Correspondence.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XV, Issue XV, 7 January 1857, Page 3

Correspondence.

To the Editor of the 'Nelson Examiner.'

Sir — The sudden and unexpected opposition that has been offered to the re-election of Mr. Muller for Waimea-east, induces me to request that you will allow me a small space in your next number, to address a few remarks to the electors of that district.

Brother Electors — The unusually short notice by which you are called upon to exercise your important duties as electors of this district, has led me to presume that you will pardon me if I take the liberty to point out to those of you who have not had time to think much upon the subject yourselves, the real position in which you are placed in this contest.

Our new Superintendent being required by an act of the Provincial Council to have a Provincial Secretary, has reappointed Mr. Muller. In so doing you must all be aware that he has not appointed a personal friend, or even a political supporter, and can therefore hardly be supposed to have been actuated by any other motive than a desire to promote the convenience and the interests of the province.

Our laws require that Mr. Muller should appeal to his constituents for re-election ; and some of those persons who appear anxious upon every occasion to show their animosity to Mr. Robinson, and to throw every possible obstacle in the way of his successful administration, have brought forward Mr. Kelling to oppose Dr. Muller's election, knowing that, if successful, they will not only prevent Mr. Robinson from obtaining what he considers the most efficient assistance, but will actually oblige him to meet the Provincial Council without any Secretary at all — the former tricks of Mr. Robinson's opponents having left no time before the sitting of the Council for the appointment and election of any other person.

It is not, therefore, simply a question of whether your lately elected Superintendent shall have nineteen or twenty opponents out of the twenty-four members in the Provincial Council, but whether he shall meet that Council under circumstances of unparalleled difficulty in a legal or illegal manner, and with the assistance that has been accorded in every other case.

And what does Mr. Kelling promise to do for our district, if you cause all this public inconvenience by electing him ?

In reply to questions put to him on the day of nomination — he would not promise to support the claims to compensation of those emigrants who had been cheated by the New Zealand Company ; he would not promise to try to alter the present system of letting the sheep-runs ; he would not promise to try to make the waste lands of this province, which are now divided amongst a favoured few, pay any part of the interest of the money by which those lands have been purchased ; he would not promise to vote for the alteration of the Country Roads Bill, so as to tax land and land-speculation, rather than improvements and productive industry. The only thing he would promise was, that he would do his best to transfer all power from that Council to which you can send any representatives that you please, to that Assembly in which the little settlement of Nelson is swamped by the large ones, and to which we can never get any representatives to go, but have been obliged to let any one go that would undertake to do so. Mr. Cautley assured me at the nomination that every German would vote for Mr. Kelling; but I am much mistaken if the Germans do not by this time know too much about politics, too much of the English language, ah ! and too much of Mr. Cautley too, to be now led by any of his generalship to sacrifice their own interest to that of the woolgrowers, or to make themselves ridiculous by attempting to thwart in his very first act the Superintendent for whom they have so lately recorded their votes.

I hope it is unnecessary for me to say that in these remarks I have no personal feeling towards either of the candidates. In any business transactions I have had with them, I have found both of them upright, honourable, and gentlemanly. To the personal friendship of either I have never been so ambitious as to aspire ; and I believe they have about equally looked upon me as a person too headstrong, too eccentric, and perhaps occupying too humble a cottage, and too little acquainted with Chesterfield, to stand in any such a position towards them. Nelson expects every man to do his duty. Yours, &c, Alfrkd Saunders.

January 6, 1857.

To tue Editor of the 'Nelsox Examiner.'

Sir — Possessing as yet no Richmond Chronicle, neither Applcby Gazette nor Hope Advertiser, we Waimea East electors are sometimes obliged to trespass on the columns of the provincial paper in the discussion of matters of local interest. I hope that, pending the establishment of one or the other of such local journals, you will continue to afford the occa-

sional use of the Examiner for the purpose of discussing any subject of more prominent interest among us, such as that on which I now wish to say a few words, the coming contest in this district for the election of a member for the Provincial Council.

You will learn from the proceedings at the nomination on Monday that there is a wish on the part of a few of the electors to set aside our old friend and representative, Dr. Muller (who has come before us for re-election), and that on grounds so insufficient and unworthy as to call for remonstrance from those who have the honour of the district at heart, and its character for intelligence and consistency. Against Dr. Muller as a man, as a citizen, and as a representative nothing was, because nothing could be, urged. The unswerving rectitude of his conduct, his devotion to and interest in everything connected with the material and moral advancement of those around him, and his conscientious and independent treatment of every question brought before the Provincial Council, places him far above this kind of attack. The objections brought against him are quite of a different character : he is assailed as a " nominee," a " stranger," and one who is no "farmer."

The first charge is intended to have reference to Dr. Muller's appointment as Provincial Secretary, the holding of which office is asserted to be inconsistent with due attention, and even involving absolute hostility, to the interests of the people of this district. Now to form a fair estimate of the force of this objection, let us consider the operation of the Constitution under which we live. The whole people of the province in the first place select from among themI selves that one whose opinions, after severe scrutiny, they deem most nearly to coincide with their own, whose acts they believe will be j most conformable to the general wish, and ! whoseconduct of affairs will be most calculated Ito promote the general welfare. They place him at the head of the province, decorate him with the title of Your Honour, and wish him God speed. They also select a certain number of men in whose judgment, integrity, and devotedness they think they can confide, to co-operate with him in the devising such measures as the public good seems to require. When these Provincial Councillors conclude their deliberations, and return to their homes, one of them is retained by his Honour under i the name of Provincial Secretary, to assist him | witli hand and head, and to carry on with him the good work to which they both are severally pledged — the furthering to the utmost the moral and material progress of the whole people. In what respect then do the duties of this people-elected representative, while assisting the people-elected Superintendent under the name of Provincial Secretary, necessarily, or even probably conflict with their rights ? and how do they prevent the fullest consideration of the interests of that section of the people by whom he is elected ? As to the second charge, that of Dr. Muller's being a stranger, I am at a loss to know what sort of a stranger he can be who has long and recently resided in the very midst of us, to whom nearly all of us are individually known, and to whom we all have been and still are proud and happy to extend the right hand of fellowship. Our district reaches, I believe, to the little ditch near Mr. Rowbotham's on the way to Nelson. Is every one living on the other side of this ditch necessarily a stranger ? If so, then I know of one stranger who has, with much more care, fidelity, vigilance, and ability, represented our interests in the Provincial Council, than one who is geographically entitled to the appellation of friend. But I am afraid that there is growing among us too much of this narrow spirit of district patriotism. Dr. Muller at any rate has served us exactly as well, with as full an appreciation of and attention to our wants and wishes, as if he still continued to reside within the sacred limits, i

But the third charge is of a more serious nature. Dr. Muller is no fanner. Dr. Johnson tells us

"Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat," and by a clear analogy "Who makes laws for farmers, he himself should farm."

It had evidently never occurred to Dr. Muller to study " Stephens' s Book of the Farm," and other constitutional authorities, as a means of qualifying himself for a legislator. Perhaps the only apology to be made (and one is undoubtedly required) is, that we can never hope to find every possible merit concentrated in one representative, and his friends had better at once candidly admit the fact that he has not that thorough acquaintance with pigs, pitchforks, and dung-carts, that should distinguish a rural representative.

I am, &c, A Farmer and no Stranger.

Nelson, Ist of January, 18-56. To tuk Editor of tue 'Nelso>" Examiner. 1 Sir

In your Supplement to the Nelson Examiner you found it sufficient to wrote my name under the Medical Practioners with M.D. —

Although I do not ask for any satisfaction for a willful mistake ;

I wish, you would have the kiudness to favor me in future with that justice, which any one claims, that you ia using my name would use it properly. Your most affectionate T. B. Thebing, Med. and Surg. Dr. Physician, Surgeon rtnd Accoucheur.

Appeal to a Jury. — Gentlemen*. of the jury, I quote from Shakspeare when I say to you, "To be or not to be licked — that's the question." My client is a national stump machine — he flings his wrath in pailfuls, and it is dangerous to run a snag against his interests. Let me be made fodder for a fool, and chowder for a powder mill if he is guilty, notwithstanding the criminal absurdities alleged against him. Do you believe that my client is so destitute of the common principle of humanity, so full of the fog of human nature, so wrapped up in the moral insensibility of his being, as deliberately to pick up a tater, and throw it at the nasal protuberance of the prosecutor ? No, not while you can discern a star in the northern sky, while the waters of the Ohio roll, and tho raoe of buffaloes nestle on the Rocky Mountains, this immutable principle I will remain, that my client is a gentleman, tater or no tater. — American paper.