The Patea Mail. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1875.

Patea Mail, Volume I, Issue 73, 22 December 1875, Page 2

The Patea Mail. Published Wednesdays and Saturdays WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1875.

Til d'dors of the Egmont constituency will not be long in suspense as to their future representative, the nomination i,,>,,;„ ri; i„..„, (h-,,,1 p„. tv:,toy ... , ti.o 2-1 th hist. and the pulling day, for tin* drd of January following, it appears hardly probable that the contest, will be between more than the two declared candidates, the Hon. Major Atkinson and Mr Ivess, and, despite the confidence of tin* ministerial party, the issue will be much closer than will be alfo-

getliCr pb'rsell! to tllfin, C’VOll if it (!()(>:; not eventuate iii defeat. The issue will be fought on purely loeal grounds, for llk* camlidab ef ideas, we have reason (o believe, an* thoroughly en accord on all rnnin principles, and tin; opposition is not to tlm .Minister as sneli, bnt to the nicnilier who, in the Minister, so lone' forgot tliat lie was member at all. People ba ve pretty well got used to tlio dazzle of Colonial Ministers,they require somethin;.': mure substantial than empty title, and they think Unit they have aright to expect. 1.-ill service at tiie bands of him they choose as their representative, whether he has a seat in the Cabinet or has to content himself with a humbler position. Major Atkinson of late has most studiously ignored any such consideration. lie has been too occupied with the larger affairs of state to have spare time for a thought on his constituents, and lie comes at the; last moment as. a very haughty wooer to seek the suffrages of those who have as little to thank him for as is possible. He has all the prestige of oflicialdorn around him ; lie will carry all the inJluence that his lesser satellites can bring to boar on the election, and he will without doubt poll Government officers in galore, ami secure unpaid canvassers through the same cause. But. wo would ask the public what lias Major Atkinson done to justify a renewal of confidence? Only in our last issue Mr Maguire, in retiring from the contest, put some pertinent queries through the columns of this paper, such as will not easily be satisfactorily replied to. Up to the. present time, throughout Major Atkinson’s whole commotion with this district, we neither know of, nor have been able to learn anything that he has done to advance the interests of Patca. lie has petted one portion of the constituency, and has treated the other with something very nearly approaching contempt, but for all the good he has either effected, or endeavoured to effect here, he might just as well have been Grand Vizier in the Turkish Empire, or Chief Secretary in the Fijis. 11 is official position prohibits bis usefulness, and such being the case, surely the people of Egmont will not return a virtual dummy, though lie be a Minister. There cannot be the slightest donl.it that, were Major Atkinson unshackled, lie would prove a useful member, but lie is not, snd lias been only conspicuous by bis utter indifference to the district for which he has sat. Surely then it is bettor to return a man, of lower pretension?, of less ability,, than

to send a shining light lo Parliament, one so brilliant that, when fixed in tin; Ministerial sky. cannot look down on the mere mortals whose action placed it there. It is all very well to say that the Colonial Treasurer can do this and do the other. [low is it that lie has not done anything during his term of office ? We are told that lie can do a great deal without making a fuss about it; is there a single act beneficial to the district that ho has ever been credited with, in open day or under the rose? II he has possessed such power he has specially abstain'd from using it, and Patoa. would have been belter served by the least influential member in the Hons ■ than by the Colonial Treasurer. Is it not better infinitely to have someone who lias more time to attend to tin 1 a flairs of his constituency A vote is a vote, and the Government of the day. whoever they may he, won hi not he likely to turn a deaf ear to proper requests, properly preferred for public works, or other consid ration to any constituency. By reluming Major Atkinson, Egmont virtually disfranchises itself, for he cannot discharge any of l!n> duties of a member, his individuality being destroyed through being an atom of an Executive. The-re is scarcely a part of New Zealand that lias lieon more deliberately and systematically neglected than Paten, though there is not a more fertile country in all the colony, nor one where public expenditure would be more rapidly reproductive. Isolated we are, and .isolated we shall he, if wc have to depend on onr late Ministerial member. A couple of years or so ago, Major Atkinson traced a fancy picture of an imaginary railway, that was to run through the district ore this. That exist,s, however, merely in imagination, and, like* other of the Major’s promises, will not, probably be realised (luring this generation. To return one on whom no reliance can ho placed, whose past acts, or absence of acts, prove so, would lie the height of lolly—lolly that must i.tti.-.- Let the public examine the past, and discover, if poi-sibb 1 , what the Treasurer has done to warrant, him in again asking a renewal of misplaced confidence. If is to he hoped that this election in’ll show even Cabinet Ministers that they are not above public opinion, and that, if they seek re-elec-tion at the hands of their constituents, they must prove their claim to the compliment in a very much more satisfactory maimer than, so far, the Colonial Treasurer lias manifested to the electors of Egmont.