THE POLITICS OF THE REV. JAMES BULLER AND HIS SON.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1282, 14 November 1857, Page 2

THE POLITICS OF THE REV. JAMES BULLER AND HIS SON.

A “ Notice to Correspondents ” in our issue of Wednesday, will have prepared our readers for the flippant letter from the pHrtical Wesleyan Minister, which wo print to day. That gentleman attacks Mr. Wakefield as the author of the resolution passed at a public n eeting. condemning Mr. Buller for his denunciation from the pulpit of the cause of “ Radical Reform.” He attacks us, first, for stating—as be alleges, tvithoul the shadow of evidence — that an election soring address to the Otaki Manries in favor of Dr. Featherston's policy, signed by Messrs. Brandon and Schultze,was “probably written by the Rev. James Buller or his son:" secondly, for not having reported the sons statement at the public meeting that his father's sermon was in tho hands of the printer. As to the last charge, it will be seen that the length of the report of that meeting obliged us to leave a portion of it for a future opportunity. That portion was printed in our last issue, and commenced with the statement in question. With regard to his first charge against us, we cannot, it is true, furnish direct evidence of that, which we only asserted to be probable. But we call the attention of our readers to the following letter from Mr. Buller, junr., in his character of Interpreter to the Police Court, to a Maori elector at Otaki, and to tl.e accompanying translation : and we confidently appeal to the public as to whether we had fair grounds for our conjecture : — Poneke, 15 o Oketopa, 18.57. E HOA, F. HbNAKE, Hi*. Nupepa enei ka tae atu ki a koe —ma teßa<r® nß c hoatu. Ko tc korero o roto o alia Nupepa ko t« korero mo te huihuinga pakeha i te Mane kite M nr *‘ whiri i tctald rangalira (Hupariteneti) mo tatou. Ko e mea i hoatu ai nga Nupepa ki enei tangata,—kua noho o ratou ingoa ki roto o te Pukapuka Ingoa o tekawanatanga; no te timatanga o te Cuu i whakanoho ßl 1 roto. Ko ratou te haere mai ki tetuhi i o ratou ingoa, hei te Mane, —ko ratou anake, ngatal'i me nga pal-ei'i. Me taliuri katoa koutou kite whakaae ki a Tal.nta etitone hei Rangatira mo tatou. Kua ki'e ke t»" u tona ritenga atawhai ki nga Maori kite pakeha, 1 oa whakuaro pai katoa, i roto i nea luu kua paluire ueiTena, ko te tan lieu nei,—ko Weiehi.—e nT ßlja etahi Ida whnknrangatiratia hei liwhi mo lakuta " tone, —knwai c inohia ki a ia, he t'oigatu pid rauei. • tutua ranei? whakaae pea koutou katoa ki to a rangatira pai, kia Takuta Petitonu. , Mau e tono i tetuhi tangata kite kawe i nguN 1 i

nei Id nga kninca baton. Ha lite wawe ai nga Itorcro ki tign tangata, hei wliaUmarama i a ratou mo tend maid nui. Me Mere ia kite Uwe—i te atatu tonu ote Mane, -I'kia rouge wawe ai nga tangata ; no te men hei te w/ia o nga haora o te aliiahi mutu rawa ai te rnnlii tiihitulii. Ko te ulu mo tana tangata mo tana maid kin kntalii te ian liereni. Mau e utu, nn tuuku e utu atu ki a koe Otirn, kite pai koe man atio e kawe, na ko ago utu me boatu eauki a 1 oc. Heol r* kel akoe te wbakaaro mo tern. Kei wareware koe ki take kupu nei—kia I alia tonu te haerc ki nga l.ainga katoa i to atatu tonu ano. kia rongo wawe ai ratou,—kei liaere moi ratou ite aliiahi. na kua mutu te muhi tuhituhi hei reira pouri ai ratou' Ma te koi kawe merit ano e hart atu nga Nupeua mo nga kai hol.o—hei te Mane. lleoiuno, na to hoa, NA TE PURA, Kai Whakamaori Wellington, October IG, 1857. Tiur.ND Ur.NBT, lam sending you Home newspapers. Mr. Hayden will give them to you. There is an article in those papers about t lie election on Monday of a Chief (Supe--intendent) for us. The reason why these newspapers are addressed to these people is because their names are in the Electoral toll; their names were entered in it in the beginning of the year; they only are the persons In sign the voting papers on Monday" together with the white people. You nni-t all of you vote for Dr. Featherston as a Chief for us. We have all of us known his kindness to the Maories as well as the whites, and all his goad intentions during past years. Hut as to this newcomer. Welch, whom some wish to make into a Chief to succeed Dr. Featherston,—who knows any thine about him, whether he is a good man or whether he is a snob ? You had better all of you vote for our good Chief Doctor Feathers'on. Send somebody to deliver the papers that the information may reach them early, to enlighten them on this important subject He must go early on Monday morning, that they may soon bear; because the polling will be over nt four o’clock in the afternoon. He will receive ten shillings; you can pay it, and I will repay you : or if you prefer it you can deliver them yourself, and I will pay you: but you can do as you please about that. Do not forget what lam now telling you: be sure to go to all their dwellings ver y early in the morning that they may hear early, lest they should come line in the evening, and find the polling over, and then they will be sorry. The mail will take out the newspapers to subscribers ou Monday. This is all from your friend BULLER, Interpreter.

The sentiments in this choice letter are almost word for word those in Brandon ami Schultze's address. It will be for the Pro viucial Council, when assembled,.to judge how far the Interpreter to the Police Court is justi fieri in writing, under bis official designation, partiznn canvassing letters to the mnori elec tors, and in employing the Deputy Returning Officer to carry then; partizan newspapers A letter so signed, and newspapers so conveyed, may fairly be believed to have the greate influence upon the uninstructed minds of tipnatives, that they would suppose them to be sent by the authority of the Resident Mugistrate and Principal Returning Officer. That question, we repeat, it will be for the Council to take notice of, when it discusses the extent to which Government officers should be allowed to use the influence of their office for or against any candidate. All that we have to do, is to show how " probable ” it is that Mr Buller's son, who did write the al ove letter in favor of Dr. F. atlierston and against Dr. Welch, also wrote the address in favor of Dr. F.. and against Dr. Welch and Mr. Wakefield, which we attributed to him or his father, so much to the father’s irritation. Mr. Wakefield is, no doubt, well able, to justify and defend his conduct in obtaining from the public meeting a resolution eon demnatory of Mr. Buller's political preaching. We must however extract two brief sentences from the Sermon, as now published by Mi. Buller. Be it remembered that the Sermon was prea-hed on the Ist of November : and that on the sth a contested election was to take place between Government Candidates on one side, and, on the other, Candidates who had assumed the title of -Radical reformers. ’ Mr. Buller says (p. 11). “ What is commonly called a Radical, either in religion or politics, is a dangerous diameter. It is subversive of all order, and government, and law. It? ‘end is destruction.* It is opposed equally to the teaching of scripture and the interests of society.” Affain. at page 12, Mr. Buller treats his congregation to the following extract from Andrew Fuller’s tract on “Civil Polity.” pie ceding it by high praise of the writer and his sentiments, and by saying that “biswords are wot thy of our serious regard at the present time ” :— 41 The Government may be wrong in pursuing certain measures, but it is tiot from their being accused of it by interested men that we ousrlit to believe it. Those who arc now in power were lately in the opposition, and then they were patriots,.nnd everything was g» ing to min. There never was a period in British history when, in the opinion of the Opposition, let that Oppo sitinn be on which side it might, the nation was not going to ruin, and when its humble adht-tents did not think so.”

It appears to us that no language can too strongly describe the. two Messrs. Buller, father and son. as political partisans : the one using hi- pulpit, and the oilier the influence of his official situation, to support one parly in Provincial politics, and di-noui.ee the other.