AN EYE-OPENER.

Press, Volume XVI, Issue 2185, 20 April 1870, Page 3

AN EYE-OPENER.

I flrr, *° THX OF THB PEESS. ! tJu^ 1,1 " 0 U one thin 8 * like Mr Kni B ht i £'A 8 * 7 0u »g and transparent, and I hope th« r hr * to ccc the error * of a J B - -A^ l tend t i?* k r Moorhouee vac Superineat, Mr Knight was for ever opposing his SET , ***. It wae Mr Knight who was £2JH m putting out Mr Stewart. Mr e^^fj^* l unpardonably etrong language HoS • k * oorbou *e for the £30,000 rolling but now be has found out that he ft,rJ|W! in fact he thinks now it is quite *m!2li£i£? tm * Superintendent to do f S90 ' QGO of 4 n« pubho moneys without l - SaiSt^! of * he , c °onca. Then again, Mr I *««« Wμ called to order when he abuted

Wr Moorhouse and the railway contractors, as he stood up in the Council, night after night — but now he confesses ho was wrong. How ho found fault with Mr Moorbouse'a wav of introducing immigration ! How he commented on Bill Barnes's meetings when the imrmgrants wore brought into tho place with no work for them to do, either public or private : not one penny in the Government chest ! When Mr Moorhouse had to go to the banker, and on his knoes beg for a *urn of money to sa*e tlie windows of the Government bui'Aings from being smashed by a crowd of hungry men with ftarving wives aud children! yow at this present juncture, Mr Knight wakes up and finds he was dreaming, and that. Mr Moorhouse was right. Then again Mr Knight. pictured to us the Lancashire weavers who came out in Mr Bealey's time, but who vere sent for by Mr Moorhouse, and were set to at 5s a day on one of Mr Moorhouse's reproductive works, m Mr Knight called it ; and these works were stopping the Waimakariri at the top of the Kaiapoi l=land with sand- | bags that were washed away. But still Mr Knight avers that then he was dreaming. He then drew us a most pitiable picture of tbe poor deluded immigiar.ts that; were brought out to break stones on the Lincoln road, blistering their fingers with labor they had never been u?ed to, and only earning 4s 3d a day ! And the " hunger that stood in the faces of others cloaning the gutters out on other roads was pourtrayed with equal force by Mr Knight, when Mr Moorhouse was compelled ajain to beg and pray of the banker to allow him to overdraw in order to enable him to pay wages! He remembered the scenes too about tho Govern-

ment buildings at a later date, immediately before the last resignation of Mr Moorhouse, when a hungry crowd of honest working men were again threatening to break the windows of the Government buildings. Koto, Mr Knight admitß that all this time ho was

under a delusion, and that Mr Moorhouse's conduct was perfectly justifiable, and ho avers that he, and he alone, is the only man living to put things to rights. But I am forgetting tho pith of Mr Knight's argument, and that was the picture he drew of the Provincial Treasurer hiding on tho Mount Grey Downs when there were £10,000 worth of orders on the Treasury—not one penny in the chest to meet these demands—the banker refusing Mr Moorhouse any further orerdraft, although he again had recoursr to his marrowbones ! Mr Knight now is fairly convinced of Mr Moorhouse's groat fiuancial abilities which said convictionii he tell* us date from a j very late hour on tho Saturday night before | the nominatier; day ! But as I *si I Wfore, i Mr Knight is a young man, and rery tr»«# : parent. I havo dearly »,•*•« one .f#e* (notwithstanding Mr Kn<ght'» MM*«f»t!* I with reference to the late hour oa the i Saturday night mentioned) that tht> actual j period at which Mr Knight made up hi* mind | that Mr Rolleston'* Government w*r<» wrong, wae when he (Mr Knight) m

forming his admirable Ministry. If 1 remember rightly, this great Ministry comprised—Mr Knight, Provincial Secretary, at £800 a year (was it ?) Mr J. Evana Brown, Commissioner of Railways, at £1000 a year ; Mr Peacock, Provincial Treasurer, and lastly, Mr Wynn Williams, Provincial Solicitor, at £250 a year. Mr Rolleston, however, did not quite coincide with this nice little arrangement, but accepted these gentlemen's services with a slight modification, namely—Mr Knight, Provincial Secretary and Secretary for Public Works, at £500 a year ; Mr Brown, without portfolio, and consequently without a salary ; Mr Peacock on the same terms as his predecessor, Mr William Montgomery, as Provincial Treasurer; and Mr Wynn Williams as Provincial Solicitor, at £250 a year. But this famous Knight ministry came to grief. It was at this moment that this renowned leader woko up and found that Mr Rolleston was no financier. Before closing this letter I should liko to ask Mr Rolleston one question —" Did you receive a threat from a friend of Mr Moorhouse that if you refused to sanction the grant of £2000 as charitable aid to Mr Moorhouse, you yourself would assuredly be dragged through the expense of a contested election ?"

I should like to ask Mr Moorhouse a question — ■' Did you last harvest time, when hiring men to got your grain down, offer tbem some small figuro per day (say eight shillings) whioh offer they refused, and you were compelled to take them at their own figmre, namely 10a 6d a day. And did you not make a remark, in terms to this effect, that you only wished you were Superintendent again, for you would flood the country with lubor, and make such as they be only too glad to do such work for 5a a day ? " Yours, &c, A Day Labobeb.