MR GIBBS AT RICHMOND.

Westport Times, Volume III, Issue 570, 21 October 1869, Page 2

MR GIBBS AT RICHMOND.

At Richmond Mr Gibbs was received with warm applause. He alluded to the observations made by the seconder of Mr Curtis, respecting claptrap, as he termed it, about working men's Superintendents, and that working men were all very well in their places, but that we did not want a working man for Superintendent. Now, he contended that was the very thing they did want; one who would do the real work of the Province, not absent himself from it for months, but would go about the country and see it for himself, and not pretend to rule it all from his office chair.—(Hear, hear.) He referred to a letter in which cheapness and nastiness were contrasted as connected with moderate salaries to officials, but while cheapness was not valuable for its own sake merely, it by no means followed that dear things were necessarily good because they were dear.—(Applause.) There was one thing very certain, we should be obliged to practice stern economy, and we cannot begin too soon ; better now than wait until the evil day comes. Mr Curtis, in speaking of Government money, and what people expected from it, said that Government money or Government property was fair game, and it was unfortunately the fact that even Government officials thought and aeted as if it were so. Indeed, the Government officials, instead of considering themselves the servants of the public, aspired to be the masters, and the excess of officialism was one of the great evils of Provincialism. The Superintendent should not be content with sitting in his office day by day, but should personally make himself acquainted with the country, and by his own observation supplement the reports of his officers. —(Hear, hear.) He alluded to the absence of any particularly serious proposals in Mr Curtis's speech, and noticed what he termed his clever acting in reading the telegram about the school-house at Westport going to sea, and creating great laughter, and enjoying it himself, a3 if he thought the loss of £3OO or £350 worth of property something to laugh at. —(Apphuse.) It was all very well to say that the school belonged to the Central Board ; but there was no representative of the Central Board at "Westport, and the fact that there was a representative of the Government in the shape of a Warden, who, instead of acting on his own responsibility and saving the schoolhouse, allowed it to be carried away by the flood, was not very creditable to his judgment or discretion. [lt is due to the "Warden to state that he has no " own responsibility" upon which he could have acted. It is in that particular, and not in any inaction on the part of the Warden, that the fault lay.] The school was nominally the property of the Board, but it was paid for by Government money, yet Mr Curtis thought it a fine thing to laugh at.—(Applause.) He referred to some of the points in the speech he delivered at the nomination, alluding to the statement made by Mr Curtis that while he remained in office he should oppose separation on the West Coast; but the great point was that no cause should be given, by neglect and want of courtesy, to make the West Coast desire to separate. For himself he should, if elected, strive to be a really working Superintendent.

ME. HORN'S CANDIDATURE As Mr Horn has not visited the West Coast, little or no interest is taken in the result of his candidature. Mr Horn, however, takes some interest in the "West Coast. The following letter has been received from him : " As I have been nominated duly today for the Superintendcncy I beg to inform you that I stated ft was onlv just that I should reside on the Wes't Coast for a specified time—say about three months six weeks before the session and six weeks after, towards the end of the year. You will naturally think I state this to gain your confidence, but it is not really so, as I consider that the importance of your district and fair play demand it. This is no new thought of mine, for I think it is necessary to become acquainted with the works to be carried out and the various duties which alone can be carried out in my view in connection with the office."