Correspondence.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XIV, 10 November 1855, Page 2

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the ' Nelson Examinee.'

Fellow-Colonists — It has been said that politics open the widest field for reason and foolery; subsequent experience has added roguery to the other two — and the last has, I think, taken the place of the first, thereby verifying the passage in Scripture, wherein we are told "the last shall be first, and the first shall be last," and that too to an extent incredible to those who have never had an opportunity of inspecting the complicated machinery of the political institutions of our blessed mother country, which are neverthless thought by those who have the exclusive working of them to be the envy and admiration of surrounding nations. Some persons, in the excess of their early prejudices, are for keeping up the union of Church and State, which means passive obedience and non-resist-ance to the powers that be, no matter how those who wield those powers became possessed of them, and, as regards the Church, to submit to her dogmas with " prostration of intellect." There are others, on the other hand, who fall into the other extreme, of thinking that " Jack is as good as his master," and that, consequently, there is no need of any Government at all, as, where all are equal, there can be no disagreements or disputes arise requiring the interference of laws or restraints upon man's selfish nature. There is a third class who, while convinced of the necessity of rules and regulations to guide and control the mass of mankind, think that those who, by a long and laborious course of study and investigation of the passions, feelings, and inherent selfishness of their fellow men, have in any degree qualified themselves to act as public functionaries, are entitled to no more remuneration for their services than the value each individual may put upon the small amount of benefit he may individually derive from the existence of the political institutions of the country, which they, however, one and all, are equally clamorous for the protection of the moment their personal interests are in any manner interfered with or as they may think endangered.

Now, in the foregoing portraits which I have sketched, I tell you candidly and in all sober earnestness, I trace the social and political character of the important Nelson provincialists; and moreover, I will tell you that you are fast verging on to a state of inordinate self-conceit, fancied individual independence, and, what is worse than these, a woful state of intellectual and mental ignorance, engendered by that extraordinary, rapid acquirement and acpumulation of individual wealth, to which I fully admit, in the great majority of instances,- your assiduous and persevering industry, as well as patient endurance of the gross neglect and mismanagement of your interests at the outset of your enterprising pilgrimage, fully entitles you to, and not one fraction of which- would I deprive any one of you of, or grudge you the full enjoyment of. At the same time I would observe, in making use of the term " enjoyment of," I may not put the same construction upon the meaning of that word as most of you may do, and, judging from your conduct, I think a great many of you do do. That you have greatly improved your worldly condition, no one who has visited the scenes of your labours can doubt. That you are better fed, better clothed, and that, .when so disposed, can spare time for recreation and amusement, which is essentially necessary to invigorate the animal and physical energies, is also self-evident, but I fear when I have said thus much, I have with few exceptions, I fear, enumerated all the advantages arising from your improved condition that outward observation can discover. These advantages, however, call for a corresponding progress of intellectual and mental cultivation, without which it is impossible that any people can know how to protect their property from the corrupt and corroding influence from which even our best constructed political institutions are not exempt, or reap a tithe of the benefits and advantages which, under an intelligent and provident system of management, that property is capable of producing. Notwithstanding such a state of things, you have (whether wisely or not your future conduct will best show) called for and have had acceded to you what is termed self-government. Now we all know that a beggar, in soliciting your charity, cares very little what were the motives which prompted the compliance of the donor. It is the same with the greater portion of any community when they seek relief from what they consider a political grievance, at the hands of those whom they know possess the power to aiford it. They do not stop to inquire whether it was fear of or sympathy for them which prompted the concession. It is enough for them to feel they have obtained what they sought. You are now, then, arrived at that point, and that, too, by your deliberate choice, when you must act for yourselves; and you have for the first time to learn that property has duties to perform as well as rights to protect ; and, as a preliminary step towards this new state of things, you are called upon to select from among yourselves, those whom j r ou may feel disposed to trust with the management of your stare in tlie General A.ssexnl>lj>- of tlie colony : and here the observation above will equally apply to the choice of representatives ; for even in a community where a considerable amount of mental ability may be dispersed among the mass, it is nevertheless certain that the great body have neither time nor inclination to weigh very nicely the motives which

guide men in aspiring to political honours, so long as the consequences resulting from their acts do not interfere with their individual interests or freedom of action. In the next place I would observe, that the term for which your representatives are elected renders a very close scrutiny into their motives which prompt them to offer their services, or the solicitations of those who may seek those services : it will be their conduct alone which will determine how long they will retain them. And again, you are especially called upon to sink all personal and selfish feelings which may be at variance or interfere with the discharge of that public duty you have voluntarily token upon yourselves to perform. At the same time that we may feel thankful for the boon which the Lords of Downing Street have vouchsafed towards us, it must not escape our recollection that, after all, it is but a sort of nondescript Government. We have, it is true, a House of Representatives chosen by the colony, but we have the drag-chain of a House of Incapables nominated for life, by the Governor for the time being. And, lastly, we have an absolute power overriding the whole, subject to the dictation of the sovereignty of Downing Street, and whose term of office is limited to a sexennial regency, which, judging of all preceding representatives of that office, would appear to "be limited to just that nicety of calculation to which the patience of the people will submit to abuse and plunder and misgovernment, without breaking out into rebellion, or expiring from exhaustion, like a regimental surgeon, who, while feeling the pulse of a culprit on the halberts, holds up his stop-watch lest the power of endurance should be extinguished, and what was meant as a corrective, prove a destructive system of discipline. At least such has been the result, politically speaking, of the administration of this colony under all preceding Governors. What may be the results of the present recent appointment, as the Frenchman would say, " Nous verron."

Such are some of the ideas which the present state of this settlement, both social and political, have suggested to my mind, and although perhaps not very flattering to the self-conceit which we are all at times more or less disposed to indulge in, are nevertheless, I think, in the main correct, and if taken in good part, as they are intended on my part, will tend to the benefit and advantage, both individually and collectively, of this settlement ; and so saying,

I remain, Your fellow-colonist, Senex Albus.