THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1860.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 319, 9 November 1860, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1860.

The arrival of the last quarter in the year reminds us that this journal has entered on its fourth annual term of existtence; and while we thank our constituents for the steadily increasing patronage which, has endorsed our past career, we may express a hope that the principles of "The whole Truth" which rendered our advent so acceptable three years since, will from various instances easily brought to remembrance, show, how necessary the establishment and maintenance of an organ of the people was at that time, and will be more so in the future. Having therefore the task of arousing a necessary watchfulness, amongst a population notoriously careless, and unmindful of the baneful I influence that political strategy and interested combinations of unscrupulous partisans have exercised over the general interests, we may surely look forward with confidence to the hand of Time for direction, help, and increasing success, at least as hopefully as more selfish and less truthful promulgators can expect to do. The onerous quality of our professed task however has nevertheless been apparent to us not infrequently, and has reminded us ; that he who persists in advocating truth must expect martyrdom; yet, taking into consideration our late.entry into the field, and the peculiar darkness which must haye: overspread the mental horizon (for it will be remembered about then it was said to be the reign of " Ignorance over Intelligence"), the influence of our voice has had \ no inconsiderable effect of a beneficial kind in reducing the appetite of, or compelling abstinence to, those "intelligent" persons. who k could only be expected to disgorge with a sacrifice of life; so intensely selfappropriating has been their habits: and while " ignorant" men have become drowsy, and too sleepy to stretch forth their hands to share in the general apportionment -of good things, the self-seekers have rejoiced at their apathy and want of purpose, and hugging themselves upon the only point on which their own class uniformly act in concord, designate the outsiders ac " anti-social" fellows, who prefer grumbling to accepting the skin and bone of the banquet that remains after the repletion of the favored few. For these " Ignorant" or " Anti-Social" members of this community, it has been our mission to enter the lists, and with the olden cry of Oyez! Oyez! claim a clear field and attentive ear for those interests which but too long and continuously have been jostled out of the arena. To us has been reserved the disagreeable/task of excising public ulcers, stripping blemishes of their seeming perfections, and setting forth in their true appearance and value, such matters or persons by which the public service has been endangered. TJnJike the two histrionic celebrities, who playing Othello and lago equally well, escaped the odium attached to the latter character by each taking it on alternate nights, although both from preference would have played the easier part, it has been our strictly consistent though unpleasant duty to play the darker part without any change; there being no generous partition of the duties.under the present management, but in conformity to the demands of our literary audience we have striven to our utmost to do? so in strict accordance with our text, foreseeing from the first moment of treading such a stage that to do the part justice required the utter abnegation ofself; and the flattering unction of universal plaudits, without any exception, not to be hoped for. For three years, however, we have enjoyed the approbation of the general house, the cheering of impartial voices, the sturdy clapping of honest palms; but v the' gloved hands of the dress-circle have re-echoed but slight percussions; and approval has been so faintly indicated, that we are compelled to . oar a tribute in thetrconustencv I and. com*

paring it with their public spirit, unselfishness, candor, and.example in all things that should elevate' and advance this province, declare, that a most uniform conduct has pervaded their aims and actions, and a most infinitesimal quantity describe the measure of theit patronage and patriotism. To this portion may be attributed almost the whole of our bars to progress,: a stumbling block only possible through the blind confidence and carelessness shown in the selection of our representatives. At the present moment we have .only to point to the proceedings pf some members an our Legislative Council, upon 7*the3-cemetery question and their subsequent disconifiture, Or refer to the General Assembly for votes and proceedings respecting the New Provinces Act, The Dun Mountain Railway Bill, Compensation, &c, to render the fact of our being perhaps the most notoriously unrepresented body of electors of representatives in ail New Zealand, as certain as it is degrading to our understandings and interests.

To awaken our population to a sense of the importance- of vigilant watchfulness in. public matters, is simply our. professed duty; this we shall unflinchingly continue to perform so long as a similar necessity for the disagreeable yet obvious task exists, or our efforts are appreciated by those whose opinions are alone worth winning.

Mr. Travers, with characteristic sophistry and legal ingenuity (we wish we could say bashfulness), has written a letter, which will be found. below, to the Examiner, explanatory of the transaction which caused so. much discussion in the House of Representatives and so much comment in the* whole press of New Zealand. - We have said characteristic sophistry and legal ingenuity, not because Mr. Travers has mis stated anything in his explanation, but because he has suppressed something which a candid ingenuous man would have mentioned.

Mr. Travers says— c Your contemporary, the Colonist, with characteristic bashfulness, has published [from what?] a paragraph in which it is stated that I received £339 from the General Government for drafting certain bills.' If our readers will turn to the fourth column of the third page, near the bottom, of our issue of Tuesday last, they will find under the heading « Auckland Van article extracted from the Southern Gross, wherein it is stated that Mr. Travers had received the sum named/ The writer of the articje states that-—

The Colonial Treasurer, in supply, revived the question of the £339 paid to Mr. Travers for drafting bills-^-a sum which had been on a previous occasion disallowed. He stated that some misapprehensions had prevailed, partly, he admitted by the fault of the Government, and desired to explain it away. He defended the Government strongly from the imputation of jobbing, assuring the committee that no skeleton was to be found in their cupboard. After some smart sparring, during which the explanation was treated as unsatisfactory by the other side of the House, the item, sent down in a Governor's message was agreed to. The simple fact is, that no job seems to have been intended, but £339 qf the public money was thrown away; and, most certainly, an item so open to objection ought to have been allowed a separate place on the supplementary estimates, instead of being lumped up with others under the general head " Legislative," where it might have remained undiscovered, but for the lynx eye of the member for Lyttelton, Mr. Ward.

Mr. Travers, after detailing how much work he had done for the General Government, says: —'I did the work and sent in my bill, which was £137, and not £339 as stated in the Colonist.' Why did not Mr. Travers, as any other man than a lawyer would have done, mention: the Southern firossf And why did Mr. Travers,'to blind the public, omit to mention the following erratum, which appeared in a subsequent number of the Southern Cross, and which we published as a pendant to the paragraph commented on by Mr. Travers ? it therefore could not have been overlooked by that very sharp legal practitioner :—

An error crept into our last leading article, which we hasten to rectify. The sum paid to Mr. Travers by the Government for drafting bills was set down at j#39, whereas it should have been ,£139. As Mr. Stafford observed in the House, the latter sum was quite large enough, without making the matter worse.

On leaving this subject we will just mention that Mr. Travers ought to feel obliged to us lor giving him an opportunity of explaining a subject which perhaps has caused more discussion than some of the greater events which are now passing around us. Jn-our present issue an extract (not from the Southern Cross) from the Neio Zeahnder appears, in which this transaction is thus alluded to. Speaking of the Stafford Ministry the writer says:—

' After having outlived the storm of native affairs; after having escaped the exphafon of the literary projectiles of the Venerable Archdeacon Hadfield; after having avoided the dangers of the Native Offenders' Bill; and survived' the audit discovery of Mr. Travers's "little bill" for I £135 2s. Id. amongst the accounts for firewood,' ' &c, &c. Our readers will see the way in which this ' little' affair was treated by the Wellington press :— The slack week which intervened while the house was waiting for the Governor's depatches was enlivened by two rather spicy debates on the Wellington District Judgeship. Carter-moved for the instructions under which Hart holds, or rather does not hold, his District Court?, and complained grievously of the manner in which the. Wairarapa is neglected by him, contrasting;the course pursued by him with that-! which his- predecessor Ward adopted. Fox spoke to the same effect, and raised the question as to why Ward had been dropped out of the appointment. Richmond very incautiously admitted or rather boasted that Ward has been ' removed' becausehe was a strong local political partizan, and obnoxious to a political party in Wellington, which Mr. Hart was not. He also bragged of Hart's great legal attainments. Tholatter might well exclaim 'save me from my friends;' for (hia line of defence brought down a fresh motion by Fox for the production of memorials received by $he government requesting that Ward might be appointed Judge; and a second debate ensued, in which Ward's character was most fully vindicated, his entire abstinence from politics while judge admitted on all sides, his equality with Hart as a lawyer shewn by his much larger private practice j and it was made clear that his non-appointment was attributable solely to the political bias of the Ministry, Jt was shewn

also" that he had performed his duties as Judge to the entire satisfaction of all the districts in which he presided ; and that numerous memorials for his reappointment had been sent in; while representations from three different districts, Hawke's Bay, •Wairarapa, and Wanganui, were complaining bitterly before the house of Hart's shortcomings. Fitzgerald amused the house with an Irish Bull, offering as a sort of excuse for Hart's aversion to hold more frequent courts in the country^ that' he couldn't sit on horseback -without tumbling off.* It was also shewn that7wh;ile .Ward had .fiaken very little pat t in local politics only;,. having' 'once contested a seat, and that for the General Assembly, * Hart had been a candidate for both general and provincial seats on several occasions,; and had identified himself with party politics, much more .decidedly than ever-Ward had done. The .appointments of other district judges were al«r commented on, as shewing that local politics were; no disqualification, when they happened to be] on the side espoused by the General Government, and"the cases of Harris, Travers, and others were brought forward. The general character of the other ] subordinate judicial appointments of the colony-was also touched upon, and the inconsistency oftthe Ministry was ridiculed in declining to appoint Ward on the plea of political bias, and yet retaining St. Hillinoffice when candidate for. the superintendency; and an Ahuriri justice was also* alluded to who fought in the street with a suitor of his ; court, without any reprimand 'from the Government, as an instance of the small amount of anxiety on their part really to keep the beiich respectable. Speaking of Travers reminds me of another episode with which his name was connected and which gave rise to a discussion very damaging to Ministers. Supplementary estimates for 1857-8 being before the house, a lump sum of upwards of £1000 was put down for 'Legislative; General, including printing &c." Stafford being asked to explain, led the House to •; believe, that three-fourths of the amount was for 'printing and the rest ; for objects connected with the Houses, of Assembly." After the item had passed on this assurance, the Audit Committee discovered that some £1 50 of this was a fee to Travers, for; rplieving the Attorney-General tyhitaker, of the labor of drawing five bills, which had never been r used, but were still lying and,likely to lie for ever,in the pigeon holes of the Government offices; Ward of Lyttelton brought the matter before the House. The disingenuousness of the Ministry in trying to smuggle the item through was made apparent to everybody, and the result certainly did not tend to raise their character for honesty. The item was re-committed, and Travers's ice knocked off. ;The less you say about it however/the better, lest you be sent to keep company with Mr. Saunders and the Nelson' Colonist; but your readers may infer by this sample how tlie money goes. T dop't iknow who is Whitaker's " devil" at present; but if he is paid according to the same scale as Mr. Travers was, he will soon bethe richest man in these diggings.— Wellington Independent. The following is Mr. Travers's letter addressed to our contemporary:— To the Editor of the Nelson Examiner. Sm—Your contemporary the Colonist, with characteristic bashfulness, has published a paragraph in the issue of to-day, iti which it is stated that I received ,£339 from the General Government for drafting certain Bills. ' The facts were these: I was requested by the Attorney-General to prepare a number of Acts for introduction into the Assembly in the.session of 1858. These Acts were:—The Land Glauses Consolidation Act, the Insolvency Act, the Petty Insolvency Act, the Debtor and Creditors' Composition Act, and Merchant Seamen's Act. 1 undertook to do this,; treating, the General Government in the matter precisely as-..1 should have done any other client. ', I did the. work, and sent in my bill, which was £187, and not .£339, as stated in the Colonist. The Government objected to the charge, and refused to pay it, and so the matter rested for a year, when it was ultimately referred to the arbitration of Mr. Strang, theßegistrarat Wellington. He awarded me the whole amount, as being amy reasonable charge for the work done. I have only to say, that any other lawyer would have been welcome to the business, had I known the amount of trouble, labor, and anxiety it would have entailed upon me. My expenses out of pocket in the concern amounted to £73, leaving £64 as the actual payment for work, which no lawyer in the country would undertake for double the money. Yours, &., W.T.L. Travers. Nelson, November 6. We know that by taking parts instead of the whole, sharp lawyers triumph; but such should not be the practice of a judge, a soldier, or a layman.