THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1870.

Grey River Argus, Volume IX, Issue 730, 22 September 1870, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1870.

That very able representative of Westland South in the Assembly has never yet missed an opportunity of endeavoring to bring into contempt the actions of his colleagues, Messrs Kynnersley and Harrison, and throughout the past session he has been ably seconded by the journal for which he has acted as telegraphic correspondent. His latest effort in this direction is a thoroughly contemptible one, and one for which he ought to be held up to derision by every honest man. On Tnes- ] day, he sent the following telegram to his i organ, the West Coast Times, aiid it was published yesterday, as follows : — "An error has been discovered in the schedule of the Representation Act, 1870, by which a large number of Canterbury constituencies, i andihe whole of Westland, is placed in the Cheviot District. This can only be remedied by a meeting of the House of Representatives before being finally dissolved. ; Messrs Harrison and Kynnersley assisted to prepare the schedule." The purpose for which this was sent is explained by the last sentence only. Our contemporary states that " this is startling news, but we confess that we do net thoroughly comprehend the full purport of the telegram ; the news contained may be of importance, or may be of nuhe." A beautiful explanation indeed, and it is evident that we have hit upon the true reason why the telegram was sent, because it is made to infer that only Messrs Harrison and Kynnersley prepared the schedule referred tn, whereas the truth is that the Committee consisted of twenty members of the House of Representatives—but did not include the name of Mr Edmund Barff ! Has that anything to do with the telegram ? In order to clear away any misunderstanding which may be caused by the publication of this matter with regard to the Cheviot District, we may explain that in the redistribution of the seats which lately took place, one member was taken from the Nelson Province, leaving seven to represent it, including Cheviot, and the member given to Westland. During the debate on the Bill Mr Pox said: — "It will be necessary to reduce the number of Nelson members from seven to eight to represent the Nelson Districts, including Cheviot, leaving Westland North to be combined with the Westland Districts. ... Nelson will lose one member nominally, but will really gain one." Mr Hall then asked the question — " What does the hon. member propose to do with Cheviot 1" To which Mr Fox replied— " It is included in the seven members for Nelson." So far the intention of the Legislature is pretty clear. After this the; boundaries of the four new electoral districts in Westland were fixed, and one member allotted to each, so that the meaning of the Act is clear enough, and we very much doubt that, even supposing an error did occur in the schedule, that it could invalidate a portion of the Bill ; aud even supposing it could, the question then arises " Does it not invalidate the whole Bill?" We believe Mr Barff has either found a mare's nest, or has sent the telegram for the purpose we have pointed out. But after all, the attempt to cast blame for an error, supposing it exists, on any of the Committee .is simply ridiculous, for the parties responsible to the Government for the proper preparation of any Bill that goes through the Assembly are the Law Officers of the Crown, and not the members of any Committee. As another specimen of the unfair manner in which Mr Harrison has been treated by Mr Barff and his organ, we may refer to the sensational telegram published by our contemporary the other day, in which it was said that during the debate on the withdrawal of the Westland Boundary and Government Bill, Mr Yogel threatened to read a letter he had received from Harrison, "which had the effect of . silencing that gentleman." Now, so far from this being true, we find, by reference to our contemporary's own columns, that when the threat was made, Mr Harrison begged Mr Yogel to read the letter to the House, and the letter was read, and freely commented upon, although it was admitted that it was written confidentially. Now, our contemporary, in that spirit of fairness which usually characterises his dealings with public .men who disagree with him, simply mentions the reading of the letter, does not publish it, but takes the opportunity of freely commenting upon a document he never saw, and is consequently ignorant of the contents, except from the telegraphic version given by Mr Barff, and which has already been found to be wide of the truth. We do not intend to puraue the subject further at present, but simply make these explanations in order to show the systematic and underhand attempts which have been made to injure the reputation of public men. The gentlemen referred to will be among their constituents in a few days, when explanations ivill no doubt be made, which may place matters in a very different light than that sought to be given to them by Mr Barff while acting at Wellington in the capacity of " our own correspondent" to the W. G. limes.