ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

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

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

To Dr. Fiddlesticks. Wellington, September 17th, 1851. am anx ious to know when we may expect those so called “ Representative Institutions” the want of which causes, you say, the pestilent clamour raised by you, and which, through vour amiable means, keeps our little place in hot water. You reject the Town Roads Ordinance. Why ? Because it was passed by what you call a Nominee You re i ect . the Provincial Councils Bill. . hy. Not because it does not give us more political liberty than you dared to hope for, but—because it was passed by what vou call a Nominee Council. Now how, in the name of common sense, are we to get these Representative Institutions ? As we have no vote in the election of members of the British Parliament you will at once say we are not represented there; consequently we cannot ac-. cept from them these beneficent Institutions. As we cannot well elect a Council here until we have from some other source the law enabling us to do so, we cannot accept from one formed according to our present Constitution these beneficent Iqgtitu-, tions. I confess I cannot see how we are to get them, unless indeed we have a little revolution, and. take the law into our own hands ! but then, again/ law taken intoone’sownhands,generallyproves very sorry law. If we are to rebel, —and I, for one, am ready to follow your wisdom to any lengths—of course you, as our “ fighting man” par excellence, will take the lead and call out, not only our own forces (jury list 700 odd), but all the enemy’s. Well! I’ll do my little uttermost, and if Jack won't, why, I’ll be your second. ' I don’t J<now much of history, not nearly so much as you, but let me ask how could the Catholics consent to accept the Relief Act from an unCatholised Parliament ? How eould the English people accept the Reform Bill from an unreformed Parliament ? I know you have some mysterious way of getting over the difficulty, for you have already shadowed it forth in your somethingth resolution. You say (I quote the versified copy, which being by far the best is, I suppose, the genuine one.) “ The districts to elect us we’ll fix after we’re elected,” here, then, is the secret. Only tell us how we are to manage that, and we’ll contrive to elect you before we do elect you. You are, I am delighted to observe, getting more and more, free every day. Don’t you remember telling that wonderful body the “ Settlers Constitutional Association,-” that that Association was a self elected Committee acting on behalf of the settlers, and not one elected or supported by the settlers ? You said this at the first meeting after the great Dombey joined you, and, in the fulness of your joy at five new half crowns, remarked to the respectable Fogs that it was the most numerous and respectable meeting you had then seen. You remember there were twenty-seven people present, theodd seven being loungersfrom the tap ofthetavern you patronised;—they wffe Carefully counted. Now, of course, you would not condescend to act with a committee of your Nominees ; but why, in the name of fair play, did you not make public the day on which you were elected ? This, however, is I conclude another example of your grand discovery, and you were unanimously elected—before you were elected. How bewildering you great statesmen are I

Let me give you a crude notion of my own ; I can’t help thinking (pardon my stupidity) that these elective Institutions may not be very representative after all. Whether I vote for him or not I am proud to call an honest man, and an honest only, my representative. Our first elected Council is virtually to be composed of yourself and your Nominees. This you reckon upon. How shall I be represented there ? But I err; I shall be represented by a man in whose election I have had no voice, by one appointed by the Representative of of the Nation to which I am proud to belong, bv the Govemor-in-Chief, —and methinks, Fiddlesticks, with all my unbounded respect for your tremendous abilities, of which we hear everything but proofs, that your terrible zeal for freedom, as you understand it, had perhaps less influence in deterring you from accepting a seat ii\ the late Provincial Council than some little misgivings about the figure you might cut in opposition to a man so infinitely your superior in talent and honesty as Sir George Grey. Now was’nt it so ? be candid and own it, I won’t tell any one. Never mind, it is’nt your fault that you are not more clever than you happen to be. Just wait, accept nothing, Sir George’s time will soon be up, and when he is, as you intend, dismissed, if not executed, then you shall elect yourself after, —no, I’m bewildered again—you shall elect yourself before you are elected, fix ihe district afterwards, and then fix the colony generally. Longing for which jolliest of jolly fixes I am, dear Doctor, One who will stick steadily to you, To the Editor of the “New Zealand Spectator.” Wellington, September 17, 1851. Sir,—ln an article headed “From a Correspondent,” in your paper of to-day, I see the fact is mentioned of my having signed the requisition to proclaim the “Roads and Streets Ordinance,” and subsequently withdrawn the signature. As this, without explanation, would appear to the public an act of inconsistency on my part, I should be much obliged by your giving insertion in your next number to the enclosed copy of my letter to the Resident Magistrate, requesting him to erase my name from the document, which will explain the real state of the case. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, Chas. Clifford. (Copy.) Wellington, July 9, 1851. Dear St. Hill, —Early this morning one of your constables brought me for signature a requisition to enforce the “ Town Roads and Streets Ordinance.” I was very busy at the moment (having only just returned home from a long absence) and seeing the signatures of so large a number of Magistrates, I at once signed

the paper, without taking the trouble to look what the Act—which had been passed during my absence from the colony—was. I have since seen it, and must beg of you to erase my signature from the document. I cannot be a party to any measure through which the settlers are taxed until they have an opportunity of expressing their opinions on such measures, through their representatives in Council. In the meantime l am not at all satisfied that the present revenue of the colony is not amply sufficient to bear the small annual charge requisite, were it properly appropriated. Excuse my troubling you thus to repair an act of inadvertence on my part. And believe me, very truly Yours, Charles Clifford.