The Major up-Country.

Patea Mail, 23 November 1881, Page 4

The Major up-Country.

(r ROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.) Normanby, IStb. The question has been asked, *' Why does there exist so wide-spread a disposition to obstruct the return of so distinguished a statesman as Major Atkinson to the House?” The answers arc many, but I shall here content myself with two. Speaking of the electors generally, his persistent advocacy of the continuance of the harbor scheme, on the basis of the Act for that purpose, is his culminating offence. The report of Sir John Goode and of the Royal Commission are kept altogether in the background in his calculations and figures ; and anyone who has studied the subject understands that the moneys at the command of the Board would have to be largely supplemented by still further borrowing, to accommodate a vessel of even moderate tonnage. The electors, therefore, foresee and understand that the imposition of a rate for that purpose is not only inevitable, but will be also immediate—a very different thing from the twenty-four years of which the Major talks with so much assurance, and treats as such light and airy nothingness. This harbor, to be of any real use, would involve all expenditure at the command of the Board, and if we consent to its continuance we shall either lose our money or otherwise have to accede to a succession of borrowings, and afterwards to a ruinous and intolerable rate. The electors also consider that the past mismanagement of the Board in no way disposes them to such an arrangement; that in any case we are too poor to undertake it, and that an undertaking of so gigantic a character should either be colonial or be altogether abandoned. These are the studied and well-thought-out convictions of the electors everywhere, and their riddance of the trammels and prospective embarrassments of the Board, and of their own liability to be rated, are to them considerations of the first importance.

If the Major, therefore, cannot see his way to advocate these views in the interests of his constituents, he should either not seek to be re-elected, or should not be surprised if the electors refuse to be misrepresented by him, and should throw him overboard in spite of his great influence and political eminence. Indeed, in so bad a cause, this very eminence and influence are all the more dangerous and detrimental to us, as they will be employed in the reestablishment and consolidation of a ruinous speculation. With such universal and deep-rooted convictions permeating the constituency, how can Major Atkinson expect to be returned ? He may hold that he has a perfect right to have convictions of his own, but if they do not square with those of the people he pretends to represent, he places himself in a false position, and ought to withdraw, for in that case he clearly becomes their mis-representor instead of the advocate and exponent of their wishes. With regard to the second charge, it is of more serious import, and though it may be of a more local character, it will serve as a caution to the electors as a whole.

Two years ago the honorable gentleman, (how very honorable) gave a distinct promise that if a public meeting were called in Normanby and a majority of the settlers voted one of the three disputed sites for a Railway Station, he should, on his return to Wellington, give effect to their wishes. He informs us indeed that he came specially to assist us to settle the Station difficulty, but the truth was he •arae to help himself. He is now here again for a similar purpose, and had he acted with anything like honor before, every elector without exception would have stood manfully up for him. Instead of settling the Station difficulty, however, he contrived by his own treachery to unsettle everything, and now to requote his own beautiful quotation “He will live to wipe a bloody nose.” At the meeting referred to an understanding was come to by all concerned, four-fifths being in favor of the station being opposite McGregor’s hotel. In the meantime, by the collapse of, the Grey Government, the Major had vaulted onto the Ministerial benches, and in violation of his pledge, secretly and deliberately employed his enormous influence, as a member of the Cabinet, in having the Station placed in another and less eligible site, the only object- being, apparently, to reward some three or four of his stanch supporters and friends. The explanation he now gives is that he caused it to be placed there on account of the cost, an explanation which has since been shown to be utterly groundless, as it has actually cost more.

The curious circumstance, however* which should be pointed out is this, that when questions were put as to the nonfulfilment of any particular work which he wished to evade, his invariable answer was “ Oh I how could I attend to all these things ; they were not in my department ; they belonged to the Engineers or Public Works department, and I could do nothing,” and so forth. If they did not belong to his department, it was his duty, as our representative, to consult these departments, and urge the expediency of our particular requirements ; and his opportunities of doing so were all the greater and more influential as he was a member of the Ministry. But if the Public Works department was not his department, and he could do nothing in the matter, how did he contrive, with so much adroitness, to have the station placed where nobody wanted it, with the exception of his three particular followers. The whole affair, say the electors, is a transparent subterfuge, and on this ground alone, if no other existed, they should refuse to vote for him.

Speaking from myself, it is undeniable that the word “ treachery ” has been in the Major’s m<|utb at every meeting he

has held, and his action and disdain of the imputation while on the Normanby platform, were very remarkable. “ If you find a single act of treachery in me ” he said, “ dismiss me at once, I should be unworthy to represent you.” Having uttered this sentence in a high key, and enforced by an emphatic thrusting forward of his clenched right hand, he retreated backward, turned his back upon the audience, swallowed a glass of water, faced round again, aud boldly confronted bis hearers with the air of a gladiator who feels, or imagines, he has delivered a stunning and irreparable blow. Unfortunately for the Major - , his opponents assert, the electors of Normanby are not now the “ Johnny Raws” whom he used to address in the olden times ; and his acting is well understood by us. The word “ treachery ” on his lips is only a mouthful of froth, and his pretence of fair-play is a pretence and nothing more. After all he is not such a mighty great person that we should submit to a political traitor. He has thoroughly disappointed and sold us ; what he has done in the past he can repeat in the future, and we, the electors, will now take him at his word—adopt his advice and dismiss him with reprobation and disdain.

[Note. —Correspondents of the Mail are free to express independent opinions on politics as on other matters. The Editor does not interfere, so long as they give fair reasons for the opinions expressed. Our Normanby correspondent writes with considerable force and manifest ability.— Ed. Mail.]