CORRESPONDENCE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 218, 2 December 1854, Page 5

CORRESPONDENCE.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —I must confess I am somewhat surprised at the apathy or indifference of the members for Lyttelton upon the subject of the communication by land between the Port and the Plains, considering how important thesubjectis, and how unadvisable that we should depend upon water communication alone. It would be useless on my part now to go into the arguments pro and con which have been advanced by many more competent than myself; but I do think," that now the Government has put aside £10,000 for the special purpose of proceeding with the Sumner road, that we ought not to allow the arguments, used by the honourable members of the Council, to pass unnoticed. One gentleman argues, before the road should be commenced the bar should be surveyed, and as we had waited five years (and I think rather patiently) we could afford to tvait a little longer. Now, Sir, we must ask ourselves these questions —after Captain Drury has surveyed the bar and presented his report, even supposing him to recommend such a course, is he equally competent, as an engineer, to propose any particular plan for removing and otherwise improving the bar, and to give a correct estimate of the expense? And again, is it not very probable that iv the mean time this £10,000 may be frittered away ? for we have no guarantee that with our present Council this money is quite safe for the purpose for which Government intended it, and perhaps after all when the report is considered by the Council five months hence we may very coolly be told we can wait some indefinite period till a competent engineer has been induced to come for this particular service liom Sydney or elsewhere, and, therefore, nitich important time be thrown away ;and time is money. I therefore urge upon my brother electors not to let the matter rest until we have obtained " 'Cart road ; and as Government will support the Sumner road, which has been recommended by all the engineers, let us throw over whatever objections may have been made against it, and I'et us give every assistance in our power to the Government in carrying out the work, and let us urge upon our members the necessity of their supporting Government when the question is "gain (and I hope speedily) brought before the Oouncil.

I trust all the members will see the necessity of this great work, and support it as cordially as they did the expenditure of £2,000 for a new Council Hall, in which the learned and honourable gentlemen could comfortably discuss the well-being of the Settlement by promoting our communication by land as well as by water. 1 remain, Sir, yours &c., An Elector. Lyttelton, Nov. 29, 1854.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —May I be permitted through the columns of your paper to ask Mr. Jerningham Wakefield, whether it was during his ephemeral administration that a despatch" was sent here from Auckland, requiring the immediate payment of the whole of our land Fund to the General Treasury ? Such there is reason to believe was the case, and of course if Mr. Wakefield enjoyed Col. Wynyard's confidence for even apoor twenty-four hours he ought to know of it. Perhaps it would be as well if one of our representatives in the Provincial Council would move for the despatch with a view of ascertaining the date of it, as, for the sake of the character of the Forsaith Ministry such a matter ought to be enquired into. I remain, Sir, Your obedient servant, Am Elector. P.S. It is possible that the despatch may have been written during the Mediatorship, or shall I call it dictatorship, of the honourable gentleman's father.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —The remarks of " M.P.C." in to-day's Standard are perfectly annihilating. Never again, Mr. Editor, attempt to " teach our senators .wisdom." Men that make laws in a day with the same .despatch that the Messrs. Gee turn out buns are above all reproof. Patent" metaphysical arguments" applied to road making, the "good people of this Province" no doubt properly estimate. It is a pity, perhaps, that you have chosen to swear by Macadam. The writer of the letter referred to is doubtless a gentleman ; his ideas and language sufficiently prove this. As he professes to be an "M.P.C." criticism is disarmed. I remain, Sir, Your obedient Servant, : Not an "M.P.C."

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sir, —I am astonished to find that your contemporary the Standard was not ashamed to lower itself to the level of the writer of that silly and ungentlemanlike attack upon your article on the Sumner road. 1 have never observed, Sir, that you have been lunatic enough to make a " Wellington Spectator" of your journal. As to the signature " M.P.C," it must be attached to the letter with a deceptive intention. Whatever mistakes the Provincial Council may make, it is to be presumed, from their position, that they are gentlemen. The writer of the letter may be very well guessed by the style, which is certainly not " metaphysical." Yours obediently, A Lytteltonian.

To the Editor of the Lyttelton Times. Sim,—-It is satisfactory to find that the Provincial Exchequer is able to afford £2,000 for the service of the Public Works of the settlement. It is possible however that the Government may, in making this expenditure inflict a serious injury upon some of the inhabitants of the districts within which the works are carried on, by diminishing the available labor at a time when it is especially needed for other purposes. There will be sufficient difficulty in getting in the ensuing harvest, with all the labour that the settlement can furnish, and that difficulty will be augmented if the Government buy it up. I have been told that for carrying on the works now iv progress on the North Road, the Government are paying higher rates of wages than those current in the neighbourhood. This may or may not be true. I may, however, notice an instance of this kind which came within my own knowledge several months ago, and which seemed to imply a want of care on the pait of somebody. A person who was working for me declined to continue with me, because he, with half a dozen others had been offered by the Government survejor a contract at which they expected 15s. a (bay. ~ So far as I know, the

work required no more than ordinary skill. I have not enquired whether they made what they expected, if they did, it was clearly wrong to pay such a price. lam willing, and doubtless many others who are employers of labour are willing, to pay a rate of wages commensurate with the profits realized. It is just that if the stockfariner or agriculturist receives good prices for what he produces, he should pay well for the assistance which enables him to grow it, but no stockfariner or agriculturist need be told that he cannot employ labour profitably which costs him £200 a year, and if the expenditure of Public money is to be attended wiih such consequences we had better have no expenditure at all, and do as best we can without roads and bridges. I am, Sir, Your obedient servant, O. 28th Nov. 185-1.

field strongly objected to. While admitting that there are objections to the system, and insuperable ones, in the case of an irresponsible Executive, it seemed to me that with the power vested in the hands of responsible ministers accountable for their delegation to the representatives of the people, the danger of such great power in their hands would be very much diminished : and the uniform system which would thereby be introduced, instead of different Empowering Ordinances in each Province, would materially tend to that fundamental similarity of Government which is so desirable to bind the whole of the country together, and to obviate the gross inconvenience which must result to its inhabitants from different powers vested in the authorities of each Province. Passiug over bills on which there was not much difference of opinion, I come to the principal question of the session, the Waste Lands. The bill which Mr. Fitz Gerald first introduced was one which again embodied the principle of delegation of authority in administration from the Governor to the Superintendents with the advice of their Provincial Councils, while these bodies were also to agree upon regulations which were to be approved of by the Governor, who was to be empowered to issue them with the advice of the Executive Council, which in effect gave the power to the Provinces though the Governor aud Executive Council issued them. It was in this bill for the management' of the Waste Lands which Mr. Fitz Gerald introduced that Mr. Wakefield moved his " Working Settlers' Amendments." The reasons for the vote I then gave against them were as follows:—In the first place, I considered myself pledged by my address to you before the elections to use my best endeavours to procure the transfer to the Provinces of the power over their own Waste Lands, free and unfettered so far as we were enabled to do so by the Constitution Act. When, therefore, these amendments proposed to reserve one-third of all the lands of a Province out of the hands of their own representatives in the Provincial Council, and place it in the hands of a board, irresponsible and nominated by the Governor, I felt that apart from all consideration of the applicability of the principle of the amendments, I should be acting against my pledged word if I voted for them. Again, it must be plaiu to any one who will look at the matter dispassionately, and freed from the sentiments striven to be drawn around the question, by making it a " working man's " question, that if these regulations are good, and such as would produce the end desired by causing many hard-working and improving settlers to secure land easily, they certainly ought not to be confined to one-third, but are such as ought to extend to all the lauds of the colony, when we should have found ourselves in the position of making regulations for the Waste Lands iv the General Assembly, instead of leaving them, as we certainly were all pledged to do, for the legislation aud control of the best judges on the subject, the local Provincial Councils. The class description of legislation to which those amendments would belong, is one to which I have a great aversion, and one which is sure ultimately to produce that dissension which can end in no good to the class it is designed to protect. On these grounds, then, I differed from my colleague—that I considered that the whole power should be given, as far as we could, to the Provincial Councils, and that no part ouirht to be reserved from their control, while in a minor point of view, the whole scheme seemed absolutely unworkable, and the hon. mover himS'jli" never showed us how it could be satisfactorily worked. The same amendments were moved on the second Waste Lauds' Bill, and met with the same fate, bein<r thrown out by a large majority. Thft bill which we ultimately passed, is one which I trust will work well, giving as it does, the virtual control of the Lands to the Superintendent and Provincial Council, and restraining the Governor from dealing with them in the arbitrary manner hitherto allowed.

I shall not in this letter again give you a history of the crisis, or of the scenes which took place at (he sudden .prorogation by which the representatives were insulted. You will all have seer/ thai thimighout I acted with the constitutional p.-irty a» against Mr. E. G. Wakefii-bl and ]ii> folb^eis. The harassing disputes, the einbroiinu'sit with the G ivernor, and the hindrance to al! butties*, of which his party was the cause, are nuw miliars of New Zealand history, and have n-;i tended t<> enhance the reputation of one :>in;u<:y too well known for inconsistency and political shuffling. The second session was but

one continued struggle to do the best we could in the short remaining period left. Most if not all of the subjects having been debated thoroughly in the previous session we were able to get "through the bills easier than we could otherwise have done, and the imputation of hasty legislation which has been affixed to our last proceedings by certain parties, will be seen not to be deserved if you consider the amount of discussion they had previously undergone. During this session a Custom's Bill was introduced, based on the report of a Committee of the previous session of which both I and my Colleague were members. I opposed this bill and voted against the second reading, in a minority of three or four, as it appeared to me that we ought to have opinions and reports from other provinces besides Auckland, before we passed any measure which might, in different ways, cause a serious loss to the revenue of each separate Province, while it was also not to be expected, that the opinions of the merchants of Auckland alone' were to rule the colony. Though the second reading was carried, the bill was afterwards thrown out in Committee. I also voted against the second reading of the Electoral Districts' bill, which on the present Registration Lists, proposed to give to Auckland alone 21 members out of a house of 48, while the whole of the middle island was only to return 15. Such a proceeding appeared on the face of it monstrous, but it was also shown that while in the Southern settlements the Electoral Roll were defective, that of Auckland contained many names which had no business there; being either fictitious or those of men long skice departed this life, or the country. Mr. E.J. Wakefield here however differed from us and voted for the bill.

With regard to the Appropriation Bill, I must candidly confess it is not satisfactory. We were proceeding completely in the dark, without any ministers to lead the house, and in the absence of any information from the Government, we were obliged to take their word for what they wanted in many instances ; in others, such as the Post-office, the Representatives in each Province, asked for what their Province required, but where there was a doubt I invariably voted for cutting any item off the General expenditure, and throwing it on the Provinces who were the best judges of what they required.

Gentlemen, I have now compressed as shortly as possible, I fear too shortly to explain myself well, an account of my own votes and actions in the General Assembly. I regret that the amount of legislation by that body, has not been greater, but let the blame lie where it properly ought to do, aud 1 feel confidentyou will acknowledge that the side that our party took was the right one. It is with no feeling of shame, at all events, that I look back on the late meeting at Auckland. We showed that Responsible Governmentcould be carried on,and we also showed that the majority of the house were not such as could be led aside from their duty by specious arguments, or lavish promises. I trust gentlemen, that the next session may be more productive of practical good than" the last. We shall at ltast know whom we have to meet, and we will be prepared ; and as long as my humble services can be of any use, so long will I endeavour, honestly and consistently to vote and act in that line of policy which f trust will ultimately make my adopted country an example toils sister colonies and a successful proof of what we can become when emancipated from the despotism of the Colonial Office. I remain, Gentlemen, Your obedient humble servant' James Stuart Wortley-