NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, May 11, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 811, 11 May 1853, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, May 11, 1853.

By the Scotia we have received a file of the Otago Witness to the 16th ult. Besides its constant violent abuse of the Governor and Government officers, the local matter and editorial remarks in that paper, we regret to say, consist, for the most part of scurrilous personalities against those who happen to be opposed to Captain Cargill and his family compact, and exhibit a degree of rancour and personal hostility which we fear must convey to those removed from these petty squabbles a very unfavourable impression, nor do the numbers now received form any exception to what appears to be the general rule in its management. Our present object in referring io the Witness is to notice the report of a dinner given to Capt. Cargill by his friends and published in that paper, ■with some other circumstances connected with it. Captain Cargill it seems has at length got his dismissal, he has received official intimation that *' it will no longer be in the power of the Local Government "to continue his useless sinecure of £300 per annum, and that it will cease from the date of the proclamation of the New Constitution. The wonder is that this act of justice to that settlement was not performed long ago, and we can only account for the continuance of Captain Cargill's sinecure from motives of personal kindess to him on the part of the Governor. However, Captain Cargill no longer receiving £300 a year for doing nothing, straitway indites a letter to the Otago Settlers Association to assure them that his dismissal is a " relief to him," and that he lias only " stood on the pillory of an apparent sinecure" to prevent " the fearful effect of driving mad the wise men of Otago" through the possible mischiefs that might be wrought by his successor ; — the mischiefs likely to result being the discontinuance of " hospitalities to strangers of mark," which he tells them he must have done with, and which appear to be, on his own shewing, the only duties of his sinecure. The dinner is said to have been attended by 214 persons, by nineteen-twentieths of the settlers, &c. We have no means of knowing how many were present at the dinner, but we understand it is notorious at Otago that every effort was made to collect people, by giving away tickets, by even bringing run away sailors and others of a similar stamp ; of the Magistrates only three out of nineteen were present, and upwards of 150 of those capable of qualifying as electors, or about one-half of the constituency of the settlement, did not attend. We shall not trouble our readers with any lengthened criticisms on these post pran ial exhibitions, but will briefly refer to one or two points connected with them. At Otago, as ■we have before had occasion to remark, it was generally understood that Captain Cargill, although holding office under Government, was the chief agitator and promoter of the opposition in that settlement, the Witness was entirely under his control, and though the mem-

bcrs of his family were ostensibly put forward, they were merely puppets directed by the head showman. It was so palpable that no one for a moment affected to doubt it. In his letter to the Association Capt. Cargill admits that he lay under this imputation, and endeavoured to remove it by " assuring his Excellency that he had no connection whatever with local politics." No contradiction to the generally received report can be more direct than this, and yet at the dinner.the chairman, Mr. Mac Andrew, in Capt. Cargill's presence and with his concurrence, asserts that in all these matters he (Capt. Cargill) was so completely bound up and identified with them that he could not be separated from them, and by way of climax concluded by stating " he thought it proper the saddle should be put upon the right horse, and that they should frankly admit that (pointing to Captain Cargill) this is the man who has pulled the wires (loud cheers), and that but for him their pubcil spirit would have been miserably below par. (Loud applause)." It is utterly impossible to reconcile these two statements together, to believe that Captain Cargill " had no connection whatever with local politics," while at the same time he was pulling the wires and directing every movement, especially when this latter statement receives Captain Cargill's concurrence, and, as we are informed, the hearty assent of all those present who testify to the fact by their cheers. Inputting the saddle upon the right hone, therefore, Mr. M' Andrew seems to have convicted his friend of having deliberately made statements to the Governor which were notoriously untrue, since they all admitted his claim to be chief agitator, " the man who pulled the wires," and moved the puppets. This is saddling the right horse with a vengeance, and Captain Cargill has reason to exclaim " Save me from my friends," when on their evidence he stands clearly convicted of such discreditable conduct.

The Electors who have not yet registered are reminded that next Saturday is the latest day on which their claims to vote can be received by the Resident Magistrate. No time therefore should be lost by them in registering their claims.

Programme of the performance of the Band of the 65th Regt., at Thorndon Flat, on Friday the 13th May:— 1. Oyerture— Fair Maid of Perth Waddell 2. Selection — Le Prophete Meyerbeer 3. Agnes Sorel Le Due 4. Selection— Daughter of St. Mark Balfe 5. Flenr de Marie Valie Barret 6. The American Polka Jullien 7* The Alboni Galop & Albert