THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. WEDNESDAY, MAY 29, 1872.

Thames Guardian and Mining Record, Volume I, Issue 199, 29 May 1872, Page 2

THE Thames Guardian AND MINING RECORD. WEDNESDAY , MAY 29, 1872.

Is the honorable and only member for the. Thames likely to take his place in Parliament at the commencement of next session ? This is a question which has been frequently mooted of late, and to which there has yet been no answer. Mr O’Neill keeps silent himself, aud sends no letters to his constituents respecting his present whereabouts or his doings. We were given to understand that he went to Australia on Government business, in connection with the goldfields. What that means when reduced to plain English it would be hard to say ; but there can be no doubt whatever that his prolonged absence from our midst, at a time when so many subjects of importance ought to be discussed between, him and his consti-

tuents, prior to the opening of Parliament, is a very serious matter. The opinion is, we believe, almost unanimous that, if Mr O’Neill cannot give us more of his time, he ought to resign, and give the, electors the opportunity of choosing in liis place a local man,

who will reside permanently in the district during such time of the year as the House is not sitting. Amongst other prominent subjects which ought to be discussed between the electors and their member is that of education, upon which a- public meeting was in contemplation-some time ago, of which, however, we have not heard anything since the late lecture by Mr Bullor. The reverend gentleman then said, as we think very properly, and in very good taste, that he did not think the clergy should take the initiative in canvassing for such an object, or words to that effect. He also stated, and we cordially agree with loin in this opinion, that the Thames ought not to lie unrepresented on this question in the next . Parliament. The battle of. education will have to be fought next session—the denominational sys-. tun versus the secular system —and the people here should have the oppor-

tunity of expressing- their opinion upon the subject, and of eliciting from their member whether or not he agrees with the majority, and what his views are upon the subject. There is a very large rising''"community here, and how much of the future welfare of the piace, as well as of the whole colony, depends upon the manner in winch the young are educated, it needs no words of ours to portray. It is one of the most vitally important questions in any community, aud in none more so than in this district, where there is every prospect of a dense population at no distant date. Another battle, which will greatly affect the Thames, will bo that of Provincialism versus Centralism, and it is pretty sure to be waged with considerable warmth on either side, and upon this point the Thames ought to have its member’s views clearly laid down. The present system of administering the delegated powers has certainly not been satisfactory to this field, and the Thames has nothing to thank the Provincial Government for. That this goldfield would be better without any Provincial Government at all seems to he very generally admitted, and if the field was superintended by a responsible Minister of Mines, and had the control of its own local revenue, there can be very little doubt that the place would rapidly improve. These and many other questions are sure to be discussed next session, and if the district is unrepresented, it will ce“certainly be a very unfair thing. If Mr O’Neill now makes all the haste he can from Australia he will hardly be in time to have these questions properly discussed with the electors before his presence will be required in Wellington. Nor are these the only topics bearing upon the interests of this field, which will be debated. We have, in a former article, pointed out how inadequately the Thames is represented, even supposing our one member to be present. One member for the Thames and three for Auckland city, with one for the suburb of Parnell and one for the suburb of Newton, is manifestly an unfair distribution. One of these members ought certainly to be added to the Thames, and we trust next session will not be allowed to pass without this being done. The rising importance of Coromandel is such that it ought to have its own member, who might be taken from some of the bush districts where the member represents a few straggling growers of potatoes, and a pig or two. We did hear some time ago a rumour that the Government dimly discerning that the Thames was all but unrepresented, seeing that it bad only one member in the Lower House, ami not a man connected with it in the Upper House, were about to elevate to the higher chamber some one locally coniKcted with tlie place. This rumour, if it had any foundation, appears to have vanished into the a.r. Perhaps some patriotic adviser of his ExcelI leiicv die Governor, if there lie any individual coming under that category, would suggest the propriety of something of this kind oemg done. Tne Upper House, as at present constituted, represents c.nelly the squatting interests, aud a most excellent interest it is for the squatters themselves ; but of ail classes in the community they get more out of the country, and pay less towards its revenue, than any other 1 section of the population. The digger is the man who gets taxed to the utmost, and is scarcely represented at ad. Yet the digger lias done more to advance the colony than the squatter has ever done. We are no advocates for setting class against class, but there can be no doubt that both here aud in Australia the advent of the digger has ever been one of progression, and the sheep owner the reverse. It is there fore especially hard that the digger is not more adequately represented. In about six weeks’ time the next Parliamentary session of New Zealand will have commenced, and in the brief interval which remains it will be well for the constituency of the Thames to set their house in order —to have a plan arranged of what measures affecting the interests of the field should be introduced, amended, or abolished—and it is especially necessary that our solitary member should be communicated with, and an answer elicited from him as to what he is going to do next session, and in the event of the reply not being satisfactory, he should certainly give back to the electorate of the Thames the trust reposed in him as their representative.