AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PREMIER.

Press, Volume LIII, Issue 9520, 12 September 1896, Page 9

AN OPEN LETTER TO THE PREMIER.

No. XVII. Sin, —During the consideration' of the Estimates on August 25th, wheu you fought long and ably to retain the vote of £800 for -the Hokitika gaol, which is at the rate of £130 per prisoner for salaries without counting lis per head for soap and the cost of their board and lodging and pocket money on their liberation, you said at an early period of the discussion that the House had wasted £400 over this item. An hour or so later you pointed out that the cost to the country in.debating this vote would be £500, and by the time you had baffled all endeavours to save the colony the- expense of a penitentiary for which thero is no need,- you -aid that, according to the cost of the hours of sitting, more money had been spent over the discussion than the whole vote, £800, for the Hokitika gaol. For once, Mr Seddon, your arithmetic and, mine % agree. Roughly speaking a session of Varlianierit costs £45,000 if the salaries of members, Hansard staff, Legislative officers, be., are charged as being earned during the time the Houses sit for, say fifteen weeks, by a simple sum in division your financial Blind will perceive that this is at the rate of £3000 per week, which is near enough to £100 an hour to enable us to say for-once that we harmonise.

Just a week after this victory on behalf of the Hokitika officials and convicts tbe debate on the third reading of the Million ■*■"*■-— 11 mean the Aid Bill, was drawing to a close, you appeared in tbe House in » dress coat and the white flower of a blame- -■■. l^ 6 . "• J" 0111 ' button liole. You gave certain instructions to your whip and disappeared for a couple of hours. Instead of the debate closing, as was expected, that distinguished authority on modern systems of fijiance—Mr Ironsand Smith—rose, with «v introductory "In the absence of my «spected chief," and he kept the game alive until hjs time was up, and then other equally celebrated financiers such as Messrs Collins W"l Morrison took up the oft-told wle of your superhuman statesmanship wstonewall your own Bill. Meantime you tf»e gnicing the Scaudinavian social aud canvassing the descendants of the Vikings, instead of attending to matters of national importance, you, the leader of tho House, were content to waste £100 an hour between private pleasuring und political intriguing. Aot that such a trifle mattered to you ; there were thirty-one followers in' the House, each of whose political belief is wrapped in one short maxim-

, ."-% author and disposer! What thou racl st unargued I obey 1"

. In this lesson your dumb dogs are perfect w a miracle, and the signal proof they gave <m the occasion of their daring and'dcternunea servility shows them to be altogether worthy Q f your leadership, and proves their uextenty m turning somersaults. n„ ;u re ™ ap "-»Dle feature about the division °n the Bill was that several Canterbury members voted for your having a loose rein to mend the million. They have such an wrcnration for your sense of propriety and tairness that they would not clip your wings w restram your will by earmarking the money, so that some check would be placed ™ your power to reward here and punish ii,!" 5 * * Coordin ß as y°ur candidates behaved during the elections. Canter- «£_____ M i l ?: 3per cent -' or abo "t one-fifth of tK.TJ mli \ t 1 lon o£ tv colon y- -Last y«»----srln. ?" as * he magnificent sum of £318 7s 7d S?„f* C ? l _ tei : bur y on c °-<>Perative works, Sri** fl,° f £1 , 29 ' 57 5. or less than one lour-h u „dredtii, and this went on Cheviot, will _ g f 1 ra^^ as v S 1 ™ I *' Canterbury S gf al *> ut £2400 out of the million, but share n. C tl° • P ? Vlde £7000 a ?<** « snare of the interest on tho loan. It will Syce y Hnll fol T lowers ' Fiatman, -oyce Hall. Jon es , McLachlan, and Se_M.fi RuSSell trouble to explain H % u ff awa y. t>o say nothing of Mr hZ o_?nfl eredith '- L r in « the Act i?l f the < - u l es - tlon ' for wh - c *- * special ce s3«ry beiore you can legitimately spend loan money on it, it is hard to imagine

! where you can-find-.m-tsx.use for public i works in the Canterbury district. Thanks to the far-seeing public men and the wise land policy of the early days this province j Mas able to construct most of her railways, i bridges, roads, waterworks, harbours, and I many other undertakings in the Provincial stage of her career, and would have been j content to be left alone to work her own ! destiny out. But when her own chosen j representatives now assist in inflicting ; further taxation on the people who elected | them to mitigate those burdens, it is rather j too much for you to expect that those j members will come, back to Parliament, even ! with you as an advocate for them Mr Seddon. ' Rather'should the}* own up to having been I hypnotised d la Trilby, and made to warble j as you willed.

The Palmerston Industrial Exhibition happened opportunely on Monday last, for you to arrange for a candidate" to your liking, put oil' the Banking enquiry for another day, and make an oration all at once. You mentioned incidentally that " moneys could not be better spent than by h-iviug an exhibition of our products in London." Just feo, Mr Seddon. Nothing pays so well as judicious advertising ; nothing worse than bad. You surely do not claim that in sending Home at great cost such samples of our products as the ex-Treasurer, the present Agent-General and the member for New Plymouth that you have favourably impressed Londoners with this colony"? Londoners have cea.ed to rely on our Suite Papers for information, and they seek for it from mercantile people and journalists they can rely on, and if you could only see some of the uncomplimentary remarks they make in their letters about "windy humbugs," -ic., you would arrive at a truer estimation of your own character than by assessing yourself at the value placed on you by the organ calling itself the Premier Paper of the colony, of which you are one of the Managing Board of Advice.

A good "cry" has been your sole stock-in-trade as a politician. You have swallowed the cries which served your purpose in the last two elections, and you will be hard put to it for one with any meaning in it that will commend itself to the electors. " The will of the People " is a nice round mouthful, but, even with all your hardihood and contempt for the will of anybody you cannot claim that the forty odd lamentable objects who are paid £20 per month as chorus singers in your legislative orchestra represent tho will of the people. As a matter of fact you have not even a fig leaf to hide 3-our political nakedness.

The truth of my assertion that your Women's Political and Social League had baen thinned out through its leaders being too Secldonian was proved by the attenuated audience which turned up to listen to the praises your candidate, Mr Hutchison, sang to them on j*our behalf. Thirty-two women of no influence will not win his election, Mr Seddon, even with the help of the autocratic Vice-President, who expressed a desire to cut off the pigtails of the resident Chinamen during the meeting. Nor will the tinsel Seddonian badges at 2s each be deemed a reason for increasing the membership ; and if any one thing more than another would bring a political organisation into it is the passing of tbe two following rules at a meeting of the ' 'Council" on August 14th. Rule 15—" That., ft member's name may also be removed from the roll if a resolution is passed at a Special Meeting of the League to remove such member's name from the roll, on the ground that, she has been guilty of conduct calculated, po tic-feat..the interests or objects, or oh the ground thai puch member shall be deemed an undesirable member." Rule 21—" Should any member disobey the ruling of the chair on a motion that member will be suspended from that sitting of the League ; and, on a second offence on a motion that member will be expelled the League." Seeing that you run this show, Mr Seddon, you should really employ the Parliamentary draftsman to put the rules into something like intelligible shape. James Wilkie.