THE TIMARU AND GLADSTONE BILL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2111, 26 September 1867, Page 2

THE TIMARU AND GLADSTONE BILL.

TO ran JDITOB or TUB LTTIELTOX lIHKS. Sir,—ln your leader of the ISth inst., I read " It is said upon good authority that Mr Cox had consented, upon representations made to him by Mr Moorhouse, not to bring forward the bill, but that he afterwards changed his mind. By this means he succeeded in getting the bill carried rapidly through the earlier •tages before the ordinary members of the House had time to make themselves fully acquainted with its drift, or the natural opponents of the measure to decide upon the course they should adopt." . You will allow me to say that the writer of the leader referred to has been wholly misinformed, if indeed the assertions and accusation contained therein are not altogether his own, arising out of an incomplete rumour. Immediately on determining to bring in a bill relating to the Timaru and Gladstone districts, I informed Mr Moorhouse of my intention, When in a position to state fully and - positively the principle and details of the measure now before the House, I again waited upon him, and for two or three successive days, conversed with him upon the whole question. Many times during those interviews, he requested me to forego n:y intention of bringing a bill into the Assembly, He admitted the case, so to speak, of Timaru —admitted the reasonableness of my demand on its behalf; but objected seriously, and said that he would ever object to what he deemed an unnecessary and unconstitutional interference with the functions of a Superintendent and Provincial Council. Holding as I did, and still do, that the General Assembly of New Zealand has a right to tike into its consideration any appeal made to it by any section of the colony, eren in matters pursly provincial—that the peculiar circumstances 'of the districts of Timaru and Gladstone justified the action that I was about to take, I was altogether unwilling to trust to the chapter of accidenti for the settlement of i question inrolring so large a principle. This was the extent of my yielding in reference to the bill. Your obedient servant, ALFBED COX. Wellington, Sept. 18, 1867.