Correspondence. MR GIBBS AT MOTUPIPI.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume III, Issue 43, 21 February 1868, Page 3

Correspondence.

MR GIBBS AT MOTUPIPI.

TO THE EDITOK OF THE NELSON EVENING MAILSir — Your Own Correspondent of the 28th ult. seems to have been particului ly hazy-brained, as he expresses it, on the evening that he at' empted to report Mr Gibbs' address to the eleeto'3 of Motupi'pi, for he has departed so Jar from facts, that it seems necessary that some one should offer a few remarks for his especial information. So far from it being of a ' rambling, disjointed, aud jerky character/ Mr Gibbs' addresses to the electors generally throughout the district have been particularly clear, and to the poiut. Your correspondent has given him credit for that peculiarity usually accorded to Englishmen, that of finding fault with everything — Mail subsidies, Native aff.iirs, and the rest, making the slight mistake of substituting 'Defence Force,' for 'Pension List,' ' Mineralogical Department,' for ' Geological Survey,' &c; but as to his sweetness for the Local Government Bill of last session, that must have been a peculiarly 'hazy' moment with your correspondent. Although Mr Gibbs has referred to it in liis other addresses, as well as at Motupipi, it was certainly not in favor of that bill, his objection being that it was altogether too cumbrous in it details, But Mr Gibbs has expressed himself in favor of socnethiug mure uearly approaching to what we have heard so much, viz., local self-government, meaning, as I have understood him in his very clear expositions, the abolition of a very large proportion of our burdensome Customs Tariff, and the substitution of a more local and direct taxation. to supply our local wauts.

With respect to his assertion said to have been made in reference to Mr Richmond's resignation, Mr Gibbs made no reference to what Mr. Richmonl had told him, or to the month of March, but said, that being in company with Mr. Collins at one of the hotels in Takaka, Mr. Collins had said in his hearing, in answer to a question put by an elector, that Mr Richmond intended to resign in February, ami for the reason your correspondent assigns, and with refer -nee to the miners' voting, I think Mr. Gib*>s very justly defends their right to vote, and thereby to have a voice through a repiesentative in |ias."-iui£ laws by which they are governed, and under the provisions of which they are heavily and specially taxed, and as for the settlers, of which I am one, the qualification is so near to universal suffrage, that if a settler neglects to register tor sixty years (as your correspondent has it), it would imply that he cared very little for the privilege of being an elector, or felt little interest in the welfare of the colony. Yours, &c, A Settler. Golden Bay, Feb. 13.