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Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 1003, 10 September 1872, Page 2

The division list published in another column shows that Messrs White and O'Conor, members for the West Coast Goldfields, have achieved distinction by recording their votes against a ministry that has done very much, as fiir as local works are concerned, to win the gratitude of the honorable members' constituents. The majority for the Opposition was so small that

had these two worthies voted on the other side the numbers would have been, for the Ministry 39; for the Opposition, 38. Possibly Messrs White and O'C'onor may hereafter be able to show good cause for their defection, but to express any opinion, to either condemn or applaud the peculiar tactics of the member for the Duller in his place in the llouso of Representatives would be superfluous. In fact within a community where the small minority who choose to think and act independently and for the general public good are outnumbered, ten to one, by those who have no political creed, whoso opinions are influenced aiono by concern for their own individual affairs, and who express their approval or disapproval of the actions of legislators just according to the influence such actions may have upon their own little interests, can be but mere waste of time and energy on the part of the Press. Our honorable member lias lately in lachrymose tones compared himself to a hunted hare. Just now bis erstwhile warmest supporters draw another simile and compare him to much smaller game, "A rat, a rat, a rat without a tail." Another shuffle of the cards, a neat trick or two in political juggling, the dazzle of soni6 tempting bauble before their gaze, and those who now chew the cud of bitter disappointment may be as ready as ever to forget, forgive, or coudone, All of which in a free country and under free institutions they are at perfect liberty to do. Or taught wisdom at last they may seek to raise themselves from their political supineness and place no more faith in one who has set them an exceedingly striking example in making all things subservient to self-interest. But howsoever the balance of public opinion may fluctuate, the local Press may be more profitably, more honorably, employed than in giving ' expression to any opinion thereonWhether Mr Eugene Joseph O'Conor again throws a glamour o'er disappointed friends, or whether they at last throw him over as a very Jonah, is in reality a matter of very little moment, except in the latter instance as means to an end; the expansion of healthier, more self-reliant, more patriotic political principles than those now prevailing.