The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1866.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 226, 9 March 1866, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 9, 1866.

Mr. Wood has spoken — he has trod the boards of the Theatre Eoyal and fretted away his short hour on the political platform. He has told the electors what he thinks, and exhibited the credentials upon which he rests his claim and seeks the suffrage of the electors of Invercargill. We admire a bold man, and Mr. Wood is indeed a bold man, but of a peculiar stamp. The meeting held in the Theatre Eoyal, and the speech delivered at the hustings, were truly refreshing. It proved that Southland has at least one patriot, who, with a self-sacrificing disinterestedness,, worthy of a Spartan martyr, has, in our hour of need, emerged from his domestic hearth, bent a upon fighting the "battles of the country, although not comprehending the nature or extent of the campaign he desires to enter upon. His appearance and exposition of his political creed was grand in a sense — it proved that he was a frantic admirer of Lady Maey Wobtlet Montague, who first pro" pounded the idea that to " ensure political success, three qualities only were required, viz. : — Impudence ! Impudence! Impudence !" That he posesses these qualifications no one who witnessed his recent performances can in any way question. But unfortunately for him Lady Maet's definition of a promising politician has neither been met by favor, nor verified by experience. In the present degenerate days a statesman requires other qualifications than those of a hazy smattering of colonial politics, and a faint recollection of some past event — the separation of Australia Eelix from New South Wales — which was easily accomplished, and therefore Mr. Wood foggily imagines that a repetition of the event can be created in New Zealand with little or no trouble. Mr. Wood is indeed a bold man j like David, i he would go forth to slay the monster of mis-government with a pebble, regardless of the flimsy material of the sling. But to be serious— Mr. Wood has made patent his incapacity for the office he unwisely seeks to obtain, We give him every credit for e&rnestnesa of pur>

" vestry " requirements of the Province, but lie is utterly ' n destitute of even the semblance of political attainments, has no matured opinions upon any one particular question, and like the ** one idea " man, hugs a small local grievance — as insignificant as the bite of a mosquito to the elephant — while he is uninfluenced and uninformed upon the great complications and difficulties which cluster round New Zealand legislation — difficulties and complications, the seeds of which were sown at the earliest period of settlement, and have grown and multiplied year by year to the present time. His separation argument, — that because Australia Felix obtained separation from New South Wales with but slight difficulty, — the adjustment of accounts, — he concludes that New Zealand can do the same. This argument is worthless. Eor the information of this aspirant to legislative honors, it will be honest to point out the difference between the- two cases. Australia Eelix was .discovered and settled by private enterprise. Erom the first* year of its existence it was self-support-ing, and never cost the Home Country or New South "Wales one single shilling. When Separation was demanded tens of thousands of pounds of Australia Eelix revenue had been used to advance public works in New South Wales; but the people of the former place acknowledging themselves as an integral portion of the latter, while feeling injured, made no claim. There was no general loan to be apportioned — no complicated accounts to be adjusted ; the only matter that required consideration was some hundred or so thousand pounds which had, during a course of years, been voted by the New South Wales Legislature, for works in Australia Eelix, but which had never been expended — the matter was as simple as simple could be — Australia Felix (Victoria) claimed the amount of these unexpended sums. New South Wales maintained that Victoria's " little bill " was made up of items which had beeu passed several times but not used — that in fact, say, five thousand pounds, had been five times passed, but being for the same object, was only five thousand pounds, not twenty-five thousand. This was a matter which presented no difficulty in the hands of statesmen to adjust. The same, or nearly the same I will apply to Queensland. How different is the state of affairs in New Zealand ? Settled in the first instance in one part of the North by the New Zealand Company, and in another by the Imperial Government at immense cost, it was baptised in debt, in its earliest infancy ; again, the Middle Island, (Southern portion) was purchased from the Maories, and first colonised by the North — loan upon loan has been effected upon the security of the General Government — war expenses have been incurred with the sanction, and frequently at the instigation, of the South — and financial complications built up until it will be as hard as a * Chinese puzzle for even the ablest statesman to unravel them. Mr. Wood may be a "Bibber ' ' at figures, but he is a very juvenile politician, and a very unpromising student of history — colonial especially. Again, Mr. Wood tells us that he would not support the Southland Loan Act being extended from two to thirty years. He appeared afraid that the interest would be too great and that it would be better to sell the capital — all the lands of the province at any sacrifice — than with borrowed money construct re-prodnctive works. On this most important subject as on all others he was foggy. He evidently did not know that all the loans which have been negotiated in New Zealand and Australia, Southlaud excepted, have been for long periods, and that a sinking fund was provided, which lightens the burden of the interest, and enables the borrowers to continue public and re-productive works without forfeiting their landed estate. Mr. Wood is not qualified for the position to which he aspires. He has no defined views, no political creed, and the small opinions he has jerked out are of the most butterfly description. Mr. Heale is not here to undergo the ordeal of cross-examinatiou which Mr. Wood has been subjected to, but one thing \is certain he has ability, energy aiid perseverance. He is in favor of Separation, and opposed to the re-union, of Southland and Otago. He is a well* readpolitician and painstaking legislatorhe is immediately connected with- the province, although for the time an absentee. Had an able local man been brought into the field, from whom we could have obtained opinions ppon the chieftopicsoftheday, he probably would have received onr support ; no such man having appeared 4 we most unhesitatingly Bupport Mr. Heale. He is a politician, to be one, he must be well potted up in history, in parliamentary ÜBtge, and the working of the general machirery of government—he is essentially quailed to mvk out tih§ wajte of &ft Provjiqe?

and we believe, if elected, will strive to do so. Mr. Wood is not a politician ; he is deficient of any of the qualities most required in a representative. He may with application make a useful member of the Provincial Council, but he would be a " wall-flower " in the General Assembly If the people of Invercargill at the present time reject Mr. Heale, they will perpetrate a folly of the most injurious description.