New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4278, 5 December 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1874.

The result of the Hokitika public meeting, at Avhich Mr. John White explained his action during the late session of the General Assembly, is a pregnant illustration of how far a member may be personally trusted by a constituency, he being at the same time altogether at variance Avith his constituents_ on leading political questions. This is creditable to both parties ; at the same time, political complacency may be carried just a trifle too far. Mr._ White opposed the Government consistently; i.e., he voted against Ministers, on all leading questions, without reference to the merits of any particular question. This is the quality of a thorough-going party-man. But then Mr. White fails to perceive that there is not noAv, and that there has not> yet been, in any true parliamentary sense, “Party Government” in New Zealand. There have been the “ins” and the “outs;’’ but there has been no real Parliamentary Government. Now, it is this want of appreciation of a pregnant political fact on Mr. White’s part, that has placed him in antagonism to the bidk of his constituents, Avho avowedly treat him on the good humored principle—

Be to his faults a little blind ; Be to his virtues very kind ; But that is hardly the position a member of the Colonial Parliament should occupy towards a great constituency like Hokitika. On minor points it is admissible that there should be diversity of opinion ; but on such fundamental questions as the abolition of Provincial Government, and manhood suffrage, we take loi«-ro - W— — tlint a mtiuiber should either go with his. constituents or resign. Mr. White does neither. He hugs the dear delusion that he is a persecuted man—a martyr to principle and consistency ; and that that section of the New Zealand world with which he has most to do is handed in a corrupt league against him. Demanding the utmost latitude of opinion for himself, ostentatiously parading his own purity, which no one questions, he is most intolerant of the epinions of others, and the faintest show of contradiction is resented by an imputation of corrupt motives. This is not statesmanlike. It may be eccentric ; but eccentricity, which is at once vulgar and offensive, cannot be tolerated for long in a public man. It is proper the colony should know that “ Mr. White does not represent the “ views of his constituency on the one “ leading question of the maintenance of “ provincial institutions in their present “ form.” The meeting, which listened to his “ elaborated statement, —which “ partook more of the nature of a state- ‘ ‘ ment and special pleading than one of “ his characteristic speeches,”—passed a vote of confidence, remarks the West Coast Times, “not for his speech, nor for “ the prevailing sympathy with his views “on particular questions, but for his “earnestness and uprightness.” As we said at the beginning of our article, this is creditable to both parties ; hut personal admiration may he carried too far. Mr. White knows the mind of his constituents on the question of Constitutional amendment, and he will have no excuse for voting in opposition to it next session. Let him come up to the Assembly, therefore, next year, and support that policy which the electors, whom he represents, believe to be best calculated to secure an efficient administration of public affairs. By doing so, he will fully justify their admiration for “the earnestness and up- “ rightness of his character.”