CORRESPONDENCE.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume III, Issue 292, 24 July 1875, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

Our columns are open for free discission; but toe do not hold ourselves responsible for tJte opinions of our Correspondents.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I have no wish to play the part of Lot, and denounce your city because there is but a small remnant of wise men in it, not enough, in short, to listen to my preaching; far from it. I merely desire that my rights, as a ratepayer and active settler in this district, may be respected, and have as much fair play as my neighbors enjoy. According to an article which appeared in lhe Herald, last week, having reference to the Annual Meeting of the Ratepayers, I have no right to express my opinion upon that or any other occasion in any other way, or any other language, than happens to come within its feeble comprehension. If a censorship be required at all over freedom of discussion, it is very much wanted over your contemporary, whose vulgar impudence requires a very considerable modification. 1 have not yet, lam thankful to say, arrived at that stage of helpless, mental imbecility, when the puerile drivel of the Herald's weak efforts at fine writing will pass current with me as the acme of language to be used in or out of a public meeting. I came to the meeting in question as an indifferent spectator, rather than us a person having any direct concern in the proceedings ; for I happened to know that the general feeling of lhe electors was upon the whole strongly inclined to let things remain as they were; and I only claimed my right to speak when 1 saw that my neighbors, in a moment of more than usual weakness, had placed a paid Government official in the Chair. I object to officials taking an active part in public meetings, upon several grounds:— Firstly : Because their doing so is contrary to the spirit of the law ; secondly : Because they are wot. free agents ; thirdly : Because the fact of them thrusting themselves forward, or being thrust forward by misguided friends, sar u’s strongly of intimidation and in directly hffer« that freedom of discussion without which a Public Meeting is a mere farce and waste of time, and, fourthly : Because nothing <*an be in worse taste on the part of thosa officials, and shows a greater weakness on the part of the Meeting. We are not all of us, fortunately, meally mouthed ; and only able to give a feeble expression to our flickering convictions in vulgar platitudes, and imbecile drivel ; or turn upon those will? whom we differ, the foul outpourings of our vials of wrath. What I said at that meeting—or as much as I was allowed to say —1 most heartily intended to say, and but for the violent and unjustifiable interference of the police, I might possibly have finished what I began in a manner that would have come within the comprehension of the weak intellects of the Editor of the Herald and the chairman of the meeting. It shows a fatal weakness (which even these early days of our representative institutions begin to develop®) when the free expression of speech is denied to an elector at a public meeting; and it is also a most deplorable evidence of the early and speedy destruction of those institutions, for in that action will be found one of the small ropes out of which ambitious men weave those nets of despotism which will sooner or later entangle and destrey the freedom of the whole of the tax-paying commnnity of these islands. The inclination to truckle to lhe rich, simply because they are rich, and to the powerful, simply because they are powerful; and to ignore the equal, and, frequently, superior intelligence of lhe poor, simply because they are poor, is a curious anoinally, and, at the same time, an extremely dangerous tendency on the part of the masses of the people ; and it is one of (hose alarming signs of the times which but too frequently precede the destruction of their liberties, or some other great national disaster. In conclusion, I reiterate my perfect right to say what I choose, in any way I choose, upon any public occasion whatever, just as much as any other man, and' a great deal more than a good man For a’ that, and a’ that Their dignities and a’ that, The pith of sense and pride o’ worth Are higher ranks than a’ that. —I am, &c., O. L. W. Bousfield.

Sir, —The writer who eigne himself “ Pro Bono Publico” in last Tuesday’s Herald must have a surprising belief in the gullibility of mankind. If he had contented himself with sounding the praises of our Land Purchase Commissioner, I would not have been compelled to rush into print; but when this deluded young man lets out at ms among ol hers, I feel bound to take up the cudgels in self defence.

I deny the tenor of the whole letter, except where it states there is a petition bring got up in order to effect the removal of \Mr Wilson, the Land Purchase Commissioner. Beyond the fact that I was aware that such a thing was in progress, I have had no more to do with its origin than the writer of the letter himself; indeed, I flatly refused to prepare such u document wh- n requested to do so by the Maoris. I referred them at once to a lawyer if they wanted anything of the sort done. So much for the petition. The next bold assertion of this’disinterested champion of our official martyr is that the non-success of that gentleman in his treating with the natives is caused purely by the opposition raised by “ Europeans” here, who, he asserts, resort to any means to thwart him in order to extort money to satisfy their “demands” The writer has your humble servant in view when he speaks of certain “ Europeans” making “demands,” &c. 1 have never treat, d in any way with Mr Wdson and I defy either him or his champion to prove that I ever made a single offer to him, much less a “demand” of him. Any overtures have always been from the side of the Government to me. Overtures have repeatedly 4 been made by our Commissioner to me, and 1 am in posses ion of documents from him asking me, and those in connection with me, Io offer him whit lands we hud. Further, I have never inle.f red with the Government in any way in their land negotiations here. Mr Wilson complains of my interference with certain blocks of land which he tried to treat for four or live months ago ; out 1 can prove by the evidence of the natives that I treated for these very hinds two years ago, and can also prove by the district officer tint authority was given to Mr Campion ten months ago to proceed with the survey. Personally, 1 have no fault to find with Mr Wilson; as long as that, functionary remains here 1 have nothing to fear in the way of opposition, and it would be a cat-throat }>olicy on my part to sign a petition for his removal. lhe next sentence begins with the rather startling doctrine, which the writer seems to consider as sacred, as the old “Divine right of Kings” did to a bygone general ion, “ Surely th • Government and Parliament will support thmr official here.” That depends entirely on the official himself. I vent are to state that our local oiliciuls are supported not only by the Government, but by tha public, and are respected for the honest, straightforward manner in which I hey pci form t heir responsible duties; of one in particular who is now among us adjudicuti.ig i .tricatenative matters, I am sure that every one will agree with me when 1 say that he lilis his high and difficult

post in the most able manner, notwithstanding the contending interest of Pakeha and Maori. I have never heard any one whisper a word against his judicial impartiality. Such an official as he is we not only “support,” but are proud of; but when we are asked to support “ this one in particular,” meaning the immaculate Commissioner, we take time to consider what this well-paid and austere natural philosopher has dons to d-terve such support. He has squandered several thousand pounds of public money, but not an acre of land with a clear title can be shown for it; and what is more, I assert that, so long as he remains Commissioner here, he will not be able to complete the title of lands he has negociated for. In the scabby sheep business, Mr. Wilson displayed his usual, masterly, inactivity, and with the same satisfactory results. Fortunately we had another officer here who evidently had not been brought up in the “ how not to do it ” office of which our Commissioner is such a distinguished ornament. Captain Porter went up the coast, and with every disadvantage to fight against, he completed the scabby sheep question to the satissaclion of the Government and the public. I may say that Mr. Wilson has managed in his short sojourn among us, to estrange not only Pakeha but Maori, as well; and if that had been his special function, his career would have been a perfect success. If “ Pro Bono Publico,” aspires to the lofty ambition of Commissioner’s clerk, and is willing to throw off his modest mask, I will tackle him and the subject more at Large.— l am, Ac., Egbert Cuopkb.