THE RECENT MEETING.

Marlborough Express, Volume III, Issue 106, 7 March 1868, Page 4

THE RECENT MEETING.

To the Editor of the Marlborough Express. Sir, —The length of time occupied by several of the speakers at the meeting on Monday night, prevented me from expressing my humble opinion on the merits of the Municipal Corporations Act. It is much to be regretted that a subject so simple in itself should have been so mystified, and rendered so difficult to deal with, through the foreign channel into which the discussion drifted. I have no doubt that in assuming my present position, I shall not make friends in either party, for however truth may be praised in the abstract, it too frequently has a bitter flavor when practically applied. As a comparative stranger in Blenheim, I can have no personal animus, so if I “nothing extenuate,” I shall “set down nought in malice.” In the first place, I may here observe, that some persons seem to think that the object of all public meetings must be a noise, and nothing but a noise, while others with equally bad taste, consider an assembly of the people an eligible opportunity of displaying their extremely small wit. The ostensible object of the meeting was, I thought, to consider the merits of a certain Act of the General Assembly, but through the clever tactics of Mr. Sinclair, it became “ the battle of the Blenheim Board.”

It was admirable generalship to shift the onus of the attack on to the members of the Board. I do consider that the first meeting having been adjourned on Mr. Sinclair’s motion, that he ought in the spirit of fair play to have opened the business on Monday night. Mr. Moffitt, however, went to the point at once, and his observations were as thoroughly confined to the subject as could be desired. Mr. Henderson’s speech, in seconding Mr. Moffitt’s resolution, was bold, manly, and straightforward, but at the same time the greater part of it was as irrevelant to the objects of the meeting as a lecture on matrimony or domestic medicine. I fully agree witli Mr. Dobson’s view of the case that the meeting should first decide whether the Act was worth adopting or not, and then discuss the best means of obtaining it. The Board of Works has evidently been placed in a very unpleasant position, and I may here remark that among all the various phenomena which nature presents to my wondering gaze, there is none that more effectually puzzles me than the peculiar characteristics of my own countrymen—l mean Englishmen in general, and New Zealand colonists in particular. In our ordinary business there are few—very few—who act upon the cold, worldly—l may say cruel—maxim of treating every man as a rogue till we find him honest. A certain amount of confidence is quite essential to trade ; but if a man aspires to serves his country, or proposes a public good—that moment does he become the butt, at which the shafts of “envy, hatred, malice, and uncharitableness ” are sure to be hurled ; his words are sifted to find some hidden meaning, and his public actions are denounced as cloaks to some private end. Such appears to have been the case with the Blenheim Board—yet, strange to say, neither Mr. Sinclair, Mr. Collie, nor Mr. Gorrie made out anything like a clear case against the integrity of the Board’s proceedings, that they (or it) may have treated Mr. Collie discourteously, is nothing to the point. It is easy to assert in vague and general terms that any public body is extravagant or corrupt, but these assertions should be backed by proofs and figures. As to the silly observation of individuals, who shout from an obscure corner of the room, they are only worthy of the contempt which every honest man awards to cowardice and spleen. In reviewing Mr. Henderson’s speech, I feel bound to say that as an impeachment of Mr. Sinclair’s policy, it was as free from anything like “ Billingsgate” or vulgar abuse, as possible. Mr. Sinclair’s opinion to the contrary, notwithstanding. I have at many meetings, large and small, rich and poor, and 1 cannot remember hearing so much “ Billingsgate,” as the “lie direct,” until Monday night, nor greater personal insults, than were offered by Mr. Sinclair to Mr. James Robinson and Mr. [?]. Mr. Sinclair is certainly not so grand an elocutionist that he has room to ridicule Mr. Robinson, as we had more than one specimen of a “ bumming noise.” As I fear to intrude further on your time and space at present, I may ask the favour of resuming the subject in your columns next week, should 1 not be prevented by business or health. —I am, sir, yours, &c., Philo-Vekitas. Blenheim, March 3rd, 1868.