The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.) SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1875.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 261, 3 April 1875, Page 2

The Standard AND PEOPLE'S ADVOCATE. (PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY AND SATURDAY.)

SATURDAY, APRIL 3, 1875.

We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right: We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

We desire this morning to lay aside the consideration of the many other questions which urgently claim our attention, for the purpose of offering a few remarks upon themournfulduty which the people of the province of Auckland have taken upon themselves in the cause of Truth and Justice, and in defence of the widow and orphans of one whose memory is held dear by a large section of those amongst whom he has spent his fortune and the best years of his life.

In another column will be found an urgent appeal to the settiers of Poverty Bay, through tbeChairman of the Hoad Board, for their co-operation in providing a suitable memorial in memory of Mr. John Williamson, our late Superintendent. For this purpose, independently of the lists which are to be distributed, it will be necessary to form a local committee, to work with the Executive Committee in Auckland, and as the members of the Road Board are the authority properly addressed in the first instance, we would suggest that they do constitute themselves a committee for the purpose of carrying the above object into effect. The amount of earnest enthusiasm with which this question has been enveloped in Auckland, is commendable, and we trust it will attend the exertions of any local committee that may be found here. A more prudent and well considered plan could hardly have been devised, than that of first of all inscribing on thehearts’tabletof the relatives he has left behind the undying records of a people’s love, Mr. Williamson’s memory is, in the first place, to be honored through relieving the private necessities of those that were dear to him on earth, and after that by rearing a monument to his public virtues, which, although not unallied to faults, have ever been recognised even by his opponents. We approach the consideration of this subject with much warmth, and some diffidence, but with great hope as to the success the appeal will meet with throughout the province. We are, unfortunately, not amongst those who, from an intimate acquaintance with the past • history of the late Superintendent, are able to sound the praises of his fame with that correctness of detail which is necessary in urging the claims of a public servant, and a devoted patriot, to public recognition and reward. But we believe that the chronicles of Mr. Williamson’s life will stand the scrutiny and study of even better men than he was ; while they will challenge all such for the disinterestedness, and personal sacrifice which w’ere ever his prominent characteristics. At the call of what he deemed his duty, no considerations of pecuniary profit and loss ever induced him to leave the front rank in all the great battles in his country’s cause in which he had been engaged. He staked his all —what many before him have done—he hazarded a tolerable fortune in defence ■'f the cause he espoused, and—lost. •Shallsuch a man’s bread, so confidently ast upon the waters, not be found gain after many days?

We are aware that the remembrance of some of the later acts of Mr. Williamson’s official career still grates harshly upon the feelings of the settlers of this district. But while we cannot forget that such things have been, let us “ With wisest sorrow think on him, “ Together with remembrance of ourselves.” Our duty is to bury the hatchet; and for ever toentomn the errors of the past within the portals of the grave. Hehad hisf aults, which, i n turn, become lessons to those who come after, for “ through “ the faults of others wise men correct “their own.” We do not think, in asking our fellow settlers to regard the movement now afloat less with a judgment on Mr. Williamson’s public character, than with a compassionate solicitude for those whose misfortune is our legacy, that we are placing them before the world in the light of public mendicants. The care of the poor is held to be a duty ; and to support “ the widow in her affliction” is amongst the most sacred obligations of man. Therefore we trust that our fellow settlers will take this high view of the matter, and that the Road Board itself will head the list with a cordial, though small, vote of public bounty, in support of that which so imperatively demands extended sympathy and cooperation.