THE WELLINGTON ELECTION.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume XII, Issue 1289, 9 December 1857, Page 4

THE WELLINGTON ELECTION.

[From the Southern Cross, Nov. 24, 1857.] A short while since, we offered some remarks upon the revolution that has taken p’ace in public opinion. To this we were incited by what was described as a virtual defeat, suffered by Dr. Featherston, in the City of Wellington, which was formerly his stronghold. The virtual defeat, "hen the country votes polled in the city were subtracted from the bona fide city votes, turned out to have been a real one; still, none but those behind the scenes —if even they—could have been prepared.for the utter overthrow of the dominant party which took place at the elections to the Provincial Council. The city of Wellington returns twelve members to Council; out ofall the twelve seats, the Government candidates were unable to securea single one. The numbers polled by the respective candidates will be found in another part of our columns. We are altogether unable to understand this result; there is more in it than meets the eye. We were aware of a growing discontent, and of various causes fur it, but were quite unprepared for such a total overthrow as this. Let us hope that some of our Wellington friends may yet inform us of what we are unlikely to learn from either of the local journals—may give us le mot de Venigme—supply us with the key to the mystery. For there is evidently apolitical lesson to be learned, if the book be only opened at the right page. It has now become clear that had the right man been brought forward, instead of Dr Welch, tbe newly elected Superintendent would have been beaten. But Dr. Featherston did come in, upon the squatting interest ; and then, the marvel is, that be did not succeed in getting a favourable Council. For in the city, he was himself only slightly in a minority; and there can be no doubt that the result of the Superintendency election influences the subsequent elections to the Council to a very high degree. The difficulty of accounting for so marked a c hange in the opposite direction is lessened, though not altogether done away with by the fact that an influential section in the city, denominated, we believe, the Stokes-Hunter party, declined to vote at all, for the Superintendency ; being politicallyopposed to Dr. Featherston, but fearing to compromise themselves by going in roundly for Dr. Welch, who is said to be, at the least, a very ineligible candidate. In regard, however, to the Provincial Council elections, they were under no restraint, and threw their whole weight into the scale.

The ostensible causes of the defeat of the Government party, (for it is understood that they will lose four seats at the Hutt, and that they have no chance of securing more than ten, cu‘ of the thirty members of which the Council is composed,) so far as we can gather them, are these: Firstly, the bullying tone, to which we have before adverted, assumed by the principal officers of Government in conducting the business of the Province. There is no doubt that they were intolerant of any opinions but their own, and that like all other extravagent radicals, they were tyrants at heart. Profuse in flattery of those who were content to obey, they were relentless in persecution of those who presumed to differ. Secondly, that the Governmenthad blinded their eyes to the signs of the times. We are informed that up to the eleventh hour, they were quile unaware of the position in which they really stood. They were so very strong during the earlier portion of their official career—for the Wellington Government was then by far the most firmly based of any in the Colony—that the Nebuchadnezzar spirit infected them, Wellington being to them, “ Great Babylon, which they had builded.” Thirdly, that many votes were turned by the manner in which the question that arose concerning the demand of a poll for Dr. Featherston, when he lost the show of hands, —substantially tbe same as that which arose in Auckland, at Colonel Wynyard’s election, was dealt with. The poll appears to have been demanded, not by the candidate himself, or by six electora on his behalf; but by Mr. Fitzherbert on behalf of Dr. Featherston. We are unwilling to say much about what afterwards became a serious matter, until more precise particulars shall have reached us. But the ground first taken in support of the formality was this,-— that Dr. Featherston was present; and that therefore any ejector could formally demand a poll for him. This is clearly wrong ; the candidate must

J make the demand himself, or else six electors i must make it for him. The subsequent plea was ( that six electors did demand a poll. This is something like the debtor’s double plea admissible in ’ law, —firstly, that he was never indebted ; secondly; that he paid the bill. We are informed, indeed, i that when the result of the show of hands was de- ! dared, many persons in the ctowd called out poll, poll; but what is required by the regulations is, ‘hat a poll should be demanded by six electors; and unless the Returning Officer shall have ascertained, of his own knowledge, that six persons who are really electors join in the demand, he cannot proceed to take the poll. Fourthly, the Superintendent’s hasty and most indiscreet declaration, that he would not submit to the voice of the constituency in the matter. For it must be observed, that that voice at Wellington i<s able to find expression. The constituency at Wellington is not swamped, as in Auckland, by false votes; the electoral roll is not complained of and, as far as we can learn, is unconlamina'ed. I'he Superintendent declared—as it appears to us at a distance, by way cf a threat, in the desire of influencing the elections, that “ the maj rity of persons put forward to oppose him were utterly untrustworthy—that they were notorious gamblers —tbe plunderers of widows and orphans; and that he must and would not call to his Executive Council men who were utterly unworthy of his confidence.” Really,* for a professional demagogue, (we use the word in no offensive sense towards one who loses no opportunity himself of insisting upon the extreme liberality of his principles,) for one of the party which considered “cuffs and collars,’’ worn by servants of the House of Representatives, as a degrading badge of servitude, the cloven foot is put forward a little too far in advance. Lord Jeffrew said of blue stockings, that be did not object to them, provided the petticoats were long enough to hide them ; neither are we disposed to quarrel even with a red hot radical for a small cleft in bis foot, provided that he pay society the compliment “J wearing a Hoby bnotover it—that hesimulat* consistency though he have it not--that although he may indulge exclusivism in private, still not a breath of it shall publicly escape his lips; but we do expect every man, in his official capacity. L* act up to his public professions, in otder that 'hose who placed him in office in ay nor have been deceived, or be able to reproach him with having lured their votes from them under false pretences. Our own principles are diametrically opposed to those of the Wellington Superintendent ; till we understand how to respect what is consistently and conscientiously acted up to. What we ask for, is, a reality ; an utter abnegation of shams as a stepping stone to power. And what we preach, we practice; we avow our own principles boldly, carrying them out to their ultimate and logical consequences. The Superintendent of Wellington “will not call to his Executive men who are utterly unworthy of his confidence.” But what, if they obtain the confidence of the constituency, under an uncorrunt roll ? He sets at nought the opinion of a constituency, by which he was himself elected. It would not greatly surprise us now to see him appropriate the " skipper and crew ■’ simile, from our Auckland Superintendent; or adopt it as a theme from which to elaborate an address to the Council. We have always ridiculed the idea of introducing the principle of ministerial responsibility, through a responsible Executive, into Provincial Governments. It savours too much ofLilliput, or Little Pedlington. Moreover, we have alwaysbeen of opinion that a Superintendent should be made to work—not to sit in state like a puppet, for the strings to be nulled by responsible advisers. But that which we had always surmised, is now demonstrated ; —that when the Wellington Superintendent surrendered his executive power to the Council, he did so with the mental reservation that they were not to exercise it. He was to nominate his own Executive, and the Council were to call it their own. We have said that Dr. Featherston’s speech was indiscreet; we should raiher have said that, under the circumstances, it was mad. This will have been the second time that he has ruined his parly by talking a little to fast. Fifthly—and in this tbe Superintendent’s party are sinned against—that both Dr. Welch and Mr. Jerningham Wakefield betrayed symptoms of political gambling with the waste lands of the Province. This was the great danger, under a system of elective Superintendencies, of handing over the control of the waste lands to the Provincial Governments. V* here the carcase is, there the young eagles (legepolius, vultures) will be gathered together. It has been proved only too clearly, that a large number uf votes can he secured, at any time, by sacrificing posterity, and promise of immediate division of the spoil.