Correspondence.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 332, 25 December 1860, Page 2

Correspondence.

THE ELECTION. To the Editor of Hie Colonist. Ye've trusted 'ministration To chaps whs in a barn or byre Wad better fill their station.—Bukns. Electors of the city of Nelson, will you vote for Stafford and the' Contingent '—the men you raised to place and power, but who have deceived and betrayed you ? Will you vote for Stafford and the * Contingent' —the men who passed the Mew Provinces Act, and who, under the pretence of extending local self-government, have planted a (iouble set of officers over us; who have played into the hands of the Wairau squatters by handing over to them an important district of country, which was instantly followed by the price of runs being lowered from seven shillings and sixpence per acre, as assessed by the Nelson Government, to five shillings per acre; and by the price of agricultural land, which poor men might buy, being raised from ten shillings to one pound ? Who have insulted the people by drawing the boundary of the New Province within five or six miles of the town, whilst in all the other provinces of New Zealand the boundary line of any New Province cannot come within sixty miles of the capital of the old province ? Probably you will be told that it was specially for the benefit of Nelson that the boundary line was drawn so close to the. town, and that it was an extension of the blessing of local self-government to compel the settlers of the Pelorus to go to what is to them the almost inaccessible Picton to transact business, when they could easily come into Nelson in half-a-day. . Mr. C. Elliott says Stafford was not to blame because he was not here when the boundary line was drawn. He is to blame, because in the Act (and that was his work) Nelson was specially exempted from the sixty miles boundary clause. He deposited the powder and laid the train, which his mates fired, is he then not responsible for the damage done? And who by the New Provinces Act have made the election of Superintendents by the Provincial Councils instead of by the direct suffrages of the community, and by depriving the Superintendents from giving* their assent to any bills, have struck &, blow at the people's liberty, and rendered the office of Superintendent one which would not be accepted by a man of any spirit; fit only for needy place-seekers or government sycophants. Will you vote for Stafford and the " Contingent," who passed the Tariff, one of the most unjust, one-sided, and incompetent pieces of legislation which ever disgraced the statute book of any country. A tariff which discourages native.industry by imposing as heavy a duty on the cubic foot of a bale of leather or cloth as on the cubic foot of a box of slop boots or slop clothes. This is free trade with a vengeance. A tariff which taxes Mrs. Thrifty's cotton print dress as heavily as Mrs. Idle's silk one; which taxes the calico of the digger's tent, his frail protection from the elements, heavier than the finest cambric; which taxes | a blue shirt, which wears out in the course of a few months, ten times as heavy as a gold watch, which will last a century; and which tariff has been purposely framed to press unduly on the industrious and wealth-producing portion of the community. Will you vote for Stafford and the " Contingent," who took the management of the gold-fields from the Provincial Government in order to give them a hitch, the said being neither more nor less than paying an export duty of half-a-crown on each ounce of gold the poor digger finds, and a yearly poll tax of one pound? Writers on political economy say that it is wrong for a country to tax its own exports. Our wise General Government has tried-so many new phases of legislation that we cease to wonder at this one. One thing is certain, if it is right to tax gold it is quite as right to tax wool. Revenue, however, was necessary from the gold-fields to pay the salaries of policemen, who cannot employ their time to better advantage than ia canv*asig elwtora for the forth.

coining elections. Should Stafford bo able to consolidate his power by the time the next election comes round, and peace prevail at Taranaki, perhaps he will be ablo to send down to the Bay a file of soldiers, who can take the requisition for a friend of the Government round to the doore of the electors in one hand, and a bayonet in the other. Will you vote for Stafford and the " Contingent," who are sinking us hopelessly and irretrievably in debt to support five hundred officials at a yearly expense of seventy thousand pounds, which sooner or later will lead to repudiation or to such heavy taxes as will deter people from the mother country from making New Zealand their home ? Or will you| not rather unite with the free men who, through the length and breadth of New Zealand, have become aware of the danger which threatens them and are determined to shake off this incubus of a place-creating Government ? Vote then for John Perry Robinson, a man of integrity, intelligence and ability, who will neither support a factious opposition, nor an incapable Government; but whoso motto is " Measptfes not not men." Return him at the head of the poll, and show to the other provinces that we are worthy of being called by something better than by the opprobrious epithet of "obsequious Nelson.'' I am, &c, A MAN. . Nelson, December 24,1860. RETICENCE ~ ''*■ To the Editor of the Colonist. Mr. C. Elliott says (see Examiner, December 19,) "I can again claim for your late representative, Mr. Stafford, a need of praise . . . and a special act of service to Nelson was the remission of £1300 a year for thirty years of the amount of her contribution towards the liquidation of the loan raised to pay off the New Zealand Company's Debt," &c, &c, Mr. C. Elliott forgot at the same time to tell his hearers that it was through Mr. Stafford's making the great mistake of stating that the province of Nelson contained about eighteen million acres of land (see Statistics of Nelson, 1855), when in fact it contained only about half that quantity,' that the portion of £4000 was saddled upon us,' and that it was reduced when it was proved to the satisfaction of the House that this great blunder had been committed. Had it.not been for this blunder, our share of the debt would probably have been from the first instead of what it now is.—£27oo. . FACT.