NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, November 18, 1857.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1283, 18 November 1857, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND SPECTATOR AND Cook's Strait Guardian. Wednesday, November 18, 1857.

The elections for the Provincial < ouueil are nearly over. The only places from which returns have not yet been received are Wanganui and \huriri The Wairr.rapa Election was decided by tl-.e Returning Officer’s easting vote, which' was given against Mr. Revans, the numbers voting for Mr Borlaso and Mr. Revans being equal ; so that the report of Mr. Revans’ rejection which we referred to in our last numher is now re iuced to an absolute eertaint-. in the nieautime, just at this particular juncture, the Superintendent, it is said, is gone to Ahuriri, accompanied by his aide decamp Mr. Dudley Ward, recently appointed to the judicial office of Chairman of the Quarter Sessions; as it happened just before the elections that Mr. Fox had occasion to go to Wanganui. 'Without pretending to decide what particular uigent public affairs require that the Superintendent should be absent from Wellington, there are one or two recent circumstances that may help to direct our speculations on the subject. One of these is Major D'Arcy’s dismissal from his office as Paymaster of the road parties, which Ims been done in the most arbitrary, abrupt, summary, and ungracious manner possible. On Monday morning. Major D'Arcy receives the following letter, the Superintendent having started on his journey the previous Saturday :—this is the first intimation he receives that any change was contemplated with respect to his office Superintendent's Office, Wellington, 14th November, 1857. Sia, —As the Mekara, the Oiiarin and the Ngahaurunga roads will be completed within a few weeks, and the men in present employed upon them removed in all probability to Ha-.-ke’s Bay and the Rangilikei; and as there is no prospect of tiny considerable immigration. during lire neat twelve months, I purpose combining the office of Paymaster with that of Registrar of Immigration. You will therefore have the goodness to understand that your services will not be required after the 31st of December. I have the honor to be, Sir. Your most obedient Servant. I. E. Featherston, Superintendent. Major D'Arcy, Paymaster, &c. File reasons assigned for this step arenotverv clear or relevant. The inference from them seems to be either that the two offices ought to have been combined in the first instance.; or that the office of Registrar of I inmigration should now be dispensed with. If there is no prospect of any immigration for the next 12 months there can be no necessity for a Regis, trar of Immigration; while if the working parties are removed further into the country the paymaster, (who by the bye was the officer first appointed) if lie resides at Wellington, will have more journeys to perform, and have more to do than he hud before. But if tl., , are tne ostensible reasons, there may be other.. which, though not given, may have been more conclusive with the Superintendent to making this change Major D'Arcy voted for Dr. I l ',-.-, therston as Superintendent, bnt d>d not vote mr the Government cin iidates for Wellington, and abstained from taking any purl in the election for members of the Provincial Council. Mr. Holdsworth has proved himself to be a thick and thin supporter of the Government party and was one of the ii Ist. It cannot create much surprise, then, that Major D’Arcy should be rejected, and Mr. Holdsworth retained, by the Superintendent. But there is something eke in the letter which, as we previously intimated, may help us in accounting for the Superintendent’s sudden j.-uiney. We are told in the letter that, -'the men at present employed about Wellington will be removed in all prob ability to Hawke’s Bay and Rangitiki.” And the last IVanganui Chronicle, immediately befire the voting took place, was careful to inform its readers "on unquestionable authority" that the contracts for the Wanganui bridge and roads would "bo issued bv the Go vernment with the least possible delay.” In his addresson being re-elected, the Superintcn dent admitted he had sustained a signal defeat in the Town, and ascribed his re-election to the support he had received from the Country districts. Ahuriri hitherto has always had to complain of the neglect of th:; Provincial Government ; —bnt the country voters play an important part in the election of Superintendent,, and must bo propitiated, especially when it is by nomeans improbable that a fresh writ for the election of Superintendent will bo issued. The Superintendent knows ho can confidently reckon on the support of the Wanganui voters, but he finds it ncccssary to ingratiate himself with the Ahuriri settlers, who wore not very long ago described by him as a set of grumblers, and who now must bo conciliated by a profusion of promises, lhese straws serve to show the direction of tho current, these little incidents put together

help us to arrive at a reasonable conjecture as to the probable reasons for the Superintendent's sudden journey and the policy he is likely to pursue, which seems from these intimations to be—tin attempt to play the Country Districts off against the Town with a view to strengthen his present position.