THE ELECTORAL ROLLS.

New Zealander, Volume 10, Issue 889, 21 October 1854, Page 3

THE ELECTORAL ROLLS.

To the Editor of the New-Zeal.\nder. Sin,—The Southern Cross of the 10th instant, after stating that it is currently reported " that three members of the House of Representatives of the ex-ministerial party will be shortly called upon by their constituents to resign their seats," proceeds upon that basis to read the const itutency a very characteristic lecture with respect to the duties of electors and representatives towards each other. Divesting this lecture of its verbiage and studious mystification, the drift of the writer may he clearly discerned, the aim being no other than to assert that electors having once chosen their man, m st be content to submit to hit opinions in all tb iga, uo matter how wilfully he may misrepre-

sent their opinions, or how wantonly lie may sacrifice their best and dearest hopes. Much is said about American example an A Chartist delegates ; but these " dodges," like the instinctive misleadings of the plover, are but worthless lures thrown out to divert the iireflective from the true gist of the question. It mny c uit writers who/«:/ that, «g Representatives, they have rendered themselves amenable to the censure, and placed themselves in a position to be called upon to resign their trust into the hands of the constituency,topreach such doctrine as that propounded by the (trots ; but no thinking man can be confused, much less silenced, by the clumsy attempt to cofound that degree of responsibilitywhich every representative owes tothe constituency, with the suppositious degree of interference which the Cross coveniently conjures up, and employs as an unanswerable argument, against all who would tie up a representative with pledges calculated to render him but the Automaton of a party, and not the free and indepelid - ent exponent of public opinion. If there be three members to be called upon to resign, the call most assuredly will be made not for any violation of pledges, but fur a cool and de* terminate persistence in carrying out individual crotchtesin opposition to and in -defiance of the wishes and opinions of the electors., lfacasein point be required that of Dr. Bacot—who gave a vote so diametrically opposed to the feelings of the constituency that returned him, and who prefaced that vote by stating that it would cost him his seat, —may suffice. AVi 11 the Crosscontend that Dr. Bacot is to he allowed to over-ride the sentiments and stultify the opinions of his constituents, and that they are to have no relief from such an infliction, let by calling upon their misReprexentative to l-etire they might be considered Americans or Chartists!

To f< tter an upright and conscientious member witlrpledets is decidedly bad ; but to promt aseifwilled and unscrupulous person to mii-represent and injure his constituents is immeasureably worse. There arc great political land-marks in all countries and colonies which cannot be passed by with impunity. There are implied as well as exacted pledges,— understood as well as spoken ; and, if it were not so, upon what principle could any election be made \ If then, members, be chosen upon the pre-supposition that they are the advocates and supporters of certain principles, which principles in action they, afterwards, desert ana defy, whit recourse, has any constituency but to get rid of the traitors, v and, — without insisting vpon pledges —endeavour to replace them by men who will prove more honest and true ?

Take Mr. Brown himself for an illustration, lie disclaims pledges; ami, yet, as the very strongest pledge he can oftVi to the constituency, he lays before them a long (but hald) arrav of hU previous career, protesting that he will adhere to that career :—Having so declared himself, —upon the faith of that declaration he at once claims the support and suff'iages of those with whom it carries weight. If pledges be unnecessary, of what utility are electoral addresses such as those so elaborately put forth by Mr. Brown upon his canvas for a seat in Sir George Grey's Provincial Council, and subsequently in his unsuccessful contest for the Superintendency! Either those Addresses contained pledges of pursuing a certain line of conduct, else they were but traps to gull the electors into a false belief of the candidates'truth. Such pledges are the usual baits to catch the electors; and if a constituency be caught by a man's addresses or his antecedents, and if they afterwards find that man stultifying all their preconceived belief, and running counter to nil their cherished hopes, there is surely no remedy left but to call upon him to relinquish his dishonoured seat, American example or delegated Chartism nevertheless and notwithstanding. But it is but waste of words to argue this natter. The Representative men of the Cross know full well, that there are implied pledges,—sacred pledges—'by which all members—Constiti t'onalists or Chartists, are hound to be guided. Clear and indelible points which like oral traditions are neither to be overleapt or overlooked. Will Mr. Brown, for instance, affirm that the constituency would have no right to learn his sentiments, or to exact a pledge on the great subject of the day,—the Temperance movement J Does he mean to assert that a constituency, viewing with just and well grounded alarm, the efforts of a Southern Majority to accomplish the removal of the seat of Government from Aucl - laii 1, would exercise an unconstitutional or unEnglish privilege in requiring the surrender of their seats, from Members who altogether misrepresented their opinions, and systematically, if not factiously, threw their influence into the scale of an unjust and an unpopular majority? "Will he persist in affirming that an adverse vote on the question of amending the Electoral Rolls, so that Auckland might be entitled to 'icr fair share of Representation in the Councils of the General Assembly is no just cause for calling upon the adverse Representative to retire. The Southern Cross of the 13th Inst., with an unshaken Southern inclining, insinuates that a - correction of the Electoral Rolls might prove to the disadvantage, rather than to the benefit of Auckland. To vouch this is no proof, and against the general assertion of the Cross, there is the particular statement delivered in the House of Representatives by the Chairman of Committees, in which by the comparative returns of the various Electoral Rolls, Auckland is shown to he largely deprived of her Representative rights. The calling and condition of the inhabitants of the several Provinces are sure though silent guarantees of the accuracy of that statement. In the South, there is a Squ'atocratie population widely scattered in tendence of their flocks and herds; whilst here in Auckland, tlw population is concentrated, numbers being squeezed into small holdings, all of which qualify the occupier or the freeholder. Without professing that profound knowlege of persons possessing a vote, but not qttalified to exercise it, which the Cross so eminently displays, it may suffice that the general and confident belief of the people oi Auckland is, that n revision of the Electoral Rolls would ha\e the effect of placing the Northern Province in a much more equal position with reference to th« other Province At all events the revisit nof the Electoral Rolls, is one of those implied pledges which every Auckland Representative is expected not only to have given; but to have fulfilled ; and it will require all the special pleading of the Representative Men of the CroSf to convince the Constituencies that they who voted against that measure are other than traitors to the public weal, and as such amenable to public investigation and discharge. An Elector of tiik Southern Division. 17th October, 1804. The publication of my letter having been postponed, and the Cross ?in its issue of this morning) having again anathematized the revision of the Electoral Rolls, you will, probably, permit me to add a shortpostscript. As far as I can discover, the fierce onslaught that has been made upon Major Greenwood is designed ns a false fire, because of that trustworthy representative having shamed the tricksters'of the Cros* by manful advocacy of tha interests of Auckland, neither truckling t«» Southern sympathies, nor pandering to political antipathies. It would be idle to follow the gentlemen of the Cross through all the changes which they ring. They have octroyed the best interests of Auckland to the Southerns, and they know it. They/frf too, that the people of Auckland know it. Hence their anxiety to cloak this sorry defection of theirs. They have, this day, got up a supplement To contain the debate on the Electoral Rolls Bill that they helped the Southerns to eject. Let them be judged by that debate, even as they themselves report it, and I feel convinced that they will be convicted of false dealing by the voice of publie opinion. They must have a marvellou.-ly intimate knowledge of the ficEkous voters of the Province of Auckland, that they fear to confront the Electoral Rolls of the North with those of the South. If the North is dishonestly represented, win not get rid of the injustice. Major

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