THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, MARCH 27,1860.

Colonist, Volume III, Issue 254, 27 March 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, MARCH 27,1860.

To-day the present Superintendent meets the Council for the fourth time; and it will be interesting to the public to observe the course which his opponents in that Council intend this year to take to convince the inhabitants of this province that they have elected a very unsuitable, or at least a very incapable, individual for the important station he has now held nearly three years and a-half. When first it became the business of the oligarchy of Nelson to convince those inhabitants, to whom they Lad long been in the habit of dictating every public officer, that Mr. John Perry Robinson was not fit to be Superintendent, they were so totally ignorant of the character, disposition, education, and ability of the man they undertook to calumniate, that they accused him of faults and failings of the very opposite character to those which his friends were afraid he would display. He had been chosen and brought forward by the people, and not by the original land purchasers nor the magistrates; and therefore he must be a Red Republican. He came to this colony a mere mechanic, and earned his living as a turner; and therefore he must be a very ignorant man. He had never danced at any of the select (?) balls of Nelson; and therefore he could know nothing about good society. He had never helped to get a bad man put in or a good man kept out of any pecuniary or honorary appointment; and therefore he could know nothing about Nelson politics. He had not been nominated by the leaders of the Nelson oligarchy; and therefore he must be a mere class seeking man. But, notwithstanding all these assertions, put forth' on such very high authority, the electors of the Nelson Province placed Mr. Robinson in a position to prove the value of ail such accusations. He- became Superintendent, and never was the public conduct of any public man watched more narrowly, canvassed more freely, or published more uncharitably. The great men and the great men worshippers, in spite of whom he had been elected, united as one man to overthrow at any price this intruder upon their privileges; and they had at their service a number of sycophants who were willing to say anything that they could not venture to print about him. The only press in the, province, at their entire service and quite willing, began to misrepresent everything he said or did; while in the Provincial Council a majority of four to one were his avowed opponents, and a great part of that majority under the entire guidance of the very man whom Mr. Robinson had defeated in his contest for the Superintendency. For the first few months these powerful allies wisely acted, as if they themselves believed what they liad so freely stated to others: they waited to see this Red Republican turn the province upside down; they eagerly looked for the grammatical blunders in this ignorant man's speech; they hoped soon to be able to accuse this class seeking man of turning out some, useful officer, because he was not a mechanic, or putting in some useless noodle, because he was not a collegian. But months passed by, and no such chance was to be found; a few officers, whom no one could pretend to have been worth,their salaries under then existing circumstances, were dispensed with, and everything went on as quietly as ever. The Council was called together in all due form;*the speech was fired off without a blunder* of'any kind; new bills were being passed, and even old ones amended; but a disappointed rival, smarting under a most unexpected defeat, which he could neither forget nor forgive, could wait for an opportunity no longer. If the Superintendent would not show himself to be a " class against glass men," he must accuse him of the opposite vice; and, accordingly, many long and well-contrived speeches were discharged, and much valuable time wasted, in accusing the Superintendent of not having turned out all the officers who had voted against him. But, the session ended, a new election took place, and John Perry Robinson was again elected Superintendent by a much larger majority than he had before; whilst his accuser narrowly escaped being left even out of the Council altogether. As might be expected, such a circumstance did not improve either the temper or the judgment of the latter gentleman; and he had besides now found something to take hold of; something that he could study, and amplify, and arrange, for months before the Council would meet.

In consequence partly of too short a time being allowed by the Constitution Act for the existence of Bills waiting the Governor's" assent (a defect in the Act that has since; been seen and remedied), partly in conse^ quence of the deficient and uncertain means of communication with the seat of the Colonial Government, but principally in consequence of some very capricious conduct on the part of that Government, some of the bills, which had been passed in a former session of the Provincial Council had failed to-become law in consequence of not having received the Governor's assent within the specified "time. The public of Nelson, or at least the Superintendent haters in the Council, could surely be made to believe or to say that this was all the Superintendent's fault. A great field day was appointed, a great speech was delivered; but, alas, after all, it was a sad failure. The labor bestowed on that speech was worse (than lost; its sophistry was too obvious; the motive of its author was too apparent. It elevated the man he wished to lower; it lowered the man he wished to elevate. Only four votes went with the speaker, and he knew- that those votes would have been just as certainly with him if he had made no speech at all, or if he had

proposed to censure the Superintendent for the most recent earthquake, or the late Chinese war. , \

But a golden opportunity was coming—some gold-fields had been discovered in the Province, and before this "lost bill 1! session was terminated, the Council had voted lots of borrowed money to be 1 spent in making and maintaining magistrates, constables, and roads at the diggings. During the following recess the Superintendent not only spent all the money appropriated to the diggings by the Council — but he spent a great deal more than they had voted, although those diggings gave no promise of any thing like the return which the leaders of the Council had prophesied they would do at the time the Council voted the money. Here was a fine choice for a skilful leader of the attack to be made next session; he could either accuse the Superintendent of spending ■', money not voted by the Council, not called for by any altered\jircumstances,nor|sanctioned by any brilliant result. Or he could attack him on the other side, and blame him for not spending all the money he could borrow, raising Nelson diggings and Nelson property to at least a level with Melbourne, developing monster nuggets, and attracting and retaining an immense swarm of beef and mutton eaters.

In the former, case he would have had truth and reason on his side; he could have made a fine speech about imprudent speculation ; he could have talked a great deal about constitutional rights; he could have asked " honorable members " if they were going to tamely allow a Superintendent to usurp their rights, and to expend money which the people's representatives had never voted; and he could have significantly reminded them that Charles the First had lost his head for a similar offence. But self-interest and prejudice are in most men much stronger than reason, and much more easily enlisted in the service of arraying a people against their true friends, and therefore the latter tack was wisely chosen by that Council, which was now to make its third great effort to annihilate an obtrusive Superintendent. Many members of the Council had lately made up their minds to make a fortune-by a rapid increase in the price of sheep and mutton, to be caused by an immense influx of population; and some of them had bought large tracts of land in the golden district, which they had quite expected to retail at something enormous per foot; but the diggings had not gone on as they had hoped; and who could they blame for it with so much pleasure as the man who had so provokingly held the reins of Government in spite of all their kind offers to relieve him from, that responsibility ? The name, the thought, of gold to bejiad by digging and picking up, turns most men a little mad: many had left steady and lucrative employment ; many had spent money which was not their own; many had bought up large stocks of goods, expecting to sell them at some fabulous price. But no great lumps of gold turned up; no great fortunes were suddenly made; and those who had expected so much felt sadly disappointed; many of them could not meet their bills or fulfil their engagements, and ruiri stared them in the face. All this was quite enough to bear without being accused of folly and rashness; it must be some one else's fault, and the men wfto told them that it was all the fault of the Superintendent were hailed as benefactors and comforters too.

The leader of the Provincial Council found this was the best string he had ever touched; it answered every purpose for a short time; but he touched it so often that he completely wore it out; he stretched it so hard, that he broke it to atoms; and after he had quite done with it, the Examiner took every shred of it up, and ground it over again and again until nothing but a little dirty dust was left.

Such is the history of the opposition to the present Superintendent up to the present time; such are the themes upon which a great portion of the time of a very expensive Council has been wasted during the last three years. It will be interesting to see what these gentlemen intend to find fault with during the session upon which they are now entering. The article which appeared in the organ of this party last Wednesday had very much the appearance of a sounding to arms: but we hope, for the sake of our own amusement as well as for the credit of the "opposition," that it has not struck the key-note which is to be sung during the present session of the Council. The part of the article we allude to being nothing more nor less than, a repetition of one of Dr. Monro's last year's speeches in the Provincial Council, with no variation except the substitution of " two hundred soldiers " for the " metallurgic company." There is the same curious mixture of the sublime and the ridiculous; the same utter disregard of truth; and the same absence of even an attempt to show how the Superintendent is connected with the unpaid bills, the unsold goods, or the unarrived soldiers; the same pathetic appeal to the " growers of oats" and the " growers of barley,'' particularly to those who, reside in the populous districts of. "Waimea andMotueka;" and the same care to say nothing about the growers of mutton. The same unshaken belief in the unmitigated selfishness, the ignorance, and the blindness of those whom the speaker and the writer intended to mislead, and who are, no doubt, expected to swallow without examination such "respectable," such dignified assertions as—-"Our provincial authorities did not like soldiers; like a bull, they had a horror of red cloth. They did not like gold diggings. They did not like machinery. They did not like capital.. They liked Quakerism and political quackery; and they liked to be let alone; and they liked quarter day. And so the finest chances that any province in New' Zealand had have flipped through oar fingers; and

the penalties of our folly now visit us in embarrassment and stagnation."

We say we hope we shall have something a little less stale, and a little more original than this; a little less assertion and a little more proof; a little less "reliance upon the ignorance and gullibility even of distressed and embarrassed men; and a little more consciousness of whaj; the public have a right to expect from those who aspire to lead either in the senate or the press. We fear to incur the charge of presumption by venturing to suggest any more-in-teresting subject to these gentlemen; but there is one subject upon which we have long wished to hear from them, and which could not fail to be particularly interesting to the public of Nelson just now. ; It is now many months since the management of these gold-fields was transferred from this "miserable" Provincial Government to the Colonial Government; and it would afford us great pleasure to hear of the rapid progress they have made since that happy transfer took place. We can hardly help thinking that the Examiner must have forgotten altogether that such a change had occurred: instead of talking about "ye shopkeepers and men of business whose shelves are covered with goods,that you cannot dispose of, and whose bills are overdue and cannot be paid: all you who complain of the dullness of the times—and there is no doubt that the times are dull. Ye farmers of the Waimea and .Motueka who cannot sell your oats and your barley," &c, &c. The Examiner ought now to be showing that all these oats and barley have been sold; that all these shelves ,have been unloaded and the goods disposed of; all the bills paid and all the dull times vanished. We doubt this is the first thing we shall hear from that member of the Council who told us last year that it was only, the mismanagement of the Provincial Government that prevented our gold-fields producing ten times more than they had done. His left hand supporter will, no doubt, come prepared, with a host of statistics to show that since the Provincial Government have ceased to obstruct the prosperity of the gold-fields, that the trips of the Tasmanian Maid to Colling wood have been ten times more frequent, or ten times more profitable; so much so, that the steamer no longer requires a bonus. And that very active member who ascertained that the Superintendent's management of the goldfields had diminished the growth of wheat, should how be able to show that the crops of that grain have this year been much more luxuriant and extensive; and it is to be hoped that gratitude for favors received will induce him to give the Council a minute history of the means by which the General Government have effected all these happy improvements He may be sure that it will not be the less interesting to us if a little excusable parental vanity should induce him to show that all these important renovations have been effected, by the instrumentality of a young gentlemen whose transcendent abilities have enabled him at the same time so efficiently to administer the government of Crolderi Bay^aMd to conduct an exploring expedition to the West Coast. Far be it from us to find fault with any honafide attempt on the part of our councillors to thoroughly, sift, and unsparingly censure every blameable action of the Provincial Executive; it is their duty to do so. And whenever we can see reason to believe that they are actuated by feelings of public patriotism, and not by personal vindictiveness, disappointment, ambition* or selfseeking, it will be our duty and our desiie to assist them in. every such effort. And we may say that we shall be more inclined to believe in their public spirit when we see a disposition to.inquire into other departments of public service as well as into the Superintendent's office:. when they tell us what they think of the wanton expenditure in a District Court, and a duplicate Post Master; and when they are as unwilling to swallow the camels of the General Government as they have hitherto been determined to strain at every gnat m the Provincial Executive.

" Truth refines, but does not obscure." The peevish bickerings in which our elderly contemporary has lately indulged display neither the exact truth nor the least refinement; and the last evasive effort to cloud the original delicate attack is worthy of a mature "artful dodger." The allusion to natural guardians, &c, is not a happy one, when it is considered how tenaciously antecedents cling to the memory of a duped public Should our contemporary " bar " to disputes in general in the same way that he has in this, there is no wonder at his ovine conclusions.

Chrome.—The specimens obtained from the land contiguous to that where the workings of the Croixelles Copper Mining Company were carried on are of a character that would lead to the supposition that the Dun Mountain is not the only place from whence chrome ore may be procured in this province. Exceedingly pure samples have been brought from the former ground, and prospectiug is goiug on in order to ascertain whether we have not a second place that will supply paying quantities.

Cityoe Nelson Schooner. —Built at this port by Mr Grilbertson, and now nearly completed, and will in. a short time be put upon the Wairau trade, for which her light draught and anticipated sailing qualities may render her peculiarly adapted. Cricket Match.—A return matob. will be played to-morrow at Waimea East, between the players of that district, and the Nelson Mechanics' Club. The wickets will, be pitched at 11 o'clock, in a paddock near the Waimea Hotel.

The Tadmore Diggings.—The return of our townspeople from a visit to these diggings does not alter the favorable opinion we have formed of them, on the contrary, we hear of a second party that has accumulated 14 ounces hi a short period. The number of diggers at present oo the spot is not great, but the majority appear to be preparing for a thorough trial.

Even wooden huts are in couse of erection, and .other arrangements . made1 for tolerable cpinfbrt during the trial,of the capabilities of this district to support a digging population. We hop© soon to hear of still more distinct and encouraging information from this locality.