CLAP-TRAP.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3044, 29 April 1867, Page 6

CLAP-TRAP.

To the Editor of the Wiklt News. Sib, — 'On the day of nomination of candidates for the office of Superintendent, Mr. J. Williamson mad«, I must say, a very long speech, and he has succeeded in gulling the unthinking portion of the community to believe that all he aaid was truth ; bat all this may be so,— still there are a number, and that not a few, who can see as far through a nineinch plank as Mr. W., and believe that the most of his speech on the platform was mere clap-trap : and I would not have taken any notice of this clap-trap, but that he made mention of my name as to what I - had said at the Drury tea meeting. The shoe must have pinched Mr. Williamsons toes, I am sorry for that, but if it did not fit him he was not forced to put it on. He says that I did not choose the proper time and place for such a subject, and that I should not bring charges against the Government before people who were unaccustomed to think on such matters. Now, if Mr. Williamson can prove that education has no connection with religion, then I will admit that a Congregational teameeting was not the place for that subject ; and if Mr. Williamson can prove that it is good, and that it will lead to prosperity to have an unthinking people, then I will gi»e in that I was altogether in the wrong j but let me tell Mr. Williamson that if the people would think more, and make their thoughts to be felt, we should, as a people, be placed in » very different position to-day. What I did show at the Drury tea meeting *«, that the framers of the Education Kates Bill drew up that bill with a desire to protect the land-jobber! ; and I did say, and Ido not repent that saying, that the Superintendent and his advisers were a lot of needy landjobbers, but I did not say that they were so nnder the present administration. But seeing that Mr. Williamson has tried to place me in the position of a misleader of the people, by him telling his audience that they were not land-jobbers under the present administration, I say then leb truth prerail, and let shame and confusion seize the man who wilfully misleads the people. I admit that Mr. Williamson may not have invested in land under the present (that is, under Mr. Whitaker's) administration ; but does that prove thab he is not a land-jobber ? There was, no doubt, a very good reason for Mr. Williamson not investing in land lately, to which I need hardly allude. Perhaps [his past overreaching in land- jobbing has brought this about. Perhaps the view which he took of the native question, and which proved the downfall of the New-Zealander, helped to bring this about. He knows all these little matters best himself ; but I can prove that Mr. Williamson has been a jobber in land to a large extent ; and I can also prove that this land-jobbing has been the curse of this province, and the downfall of many of these land-jobbers, and that we are feeling its effects, with the fruits of mismanagement, at the present time. Now, as to what I said at the Drury meeting on retrenchment, as a sample as to what the Government works cost the country — how that every deed costs the country £13. — Mr. Williamion, by his showing, proves that they only cost 83. lOd. ; but over and above this Bs. 10d., he says that the Provincial. Surveyor has the half of his salary borne by the General Government ; and that Mr. Sinclair has also the half of bis salary borne by the General Government. I would ask, then, where does this money that finds its way into the hands of the General Government come from ? The answer must be, " Out of the people's pockets." Add, then, the expense of supervision, and then we shall get at the truth. I hope that some of our member* of Council, at the forthcoming session, will a^k for a return, showing the number of Crown titles issued within the last two yeara, and the amount of expenditure in connection with the same department, when the truth will be manifest. But now that Mr. Williamson is returned, a short time will show whether all is well. Some do think that Responsible Government will do all for us that we can desire ; bub I say, wait until the Council opposes the mind of his Honor in any important matter, and I predict that he will place his veto upon that part of their legislation, by not giving content that it should pass into law. Provincial institutions are doomed through our showing ourselves incapable of working them. Let us, then, seek a change for the better. Let the Separation League go to work in earnest, having their minds made up that they never will yield. Let the people have a voice in the working of that League. To this end let every one of its members subscribe ss. per annum, and you will have abundance of funds. Establish local district committees ; let them correspond with the head committee in Auckland, so that they may be in poisession of all matters in connection with the League, and that they may be able to call meetings when required, so that they may keep its members alive to the object of Separation. Let each district — that is, electoral district — have its members pledged to support the League in the Assembly and out of the As» sembly ; and our desire will come. — I am, 4c., Pukekohe Valley, April 22. A, McDonald.