LOCAL POLITICS.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1052, 7 March 1873, Page 3

LOCAL POLITICS.

(To the Editor of the Westport Times.) Sik, —I see in last Friday's issue of your paper a letter signed John 5 Munro, in which the writer in commenting upon His Honor the Superintendent's speech, tries to make the public believe that the confidence ■expressed by one of the largest and moat orderly concourse of people ever aspembled in the Buller, was obtained by ingenuity and sophistry. Mr Munro ', must have unlimited confidence in himself to presume to make such a statement, contrary to the unanimous ; voice of the meeting, who were quite ' as capable of judgiug of His Honor's , statements, as Mr Munro. The writer of the letter is like a great many •others, who saddle tl)9 Superintendent with everything defective in the Province, from the washing away of the Stanley street wharf, to the failure of the last spec in quartz mining, losing sight of the fact that the Executive and Provincial Council •are in fact the ruling powers in the Province. Mr John Munro also states in his letter, that His Honor ungenerously attacked the County Council, of Westland. Such was not the case, His Honor merely stated that the County Chairman has lately Baid, that the 'County is very heavily in debt, and the revenue "will scarcely pay working expenses. Then again in alluding to the late Separation Petition, Mr John Munro says, the eeparationists did not "want annexation to Westland. Such a statement is incorrect, as I read their petition in which they asked for the unification of the South-west G-oldfields with Westland, and they, patriotically paid •canvassers to get signatures to such petition on the quiet. I think canvassing the mining districts is the only safe plan of obtaining an expression of the wishes of the miners either for or against separation, ' 'is more legitimate for the Govern--"tent to do so, than be led away by th'e stump orations of such would be agitators as Mr John Munro. I can assure him for his edification, that mot of the miners in the Inangahua and Buller districts, prefer remaining under Nelson Tule rather than be joined to Westland. I have had a good opportunity of proving this, having been amongst them for the last three years. Mr John Munro also makes the mis-statement, that the canvassers for the Anti-separation Petition, owe the present easy circumstances in which they are placed, to the Superintendent, as areward for getting signatures to the Anti-separation Petition. Mr John Munro from the very high social position he occupies, terms them parasites. Now as one of them, I resent his coarse insinuations, and beg to inform him I did not get a shilling each for signatures, as he and others insinuates. Mr Munro must he extremely liberal minded, to deny to others the privilege of I free political opinion ; which he makes such noisy use of himself. And because I dared so to make use of it by action rather than by words, I am called a parasite, and held up to scorn in public print. He ought to emigrate to Eussia, where such autocratic notions are popular. Yours &c, * PbANK CotTKTSET. [For remainder of news *ee &th page.~\