NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, July 20, 1853.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IX, Issue 831, 20 July 1853, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, July 20, 1853.

The approaching elections of members for this Province for the Provincial Council and House of Representatives do not appear to excite much interest in the public mind. Beyond the efforts made by certain liberal candidates and their friends in canvassing for votes, these Representative Institutions now that they are on the .eve of being brought into operation, in spite of the agitation which for some years past has been industriously kept up by certain parties, seem to be regarded ge-. nerally with indifference. ,It is not our intention on the present occasion to enter into any discussion on the claims of the respective candidates, but there are a few. questions which it would be well for the electors seriously to consider before they 1 are called upon to record their votes.' One question, and a very important one is, are they prepared to return the same person as a member of the Provincial Council and the House of Representatives ? No doubt such a course would prove very desirable to certain parties. If the same persons were elected as members of both Councils, it would greatly add to their influence and give them additional power and increased importance, but would such a state of things be either desirable or ex- | pedient ? If there are to be two Councils let them be distinct in fact as well as in name, and this result can only be effectually - secured by not electing the same ! person as member for both Assemblies. Again, with regard to pledges, there seems to be a great desire on the part of those candidates who are known as prominent members of 1 the Faction to enter the.

Council free and unfettered as to the course they intend to pursue. Profuse and liberal they are in general professions of economy and retrenchment, and in their eager desire to -promote internal improvements. In this respect their addressses to the electors are nearly counterparts of each other, but after all such general professions hare very little meaning. In the case of a candidate for parliamentary honours in England, where the principles of a public man are well known, his previous career is a sufficient pledge for his conduct with reference to certain public questions. But here we have to deal with untried men, many of whom are only known as active and not over-scru-pulous agitators. Besides, the questions which they have to deal with are mostly matters of detail, practical questions on which the public desire to have some definite information. Take, for example, the salary to be voted to the Superintendent of the Province, a subject which "A Working Man "in a communication in this day's Spectator has brought prominently forward — what sum would these advocates of economy and retrenchment consider a modest and proper allowance ? When this question was debated in the House of Common the leading statesmen appeared to be of opinion that £500 a year was the maximum, and the amount was left to be decided in each Province by the colonists themselves, under the impression that the office would be coveted by men who would discharge its duties gratuitously for the sake of the distinction it bestowed, as the office of Mayor is sought for in a provincial town in England, and not for the sake of the salary. Now it is only right the public should distinctly understand, before' they are elected, what these advocates of economy and retrenchment consider a moderate salary for the office of Superintendent. Say, ye severest — , ye who thought Major Richmond greatly overpaid as Superintendent at ,£5OO a year, who considered a salary of £800 a year to Mr. Eyre as Lieutenant-Governor of the Southern province to be downright profusion, a miserable waste of public money — , "Say, ye severest, what would ye liave done if ye could have regulated the amount of; their salaries — what amount do ye propose to give to the Superintendent of the. Province ? : Again, it is absolutely essential that; each candidate for the Representative Assembly should give a distinct pledge that he will attend every session, unless incapacitated by sickness, even though it may be held out of the Province. There seems to be a very prevalent opinion, to which we adverted on a former occasion, that at least one session, probably the first, will be held at Auckland. Indeed Mr. E. G. Wakefield, who is so knowing and has such peculiar sources of information, some time since warned the colonists of the fact, and told" My Lord Duke" he had no doubt upon the subject. Any member who neglects to attend the session of the General Assembly, wherever it may be held, betrays his trust — and the electors have a right to expect definite information on this point. Other questions will, we have no doubt, suggest themselves to the electors, who will probably begin to bestir themselves and exhibit a little more interest in the subject than they have hitherto taken.

We have inserted in our present number a short -report of a meeting, called by Mr. Hort, at the Britannia Saloon on Monday evening last ; the report is furnished by a person that was present, and we have reason to believe is a correct account of what took place. It seems that Mr. Hort, as chairman of the meeting, made a violent and intemperate attack on the editor of this journal: we shall not offer any observations on the good taste or propriety of his conduct, but we do not see, with reference to ourselves, what he has to complain of. His advertisement calling a public meeting was duly and prominently inserted, and left to speak for itself. We declined at first to insert it and endeavoured to dissuade him from calling a public meeting, and the result shews he would have acted wisely in following our advice, whicK 1 certainly was tendered in good part. There appears just now in Wellington ai strong disinclination for public meetings, and in this instance the shortness of time previous to the Governor's departure, and the miserable state of the roads, were additional reasons for not calling a meeting, especially in the evening. As far as could be ascertained, and some pains were taken with this view, tha.public feeling appeared to be in favour of a short address expressive in general terms of regard to the Governor and Lady Grey and of regret at their departure, and approving of the general policy oT his administration. -Such an address was prepared, and previous to obtaining sag-

natures was submitted to the opinion of several persons, and appeared to meet with general approval. It was subsequently offered to the public for signature, and had received, previous to the meeting, upwards of two hundred names ; it was also published inthisjournal for general information. 'Of nearly all these facts Mr. Hort, we believe, was cognizant before the meeting took place. The memorial was submitted to him and his co-operation was earnestly invited, but he seemed resolutely bent on following his own course. Some, perhaps, may feel inclined to question the right of any one individual to undertake the responsibility of summoning a public meeting. However this may be, and without pretending to question Mr. Hort's motives, who no doubt was actuated with the" best intentions, and with a zeal that seems to have outrun his discretion, the result is perfectly clear. The meeting was thinly attended, Mr. Hort got highly excited and quitted the meeting in a very abrupt manner. If in calling the meeting he intended a compliment to the Governor, it was superfluous, as an address had already been adopted, and signed by upwards of two hundred persons. If he wished to exhibit his tact and fitness to preside over a public meeting, the experiment cannot be considered very successful. ♦

At the suggestion of Mr. A. Hort, a public meeting was held at the Britannia Saloon on Monday evening last, for the purpose of adopting an address to the Governor expressing regret at his departure, wishing him and his lady a safe arrival at their destination, thanking them for the kind feeling and urbanity invariably shewn by them to the settlers, and assuring his Excellency of the high appreciation they entertained of the benefits which had resulted from his administration of the Government. The meeting was very thinly attended. Mr. Hort was unanimously called to the chair, and made a long speech which, on the whole, was listened to with great attention by about fifty or sixty persons. He alluded to, and severely commented upon the refusal of the editor of the Spectator to insert some communication of his referring to the time and place of the meeting, and entered into a long account of a conversation which ensued upon that occasion. Several circumstances which he considered prejudicial to himself connected with the getting up of another address now in course of signature, of a similar nature to the one Mr. Hort wished the meeting to adopt, were also fully detailed by him and strongly animadverted upon. He then enumerated and expatiated upon the benefits that had resulted from Sir George Grey's government, .especially at the time of his arrival, and contrasted the position of the settlement then and now. Mr. Gibson followed in a totally different course, and caused some amusement by his remarks relative to the first constitution, and Sir George Grey's withholding the one lately sent out until the eleventh hour, and expressed his disapproval of Sir George's policy. Some other remarks which he made so roused the indignation of -the chairman that he de-, clared he would dissolve the meeting, and eventually did do so very unwi&ely and abruptly. Mr. J. May defended Mr. Hort and Sir Gr. Orey, and the meeting after a vote of thanks to Mr- Hort dispersed.

B* tlie Fantome which arrived on Monday from Auckland, after a passage of twelve days, we laave received Auckland papers to July 2. The election of Superintendent for the Northern Province appears to have caused considerable excitement, and to have engrossed the attention of the settlers at Auckland to the exclusion of almost every other subject, if we may judge from the papers before us, which are filled with long articles by the respective Editors, and equally long letters from a formidable array of correspondents, in which the merits and claims of the two candidates are discussed with great animation, and as usually happens at contested elections, with a considerable degree of acrimony and personal feeling. The Nomination of the candidates took place on Monday, the 20th ult, when Mr. Brown was proposed by Mr. J. O'Neal and seconded by Mr. Boylan. Colonel Wynyard was proposed by Mr. Connell and seconded by Mr. Forsaith. Mr. Brown's mover and seconder, and Mr. Brown himself, received a fair and impartial hearing, but the same advantage was not accorded to Col. Wynyard's mover and seconder by Mr. Brown's supporters, by whom they were interrupted by noise and clamour, and prevented from making themselves heard. Col. Wynyard did not present himself to the electors. Thursday, the 30th, was appointed for polling, and the total number of votes polled on the occasion at Auckland and the Pensioner Settlements, are reported by the New Zealander as follows —

The result was considered to be decisive in Colonel Wynyard's favour, and the New Zealander observes on this :— "This is a poiition from which it is all bitt impossible that he should be dislodge 1 ; and in-* deed, judging from the information which we have received from various persons likely to be well acquainted with the state of opinion and feeling in the more distant places, we are inclined to anticipate that his majority will he considerably increased when the returns from the Bay of Islands and other districts shall complete the aggregate numbers, h. very few days, however, will set this matter finally at rest ; and, in the mtautiroe, we can content ourselves with the assurance that we may regard Colonel Wynyard as virtnallySuperiateudent, — the only contingency that we can conceive of as really connected with the issue being simply whether his majority shall be alittle more or less." A good deal has been said by Mr. Brown's supporters of the indirect influence used by Col. Wynyard in influencing the votes of the

Pensioners, but the result seems to shew that no interference was attempted since Mr. Brown polled 232 votes in the Pensioner settlements. The New Zealander, speaking of the day's proceedings, says — " The polling-day was beautifully fine and the proceedings passed over without any serious interruption to the peaceable and goodhumonred conduct of the people generally. The arrangements were jadiciously made, and presided over by the Returning officer in a manner well calculated to maintain order, as well as to afford every accoramodatiou and facility to all parties, concerned." The arrangements for the election of members for the House of Representatives for the Province of Auckland are as follows — For the City and suburbs of Auckland, Nomination day, 10th, day of polling, 11th August; Northern division, nomination day the I Oth August, day of polling, 23rd August ; Southern division, nomination day 12th, day of polling 23rd August ; Pensioner Settlements, nomination day 12th; day of polling, 1 3th August. For the election of members for the Provincial Council, the following days -are named. For the City and Suburbs of Auckland, day of nomination 19th, day of .polling 20th July ; for the Northern division, day-pf" nomination, .19th July, day of polling Ist'of August; for the Pensioner settlements, ■da/ of nomination, 21st., day of polling, 22nd July ; Ifor the Southern division, day of nomination, 21st July, day of polling; Ist August! No candi- j dates have as yet been publicly announced j either for the Provincial Council or House of Representatives. A memorial from the European Residents of the Waikato district to the Governor'has been published, praying that the Awaroa and Waikato rivers might be connected either by means of a tramroad or canal, and pointing out the great advantages to Auckland and the Waikato district which would follow from increased facilities of communication. The Governor i had returned a favourable answer, and the memorialists were informed that the DeputySurveyor had been instructed to make an estimate of the probable cost of the undertaking, i

Auckland North Shore Obfhunga Panmure. Otthuhu Howick Col. Wynyard. 334 1 175 80 99 123 Mr. Brown. 418 14 70 30 34 08 812 C 64