WANGANUI.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 107, 22 February 1873, Page 4

WANGANUI.

(from our own correspondent.) February 15. What with races and provincial elections, this week might almost pass for one of carnival in Wanganui. Of the former, your readers have had perhaps enough already. The palmy days of racing in this quarter would seem to be past, and if the sport is not to fall entirely into the hands of rowdies and mere betting men, a more delicate sense of honor than distinguished the settlement of one or more of the events of the present meeting, and an improved tone of speech at public dinners and elsewhere must be aimed at. The elections were conducted for the most part in a proper spirit, but. I am bound to say that there was an aimlessness of political purpose about some of the contests, which hereafter will be more honored in the breach than the observance. Plenty of fighting showed itself, and fighting is a necessity, if not a virtue, when people have got anything worth fighting for and know it, but the fighting in these election cases was not so much for principles or proposals as for or against single individuals. The result, however, is that all the old members are returned, and one of them is again a member of the Provincial Executive. In connection with these returns it becomes a public duty to refer to the incorrect state of the electoral rolls. For the purpose of provincial elections, the Wanganui parliamentary roll has to be divided into three lists, namely, one for the town of "Wanganui, one for Kai Iwi district, and a third for Wangaehu, and these ought to be an accurate transcript of the original. In this instance, a terrible mess was made of the business, and voters were put on and struck off in the most absurd way imaginable. Men voted in the rural districts who had never owned or occupied an inch of land in any of them, and others voted in the town whose sole qualification lay in the country. Protests were lodged in several cases, but of course they went for nothing, unless perhaps their lodgment may lead to more care in the compilation of their electoral rolls in future, and in that event they will not be wholly useless. The ballot alone passed through the ordeal with credit, and until canvassing is put down it, too, must largely fail of its object. There seems no good reason why the practice should be continued. It is a practice degrading to the candidates who resort to it, inasmuch as they appear in the position of men begging for a personal favor, whereas, to use a homely phrase, “ the boot is on the other, leg.” Canvassing, on the other hand, opens a wide door to undue influences, and extorted promises lead to a painful amount of deception and falsehood. Candidates ought to be able to make their views known by addresses in the newspapers and by public meetings ; more than this is unnecessary. If the individual voters' were left perfectly free to give their support to whom they pleased without any solicitation or interference whatsoever we should certainly have a much nearer approach to that exemption from improper influence which is what the ballot seeks to attain. That we shall ever have a perfect system of voting is not to be expected, but it does not therefore follow that we should not strive to make it as free from error as possible. The settlers about Rangitikei begin to speculate as to why and wherefore there are no signs of work or preparation for work in connection with the bridge contracted for to cross the river at Bull’s. The work is one of great importance, not only to the two important districts it will connect together, but to the province generally, and the Government should see

that no unnecessary delay takes place in its commencement or progress; The Patea people have obtained another improvement consequent upon the Native Minister’s visit. They have always hitherto been unfortunate in the administration of law among them. Major Noake possessed none of the qualifications of a judge, and Major Turner, his successor, with the best intentions, will not take time'to consider points of law on which, in many instances, his decision ought to rest. Mr M ‘Lean, having had the facts brought before him, has arranged that Major Edwards shall hold a monthly court at Patea, which, until something more definite can be hit upon, will be a decided advance upon the present state of affairs. Everything progresses satisfactorily in native matters on the west coast.