New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, September 20, 1851.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 640, 20 September 1851, Page 3

New Zealand Spectator AND COOK’S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, September 20, 1851.

If a quiet well-conducted person is assaulted on the highway by a sweep who, out of mere wantonness runs tilt against him, or if some drunken scavenger should take it into his head to pelt with mud a passer by, aggravating his brutality by a volley of Billingsgate and all the coarsest invectives of the "Vulgar tongue,” the person thus suddenly and savagely attacked would feel gßomewhat annoyed; but whatever course he [faight resort to with the view of protecting himself or punishing his assailant, he would never dream of retaliation. In a similar spirit are the wanton and unprovoked attacks regarded which are perpetrated by the literary scavenger who drives that mudcart the Independent, they are for the most part passed over in silence, for few care to [enter the arena with an opponent with whom lit is almost a discredit to contend. We shall not therefore enter into any lengthened [refutation of the version which the Editor [of the Independent has chosen to publish of the proceedings of the Magistrate’s Court lon Saturday, since, except the fact that Icertain objections were offered by Mr. IStokes to names on the list of electors for [town commissioners, the whole of it is a (tissue of gross falsehoods and misrepresenftations. Of this the Editor of the Independent was well aware, but what then ? It [was an opportunity to gratify his personal [animosities too tempting to be resisted, and [therefore he flings mud to his heart’s consent in the hope that some may stick, talks ■of deep laid plots by the Government, [Messrs. Moore and Stokes, and revels in his [choicest Billingsgate. I The self-elected Constitutional Association, to prove their hatred of Nomineeisni, piad nominated five of their own set as candidates for the office of Town Commissioners ; to show their respect for the law these |Nominees openly avowed their intention of (doing all in their power, if elected, to evade It and render it a dead letter. It is further So be observed that, of these Nominees so pledged, two of them are Magistrates sworn faithfully and impartially to administer the law and to cause its provisions to be respected. Such being the end proposed by She Faction it is clear they would not be fery scrupulous as to the means by which the end was to be attained ; if a majority ■as to be secured they would not hesitate Io resort to any artifice which would give hem a majority. And if, according to their wn confession, these two delegates—Magistrates—were so little to be trusted by heir own party that they thought it necessary to send Messrs. Lyon and Co. to watch them and keep them up to the mark, it was ■till more incumbent on those who desired to see the law fairly carried out to object to |ny names improperly placed on the list of ■lectors. On this principle Mr. Stokes ■referred objections to twenty-four voters — pot thirty-five as the Independent states) pho, if he had chosen to press his objecBons, must have been struck off from the ■st. O wing to an accident which prevented Ihe use of his right hand, Mr. Stokes was Bbliged to request a friend to act as his Bmanuensis, and on this slight foundation |he Editor of the Independent (who was well ■ware of the fact since it was stated in open pourt) rests his gross and unjustifiable Bttack on Mr. Moore. But even if it pere otherwise, have not Mr. Moore and p-r. Stokes, or any other persons who desire ■o see the law respected, a greater right to ■nite for that purpose than Messrs. Clifford, pitzherbert, and Lyon, to conspire together 1 0 defeat it ? Do not the Magistrates in revising the list meet for the purpose of ■earing and determining objections ? And

not, the battle in elections generally fought Q d decided in the Registration Court ? To I— ■- --xtxv utuuru or tne voics oojcClcu vu, il ‘ay suffice to say that some were country -ttlers, one is described as “ rope hauler, oating house, Lambton harbour,” some were 1 gers, and some squatters on the Town belt, r > as Mr. Fitzherbert observed (and we bow

deferentially to the authority of so great a scholar and accomplished a person) the Bully vards of the Town. When the editor of the Independent asserts that sQuatters on the Town belt “ would be liable to the rate and are clearly fully entitled to vote,” he deliberately asserts what he must know to be untrue. No person can be liable to the rate except for property of which he is the lawful owner or occupier, but a squatter has no legal right of occupancy, and is therefore neither liable to the rate nor qualified to vote. One falsehood in the Independent naturally leads to another, and this will account for the attack on Mr. Thomas. On the proposal being made to refer the question of the squatters on the Town belt to the Government, Mr. Thomas said “he thought it a pity that such a course should be adopted, as there were many hard working Industri-; ous people living on the Town belt by sufferance, and that if the matter were brought officially under the cognizance of Government, very possibly the Government would feel compelled to eject them.” This, it will be observed, is directly the reverse of what the Independent represents Mr. Thomas to have said. But Mr. Thomas is a Government officer, therefore the Independent attacks him. We have no desire to pursue the subject further, or to describe the course followed by Messrs. Fitzherbert and Clifford on the occasion, it is sufficient to have exposed the falsehoods put forth by the Independent, to have shown that the editor of that paper, in attempting to gratify his hostility to the Government, and his personal spite against his political opponents “ Like a tall bully, lifts his head and lies.” It will be seen by the official correspondence published in this day’s Spectator that, from the necessary provisions for taking the votes and for a returning officer having been omitted m the bill, it is so defective that it cannot be brought into operation, so that the whole affair is at an end, and consequently no election will take place on Monday.