THE WELLINGTON MEMBERS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 43, 18 November 1871, Page 9

THE WELLINGTON MEMBERS.

• [lndependent.] ! Mr Fitziierbert and Mr Bunny have well deserved the thanks of the community for their energetic action on behalf of the province during the present session of Parliament. To their untiring perseverance we entirely owe the passage through the Legislature of measures of the very utmost importance to our best interests, and, in truth, our very existence as a political entity. In the face of determined opposition of the most formidable character, the bill to provide for the settlement of the provincial liabilities has been successfully piloted through both Houses, and oiu local Government thus placed in a position to avail themselves of the existing constitutional machinery in order to the development of our natural resources, the settlement of our land, and the opening up of the valuable back countiy at present useless from inaccessibility. Next in importance we would class the initiation of the Main Northern Railway by the sanction of the House of Representatives to the construction of the line from Wellington to Masterton. We have said “ next in importance.” We would qualify this by the addition of the words “as regards Wellington proper,” for we conceive that, from a colonial point of view, the importance of this matter can hardly be exaggerated. It is not the mere opening up of the country, the bringing the fertile plains of the Wairarapa into immediate connection with our port, but the much larger question underlying all these patent advantages : the progress towards definite solution and settlement of the native difficulty which the construction of this line of railway is synonymous with. In our opinion every mile laid down will bring us a mile nearer the position of perfect security and peace. When the benefits, Colonial and Provincial, present and prospective, of this railway are realised, let it not be forgotten to whose active ability and perseverance its initiation was due. We will not now allude to the other measures of more or less interest to the province which have been successfully carried through, with an amount of tact and skill we must, at the risk of repetition, affirm to be beyond all praise, but will proceed with what was indeed our main object in this article, to call the attention of their constituents to the conduct of two of our members who have indeed formed a notable contrast to the gentlemen whose names we have held up to honor. Mr Bryce of Wanganui, and Mr Andrew of Wairarapa, were notably elected upon the principle of supporting the policy of the Government and of cordial co-operation with their colleagues in advancing the interests of the province. They have kept their pledges by opposing Ministers upon all their important measures and by a disagreement, either wilful or unintelligent, with everything advanced by the Superintendent for our benefit and advantage. Mr Bryce never was very intelligent, and during his retirement from the political world has not apparently added to the graces of his mind or person. Utterly impervious to argument, indeed incapable of comprehending any method of reasoning, it would be a compliment to call him “ pig-headed,” a quality which may, and frequently does, consist with high intellectual faculties. He is the worst of all political nuisances, a “dolt with prejudices.” We forgot; he has one idea, not a very new or brilliant one. “The provinces must be abolised this is his text, upon which he discourses upon every conceivable subject—the reason he alleges for his votes against the Wellington Debts Bill, against the raising money for railway construction, against the Reclaimed Land Bill, and all the measures introduced by the Government or by Mr Fitzherbert. Wo distinctly charge him either with folly or treason. He has voted as he has either through inability to understand the purport of his action, or lie has betrayed the interests most foolishly confided to him by the electors of Wanganui. We leave Mr Bryce in this dilemma, from which we hope his constituents may extricate him by a unanimous requisition demanding his resignation. We now come to the other offender, Mr Andrew. Mr Bunny’s exertions last year to obtain another member for his district have been re*

warded by the return of a crocliety op-

ponent, and the Wairarapa might, so far as voting power goes, not be represented at all. Mr Andrew has not the excuse which we willingly credit Mr Bryce with—he is an educated man, a well-read man—from his very position may be supposed to know right from wrong; from his training, to comprehend argument. He was returned most distinctly upon the Government ticket. Unless pledged to support the public works and immigration policy he would never have sat for the Wairarapa. He went further; he promised during the election to work cordially with his colleague, and upon that pretext divided many votes. His course of action during the session has been utterly inexplicable, except upon a theory of mental disorganisation. Re, the gentleman and the scholar, has thrown to the winds his pledges and his promises, and returns to his deluded constituents covered with the mantle of political disgrace. Like his festive friend from Wanganui, he has sedulously set himself against every proposition emanating from the colonial or provincial administrations; and though he did not for very shame record his vote for the schedule of the Railways Bill, ho voted and used all hi 3 influence against the measure which alone could provide funds for -the construction of public works— i.e., the resolution upon the Brogden contracts ; and has done his little best to prevent the passing of the Wellington Debts Bill and other measures of an important local character. Fortunately, he has no weight whatever in the House, and we venture to predict that he never will have, oven should he resist the fond request of Wairarapians to divest himself of the trust he has abused. We leave him to arrange matters, if he can, with his conscience and his constituents. TTe will have a hard matter, we think, with either.