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Lyttelton Times, Volume LIX, Issue 6875, 13 March 1883, Page 4

Mb Weston, who has retired from the representation of Inangahua, is very popular on the West Coast. His career as a District Judge having won him the public esteem, he found no difficulty, when his public career was over—he was one of the victims of the panic of 1879* 80—in entering political life. The judicial habit he carried with him into

hia Parliamentary work. At first, both sides claimed hito, and both pointed to hit election ap«e«hea. In the usual court© of things, one of the two < ud«l by ih« expression of disparaging opinions. But his otitic* did not h*v« the key to Mr Weston's mind. It turned out that following his judicial instinct, ha gate the Government, he found in office a fair trial, Hia addresses, curiously like the summing up of an impartial judge, had pledged him in reality to that course. The trial ho gave wu rather protracted; but if long tritls have not in these days becom© second nature to the judicial mind, it is not tho fault of the Bar and the attorneys. Having mado op his mind at last, ho gave judgment against tho Government, when reconstructed after tbo retirement of Sir John Hail, with no uncertain sound; and he regulated hia subsequent conduct strictly according to hia expressed judgment, wherein he has be* come entitled to be considered a shining light in these days of conviction without courage. Only once i* it recorded of him that he abandoned the judicial method for the advocate's manner. But the delicate attentions ho received from Mr Fish on that occasion, the occasion of his attack on the Otago Harbour Board, were not calculated to make him enamoured of the advocate's role. Hia constituents will hardly find a successor as popular with themiwlves. If they respect his judgment lis much as they do himself, they will take a man who, not believing in the Government, has the courage of hia oonviotioce. In Mr Weston they had a member who, without neglecting local intercuts, indulged a wide view of Colonial questions. Above all, they had a warm advocate of that great Colonial work, the West Coast Railway. All this, we imagine, they require in his successor.