinions or the best interests of the County. That was lad enough, but it was not all. This selfelected Committee put themselves in communication with Mr Fox, ordered Mr Harrison " to vote 'against the Government, aud to take", his instructions from the Leader of the Opposition. And then we are coolly told that the delegate was sent to "strengthen his hands," if, we suppose, he acted up to the instructions of his Hokitika dictators, and to weaken his influence in

the House by every means in his power if he did not. The result showed that Mr Harrison was not 'to be intimidated by the threats , of a few agitators, who choose to style themselves- " the people of Westland," but gaVe. a consistent vote for the Government, and stated his reasons for so doing in the very able speech which we published in our last, and which we recommend to the serious study of our contemporary as the best answer we can give to many of the insinuations it yesterday made against our representative. The attempt which has been made by our contemporary to foster a feeling of jealousy between the two Boroughs is an unworthy one, and calculated to do much mischief by engendering petty local animosities where all should be peace and concord. He has frequently taken opportunities of throwing in the apple of discord when there was any appearance of the speedy approach of an election contest, and the present is only another illustration of the system. Late telegrams tell us of the likelihood of a speedy dissolution and genewl election, and it is in view of this that the present charges are brought against Mr Harris son iv order to deprive him of the honor of being again the representative of the Westland Boroughs in the Assembly, Whatever the result may bs, we are sure of this, that his consistent political conduct, his unremitting attenti«n to the wants of his constituents, and his able advocacy of their wants in Parliament, has gained him many friends, and the good opinion of every unprejudiced mind in the district.