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Hawke's Bay Times, Volume I, Issue 19, 7 November 1861, Page 5 (Supplement)

To the Editor of the Haivbe's Eat) Times. Sir, —Permit an elector to express his gratification at seeing the ground you have taken in your valuable publication on the Maori question, and (allow me to say) only just in time for us to apply it as a kind of touchstone to try those gentlemen by who may be ambitious of representing us in the Provincial Council. At the present juncture, when the waste lands of the Province have been for the most part forced into the market, and little or none obtained from the Natives to supply its place, when direct taxation looms darkly on the political horizon, nay, rather already stares us in the face, the revenue from' the former source beimr virtually at an end, the question has assumed a very serious aspect, and makes it incumbent on us to inquire of the candidates for our suffrages ‘Aire they prepared, in the event of their election, to use all their influence to bring the law-breaking wool kings to a reckoning, and so by depriving the rebel natives of this source of revenue, give the Government an opportunity of obtaining the lands which ought to have been theirs long since ?” My immediate object in addressing you now is to direct attention to the fact of an address to the electors of the Country Districts by Mr. Dousfield, and, at the same

time to enquire if this is the same individual who prosecuted “poor Bob Hollis !” (as I find it was a person of that name) and allowed all the rich culprits to remain unmolested in the occupation of the Native lands ; if so, x ask- Why ? Was Mr. Bousfield a mere tool in the hands of a superior, instructed to lay an information or not, as might suit his interests ? If so, he is hound to inform us of this fact, and so clear himself of the imputation cast on him by “Bob” that he was governed hg favoritism. As Ido not know either “ Bob” or him I write impartially and for information, as well as for the satisfaction of fellow electors, who seem to think there was at least some hardship in this case—not considered in itself, but by comparison with the legion others by far more criminal than he. The electors have a right to expect that Mr. Bousfield will give them all the information he can on the above question, so that if the fault is not his, the burden may rest on those who ought to bear it, and so prove the independence he professes in his address. I am, &c., An Elector. Napier, Oct. 28, 1861.