OPEN COLUMN

Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 1, Issue 17, 16 January 1858, Page 6

OPEN COLUMN

To the Editor of the HawJce's Bay Herald

Sir. — The next resolution to the one considered in my last — "Deferred payments," needs no further remark, as that and the succeeding one have been touched upon in my first letter, certainly not with that fulness which their importance demands, but enough to show that "things are not always what they seem." Resolution six — about open land board?, is one of those proposals to do a simple thing in an intricate manner, which go to show that the Radicals are much better executives on paper than they are likely to be in practise. Fancy a man attempting to buy 40 acres from this land board ! Either all the board must consult together, or they must leave one person to transact the business. In the former case the plan is practically impossible ; in the latter it is useless, as the present system is as good without this complex machinery. Probably the only object they have to gain by instituting a land board, is divided responsibility and the ejection of the present Chief Commissioner.

Number 7 is, if possible, a still finer pretence of being elaborately fair to the public. The accepted and unaccepted tenders are at present published in the Government Gazette, and therefore the parties tendering can see for themselves, whether they have been treated justly or not.

Public works have been performed by contract in many cases, but as large numbers of immigrants have been continually arriving, the Provincial Government considered that they were bound to provide f >r their employment on public works, until they had time to become part of the regular population, by finding private engagements, or occupying land of their own &c. Had all Government works been performed by contract, the contractors would only have employed the picked men, and the remainder would have run some risk of starving, or at any rate would have become so discontented, "that few would have remained in the Province who had a chance of quitting it. As it is, there is always plenty of work for all on the roads, &c. ; and should any man so engaged meet with an offer of employment that he thinks will suit him better, he has only to get his employer to become security for so much of •his promissory note as remains unpaid,

when he is at liberty to leave at once. The eighth resolution I have before spoken of. The ninth — "Public accounts to be audited by one auditor," would do credit to the directors of the British Bank, and is I presume" inserted as a "receipt for a short and easy method of cooking accounts," so as to suit the taste of the Radical Reformers. As these gentlemen are a majority in the Council, they can put in a man after their own heart — an auditor who will "make things pleasant." There is nothing like a little forethought in such matters ; but how the public will like the new rale that one witaess is better than three, is another question.

If the tenth resolution — "a re-consider-ation of the present scheme of Immigration," is a reform which the Radicals take credit to themselves for having negociated, as would appear on the face of it, I can only say that it is a projected reform to which they can lay no claim. Ever since the Nelson diggings began, the Provincial Government have seen that a large proportion of the Immigrants would go to that Province, in many cases without paying their promissory notes, so that the Province besides losing the men, would also surfer a loss in money. Should the Nelson diggings become of importance they foresaw that a large influx of populati .n from the Australian Colonies would take place, and, as many of the diggers would be unfortunate, they would soon find their way here, particularly if a large expenditure in public works were continuec 1 , and we should thus gain a large increase of population without any expense"to the Province.

Fortunately, a firm in England who were to have sent out 2000 Immigrants, failed to fulfil this contract, so that I have little doubt, the Government would have recommended the cessation of all direct Immigration at the public expense, except in cases where persons in this country became responsible for the re-payment of passage money, when their friends would be sent out to their.

Having concluded this review of the general policy of the Radical Reformers, which they say their letter contains, I will conclude by making a few remarks as a s;)rt of summing up of the evidence they have themselves furnished.

I tl.i.ik, Sir, the whole evidence goes to show that where the Radical Reformers' general policy is not mischievous, it is impractical and useless, and that they have enunciated this policy, not because it is the best, but because it is one which was likely to "take with the Wellington public, or at least with that portion of it who, having no opinions of their own, are always ready to embrace those of other people. They have likened themselves to a bundle of sticks, and the comparison is just ; they arc a bundle of sticks, bound together by the bands of self interest. My remarks must be taken as applying to the main body of the Reformers. No one doubts that among the moderate party with whom the ultraRadicals have effected a coalition, there are men who have joined them with the best intentions. In fact this political meteor seems composed of a nucleus of intellectual rascality, surrounded by a foggy halo of well meaning imbecility ; with here and there bright points of good sense, kept in their places, 1 suppose, by a kind of political attraction. 1 believe many will agree with me that the Radical Reformers ought to begin by reforming themselves. They ought to purge their body of those men who can but disgrace any cause with which they are connected, — they ought to be careful lest, led away by party spirit, they inflict injuries dn this Province from which it will take years to recover, — and they ought to remember that there is such a thing as a minority of sense and a majority of lolly. At present they appear to be busily engaged in eating their way into political life. Beef and patriotism seem with them inseparably connected. One excellent appointment they appear to have made ; I mean that of Dr. Welch as Buffoon in ordinary to their august society, a position for which he is well qualified ; the song sung by him at the banquet was, for scurrilous vulgarity, almost equal to his speech on the hustings. How is it. that Mr. J. Wakefield's protege has been so quietly shelved ? I presume, (from a sentence in Mr. -Bowler's letter)," that he must be looked upon as a species of human fun- . gus, destined to make way for some higher form of life ; but I trust that no man put forward as a candidate for the superintendency by the Radical Reformers, (should our present one retire from their "unpalatable contact,") will obtain a vote in this District. However fit the person chosen

might be in other respects, the fact of his being the nominee of such men ought to be a sufficient proof that he is willing for the sake of office to become a tool in their hands, and, whatever they may profess we ought to be perfectly certain that thrir whole policy (where they bind themselves to any policy, for many of their resolutions mean anything) is of such a nature as ultimately to injure those whom these pseudo liberals pretend to benefit. It is a policy founded on ignorance, propped up by falsehood, and if carried out, will cover its supporters with lasting infamy.

A Calmuc.