The Lyttelton Times. Wednesday, July 15.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 490, 15 July 1857, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. Wednesday, July 15.

"You are not the representative of public opinion," says a "Member of,tbe Provincial Council" to the editor .of a newspaper, to-day ; " for who made you so ? I am, for I was made so .by the votes of the electors of So-and-So district, at my election. And, therefore, on the Immigration question, what I say is what the So-and-So electors think; at least, if they do not exactly do so now, they will at the next election, after a little talking to; and I shall be returned ;by them again, see if I'm not. But who are you ? A printer or a printer's devil. And so, what I say is right, and what you say is wrong." This is the translation of a letter we publish to-day. The "Member, &c," regretting, no doubt, that he is now but the shade of a Member and dumb, refers the questions at issue to the hustings, where public opinion will, he says, be heard. Why !we come to the hustings and submit our opinions to the public twice in every week. All. the whole year round, a newspaper, whether it be ly the editor, " or his printer, or his devil," is ill as close connection with the public and as anxious, not to say nervous, about its proper understanding of public opinion, ,as any aspiring M.P.C. in hjs candidature. Our Member writes with the hustings in his eye. He has a great deference for public opinion. He has also a modest confidence in his own powers ; for his explanations on the hustings are to lead the public to entertain the opinions which will perfectly coincide with his own ; he will thus prove that his idea of public opinion is correct. The fact is, the opinions of individuals are various, and the opinion of the public is not one. It is the place of the newspaper writer, as well as of the M.P.C., to form his opinions on the best grounds that his facts and his logic will provide him with. The newspaper writer is really much more responsible to the public than the member, he is therefore more likely to speak advisedly. More than all, what with editors and correspondents, a newspaper is a very important portion of the public itself, especially at election time. Let the * Member of the Provincial Council' look to it. The crowd at]the hustings rarely argues, for it finds that its best advocate is the press.