MOTUEKA ELECTION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 32, 7 February 1871, Page 2

MOTUEKA ELECTION.

To the Editor op the Nelson Evening Mail. Sir, — Ever since there has been a talk about this election, I have been bothering my head how I should vote next Friday, and for a long time I couldn't make up my mind what to do. At first I thought I should vote for Parker, because he was once a working man, and so I said to myself he will know best what we are likely to want, and he will try .and get it for us over in Wellington, and then some of my mates came to me and said, Look here, Monro is trying to get in instead of Parker, who has been our member for a long time, but what's the use of voting for him, he never was a working man, and so he can't koow what is best todoj'or us. But I wouldn't promise them how I'd go, because it didn't seem to me quite clear what I ought to do, so I said I hadn't made up my mind, and then I thought I would talk to my missus about it. We have been married twenty- two years come next May, and I have never sowed an acre of wheat, or killed a pig, or sold a pound of butter, without asking her advice, and somehow or other, although we didn't always agree what was best to be done, I have always found she was right in the end. So I said, Mother, I don't know what to do about this election, I want to do what's right, but I can't tell what's right and what's wrong, and then I just told her all that the other chaps had said about it. She didn't answer nt first, but she sat thinking for a bit, and then she says, Joho, supposing you wanted a ditch dug in that three-acre field of grass, and you hadn't got time to do it yourself, and you had to get somebody else to dig it, would you have a chap as never did a hand's turn in his life beyond just rooting about on some garden path with a Dutch hoe, or would you look for someone as had been used to handle a spade all his life ? I didn't see at first what she was driving at, but of course I said I should like to have a chap who knew how to dig, and had been used to hard work. So she just looked up from the trowsers she was making for our little Tom — Tom is ten years old and getting on first-rate at the school that Sir David Monro and some of the others got built for us in the old days — and she says, Well now, you want somebody to go and make the laws, and do what is best for New Zealand, and will you ask Parker to do it, who doesn't know but very little about it, and how should he, seeing as he has had to give all his time to carpentering and hadn't much time to give to politics except in the evenings when he wasn't at work, or would you like to have a man like Dr. Monro — that's what he was when we first knew him twenty-five years ago — — who has been taught well at school, and has read what other members of Parliaments did before in other places, and is a clever man, and &o can tell which of them did the best before him, and so will

know what to do himself. And then she got quite excited over it, and she said, Besides, we have had Parker before, and he hasn't done us much good as I know of, and you know you have often come home from the library where you could read what he had done in the Parliament and have saiJ that you couldn't see that he ever said or did anything in WellingtoD, and so why should you have him to do what you know he can't do for you ; and she seemed quite angry like that I should ever have thought of voting for Parker. I have thougbt about this since, especially what she said about getting a man to dig a ditch who knew how to handle a spade, and I have made up my mind that if I wanted somebody to shingle my house, Parker could do it a great deal better than Monro, and I should be a fool if I paid Monro to do it when the other would get over the job much faster and better, aud then I thought, won't it cut both ways, and if I wanted a man to do what is best for the country and had to choose between these two, wouldn't Monro be most likely to do it, and I said to myself, The missus is right, and if you want any work done yoji should always get him who has fapwi bred up to that kind of work tp^fo it for you, and so I mean to voteJ&rMonro, and I do hope all the working men will do the same. Let us hold the plough, and work the hammer and saw, because we can do it much better than those softhanded* gentlemen who never did a day's wp£k,\but if we want good laws and to^h^e the country governed properly, let us elect those men who are best able to do it. lam afraid I have taken up a good deal of your room, but I hope you will print it, because I know there are plenty of the # electors who haven't got wives to adjjjse them, and 1 should like them to knoJP what is thought about these things, bar j- A Ploughman. Wairaea Wesfc/Cth February. ' y"* ' -

f A Riyerton correspondent states that a native chief named Solomon Patu Pokoheki, of Riverton, has consented to become a candidate for the representation of the Southern Maori Electoral District. He is an intelligent man, and has resided for some years ia this district, and is thought by those who know him that he is one of the best men of his class they could have selected to fulfil the trust. In the course of a speech recently delivered, Mr. Rolleston said: — "I wish my constituents distinctly to understand it as my opinion that the native difficulty is far from being at an end.' I do not attach any blame to this or that Ministry iv the j matter. We have made great mistakes, but no good will come of shutting our eyes and feeling that the native difficulty has vanished. I feel now that we have warniu« of the rising again of the natives. I believe the North Island will be subject for years and years to native troubles of a very extensive character." Government Patronage. — In reply to a challenge issued by the Wellington Independent to the Evening Post to mention any instance of abuse of patronage on the part of the present Government, the latter journal says: — We accept our contemporary's definition — " Abuse of patronage may be twofold; the appointment of incapable officers, and the creation of unnecessary offices. If an office is required, it is mal-administration to fill it up inefficiently^ and if it is not required, the appointment to it of even a good officer is not a justification." A few instances of each case may satisfy the craving for knowledge now exhibited. Eirst, then, for an appointment which was not wanted, and for which the person selected was not qualified — that of Mr. Henry Sewell to be Minister of Justice. Of the first class, that of Mr. E. Fox to be Private Secretary to Mr. Yogel ; that of Major Green, to ba seeretarj' to the Government Agent in Hawke's Bay, an office which had been abolished by G. M. Russell wbeu agent, but which was restored by Mr. Ormond on his appointment, with arrears of salary to Major Green, for the period during which he had not been employed by Mr. Russell. Of both classes, the appointment of Captain Baldwin to be a Travelling Lecturer uuder the Government Assurance scheme. Of the first class, the appointment of Captain Kennedy as Mail Pilot. Of the second class, the appointment of Messrs. Moorhouse and Main as Registrars under the Torrens Act, they being perhaps the two least qualified members of the profession in the Colony. Of both classes, the recent appointment of two new clerks in the Treasury, who have been imported from Auckland, at salaries amongst the highest in the department, only to be engaged in routine work formerly done by. cadets at .£BO a year. Of the first class, the appointment of Major St. John as Private Secretary to Mr. M'Lean. Of both classes, the appointment of Captain East as Mail Agent, and of the first class, that of Mr. Thompson, as Detective In-

spector. We have not space to further multiply instances at present, but we have the best reason for knowing that the present Government has actually added between £20,000 and £25,000 per annum to the cost of the Civil Service. We will continue the list if the Independent is not satisfied. "The New Zealand Wesleyan." — Such is the title of a new monthly publication, with which is incorporated the Christian Observer. The reasons for believing that there is in New Zealand. a field of Christian usefulness, are very clearly and sensibly set forth by the editor, the Rev. A. R. Fitchett, in a " few first words," from which we extract the following: — "According to statistics supplied to the Conference now in session, the Wesleyan Church in New Zealand enumerates about 3000 members, and 17,000 attendauts upon public worship. The?e aie distributed through. 28 circuits, which lie scatterad along both coasts from Hokianga to Invercargill, a distance of some 700 miles. Our ecclesiastical system binds these widely^^ separated churches into a "connection /■■ subordinates them all to one centra authority, the Australasian Conference, I and provides them with an associated pastorate, the members of which have no permanent abiding place, but itinerate as the Conference directs. It is obviou3 that churches thus related have many vital interests in common and are deeply concerned in eacji other's welfare. Yet, owing in part^4oMheir geographical dispersion and the political divisions which cut up the colony into so mauy petty governments, and in part to ( the want of a Conference of our own,-' tb serve as a common centre and rallying point, the several circuits, which together make up the Wesleyan communion in New Zealand, have little knowledge of each other, and little mutual cohesion. The South knows little of the North, and the North, less of the South ; neither has any appreheusion of the difficulties and wants of the other, and by inevitable consequence, the bond of sympathy between the extremes is weak. It is hoped that the publication of a Connectional journal may do something to correct these evils. Such a journal, if only by disseminating circuit intelligence and affording facilities for the discussion of questions whlwi are of interest to the whole church, wjll tend to strengthen the Conuectioual ooud, and to save our isolated churches from degenerating into Congregationalism. Considerations of this nature have led the Southern District meeting to authorise the publication of the New Zealand Wesley an?' A Maori "Yarn."— The Auckland Herald is responsible for the following : —None of us . will have forgotten Mr. Parris and his little feast of lilipee and till those comical performances at the late native feast on the West Coast. A very funny story has come up, via Waikato about him. Of course it is only a native story, and they are so excellent at that sort of thing. And then the native sense of humor is so uncommonly keen that they might just have been cutting a little joke at the expense of the Government- — rather a ghastly joke though to European ears. Not that anyone — at least anyone that we have had the misfortune to meet, has been possessed of a brain so hopelessly softened, as to lead him to the belief that auy thing would be done to secure poor Todd's mnrderers. Oh ! dear no ! In the indulgence of the wildest flights of hopeful fancy no one could have ever expected anything of the kind. If Todd had shot a rebel now, it would have been a different matter. The Government might have given a little encouragement to local industry by the purchase of a flax halter for Todd. But could Mr. Parris really have made the speech ho is reported to have doner?*^ 1 Even supposing that hi 3 real sentiments were that the " blood of the pakeha was no more than t.he blood of a pig on the mountains " — is it probable that he would have been so silly as to express them? Hardly. Besides natives am so givea to gossip. Moreover, we are perfectly certain that Mr. Parris is incapable of either thinking or saying anything of the kind. However, some of our amiable colored friends at Mauug^tautari have been saying that Mr. Parris did say so, and whether he did or not, the sentiment is so much on a par with a good deal that we have seen lately that it is worth attention. "O " say the Maungatautari gossips, "Mr. Parris says thut the Government is not going to war about such a trifling matter as Todd's murder, the blood of a pakeha is no mora than the blood of a pig on the mountains." A Berlin correspondent slates that great iuterest was excited there the other day by a wounded soldier, believed to he a lady. She is 24 years of age, and is said to have entered the army under the name of Von Weiss, after having passed

the necessary examination with eclat. It appears that she distinguished herself on the field by recovering a German flag which had fallen info the hands of the enemy. For this pallantdeed she was decorated with ihe Iron Cross. She had received four wounds, and was returning home to Tilsit to get her health re-estab-lished. Forty-eight prisoners were recently received into the Melbourne Gaol, which is said to be unusually full. The majority of the 48 came from Romeolane via the City Court, being the trophies of a sort of foray, which the police had made in the back slums. Speaking of them the Argus says : — "They cannot, like other vermin, be exterminated, but they can be deprived of their liberty for a season. The State, out of a regard ,for the well-conducted poftion of society, undertakes to free society for some months at least, of their preseuce, and so temporarily to render ty particular district of the city less danger^ ous and less noisome." rK A, Helpmate. — A country paper tells of a smart wife that helped to raise 70 acres of wheat. The way she helped hiii was to stand in the doorway and shake a broom at him when he sat down to rest.