The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1868.

Westport Times, Volume II, Issue 167, 12 February 1868, Page 2

The Westport Times AND CHARLESTON ARGUS. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1868.

In our yesterday's issue we reprinted an.article from the Nelsow Examiner, respecting the Buller election, and we would beg to draw particular attention to it on account of the peculiar system of ethics it strives to inculcate, and the evident intention of endeavoring to foster a system of beaureaucracy, that should be regarded with suspicion by every honest colonist. An attentive reader cannot help remarking the similarity of language there employed, or rather the similarity of ideas to those used by Commissioner Kynnersley on the occasion of the declaration of the poll on the 29th ult. The article itself savors so much of AVestport campism, that were it not that we know that Mr Stafford is so entirely opposed to anyGrovernmentofficialmixing themselves up with newspapers, we should not hesitate for one moment to say that it emanated from the pen of a gentleman high in office in Westport, though we entirely exonerate Mr Kynnersley from any hand in the authorship, allowing that hemay be an "educated man." The writer of the article referred to, although he tells us that he is in favor of representative institutions, sneers at the idea of popular representative institutions, and says plainly, to use his own words, that those whom the " shoepinches" are not fit to be trusted with finding a remedy. Theoretical politics may seem very well, and like many other theories, sound very well and appear very plausible, but very often like many similar theories, theoretical politics, when reduced to actual practice, are found wanting, and recourse has then to be had to some system less elaborate but more practical. The qualification, according to the Examiner requisite to fitapersonto become a memberof a Provincial Council is education—high class education, as if that body was a French Academy and spent its time in discussing learned thesis in Greek or Latin. The everyday practical man of the world—the man who deals with the realities of life, the man who knows where the " shoe pinches" is not fitted, not suitable, to represent a goldfields district in a •iSTelson Provincial Council, or any other representative institution. In opposition to the views laid down in the article, we contend that the object of a constituency is to send a man to Parliament who will represent their interests, fight their battle, and expound their views, and not one who will endeavor to carry out some abstract Utopian theory of government, which might be very good, but which, nevertheless, is very impracticable. A representative, as the name implies, is merely a delegate, who is selected to carry out certain views,—who, in fact, goes into Parliament with his hands tied, and if he deviates from his instructions, or his pledges, he is not only guilty of a breach of trust, but has shown that he is unsuitable and unworthy of the position in which he has been placed. The South-West Goldfields are essentially a practical district, and we think we may be excused when we state that its wants do not require a gentleman to represent this portion of it, who is deeply versed in the subtleties of political economy, or who can discourse most learnedly on the doctrines of Plato, or treat the House to a disquisition on Demosthenes in the original Greek. The electors of the South-West Goldfields do not require men of this stamp to represent them—they

roquiro mon who can deal with facts in a plain, practical manner—men who will show what is required* and the hest manner of meeting the requirements, and the writer of the article in the Nelson Examiner shows but a slight, very slight acquaintance, with a goldfields community if ho supposes that any other person could represent them. And then the slur cast on the miners generally as being an ignorant body of men who care more for " beer and balderdash " than ought else. It is so easy to make an assertion, and nothing more so than for a clique to throw aspersions on anybody whom they consider beneath them in some imaginary point of view. There cannot be_ the slightest doubt but that this spirit of " cliquism" is forming in Westport by a class who suppose they have the right to parade their " theoretical abilities" before the " ignorant" masses who compose the bulk of the population, " Can any good thing come out of Bethlehem," or with their superciliousness do these disciples of Eucrates imagine that outside of their circle nothing worthy could possibly exist. The Examiner then congratulates the district, or rather the Returning Officer, on having selected a tradesman in preference to a digger. We will say nothing of the merits of Mr Smith, or how far he reaches the ideal prescribed by the Examiner, .but pass on to Mr Graham and the diggers. Mr Graham was the favorite of the diggers, so says our authority, because he knew where the shoe pinched, and because he talked bad grammar and wore moleskin trousers. By the same train of reasoning it follows that the only person fit to represent any constituency is one who has no practical knowledge, whose inanities must be nicely rounded and flavored with euphony, and whose costume must be as faultless as a Brummell's. The Examiner meanly finds fault with Mr G-raham's pronounciation because he calls " electors " — electerers, and Chisholm " ChisVem" but is this any ground against a man's capabilities. The writer might just as well sneer at Tennyson for writing his North-country Farmer, in the vernacular, or at Matthew Arnold for defending provincialisms, and even the Examiner in spite of itself cannot help bearing testimony to Mr G-raham's natural ability which it does as follows :—" We know him to be a shrewd, ready-witted, and fearless man ; and we believe him to be honest and straightforward." What more is desired. Are not the great qualities in a legislator shrewdness and a readywit, and a fearlessness that will not allow itself to be diverted from a good purpose ; and if he is honest and straightforward would he not make a better and more useful member than one-half "the painted and perfumed popinjays of fortune," who are recommended as worthy of being competent to act as legislators. The Examiner has yet to learn that among the mining and working community are to be found men who would do honour to any Assembly, though they may be perhaps rough in speech, and in doing so let us look around us and see whether the working practical man does not fill his situation worthily and with dignity, and we shall find the world teeming with examples,—and although we could point to a Lincoln and to Johnson, we will go no further than the neighbouring colony of Victoria, though to quote it may prove offensive, and point to Heales, O'Shanassy, Davies, Vale, Grant, Brooke, and others, who have worked as miners, and who possess and have possessed nothing more than a plain education, but who have been " shrewd, ready-witted men." Philosophical politicians are very well in the cabinet and closet where they can pursue their investigations "quietly and give the result of their investigations to the world, but these men fail in a busy parliament —they are too slow, too abstruse. The business to be done requires active energetic men, who know where the "shoe pinches," and who will take means to remedy it at once, and not wait for a philosophical investigation into the reason why it " pinches."