New Zealand Colonist. FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1842.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 6, 19 August 1842, Page 2

New Zealand Colonist. FRIDAY, AUGUST 19, 1842.

Pursuant to notice, a public meeting of the working-classes was held at Barrett’s Hotel, on Monday evening last. From the report of its proceedings in the Gazette, there would appear to have been less of order, and less, also, of earnestness, in the conduct of the meeting, than might have been anticipated. Perhaps this is to be attributed, in some degree, to the circumstance, that some of those who played a prominent part in the discussion, could not have been prepared by any previous training for the position which they assumed; and could not be expected to feel, what they certainly did not display, any sense of the nature and import of the business in which they were engaged. It is, however, a peculiarity of a free constition, that it has a tendency to free itself from impediments of this character. With all our admiration for popular constituencies, we have never arrogated for them a freedom from the same sources of error, whether arising from ignorance or from prejudice, to which other bodies are liable. But as their interests are, for the most part, identical with those of the community of which they form so important a portion ; in whose progress their prosperity is involved, and in whose decline they cannot fail to share ; we believe that their errors are less permanent and less dangerous than those of any other class to which the task of selecting representatives could be intrusted. If they fall into mistakes in the commencement of tlieir labours; if they permit immature and inexperienced minds to have too great an influence in their deliberations ; or if they allow themselves to be biassed "by inadequate or unworthy motives, we may rely confidently upon a speedy perception, and a prompt cure of the faults into which, from any of these causes, they may have been led. There are, we believe, none who are so ready to admit and to remedy errors which they may have committed, as individuals of the class that will form the most numerous portion of our municipal constituency. If, therefore, we feared, which we do not, that upon the present occasion they could be unduly influenced, we should not lose one iota of our confidence either in the principle of popular representation, or in the individuals of whom our electoral body will be composed.

We were gratified to observe that the committee appointed by the working-classes, to

select fit representatives for the first towncouncil, had, in the execution of the trust thus imposed upon them, al together disregarded mere party considerations. If we were called upon to express our opinion as to the individual fitness of the persons whom they recommended, it is possible that we might take exception to more than one of the number. But our individual opinion, in this case, would not probably be entitled to any great degree of weight, as opposed to the deliberate voice of those who have weighed the qualification of the different persons suggested to them ; and have selected those whom they imagined best adapted to represent -their sentiments, and to guard and advance the general interests. And whatever may be thought of the eligibility of particular persons, it can hardly be denied that the list agreed to and recommended by that committee, represents, with tolerable fairness, the various modifications of opinion existent in the settlement. Whether or not the most suitable persons have been nominated, must remain a question upon which all cannot be expected to agree. That all shades of sentiment would find representatives in the town council, if this list were adopted, cannot, however, be a matter of dispute. From the report of the proceedings, we arc not quite able to understand the result at which the meeting arrived; or, indeed, if there was any result. It would rather seem as though, towards the conclusion of the evening, the persons present became weary of business, and sought to extract some nmusement from what they previously felt to be rather a dull affair. This is not altogether an unprecedented termination to such a meeting ; but it is one which, by more careful arrangement, may be prevented from again occurring.