ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1045, 26 August 1879, Page 2

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE OAMARU MAIL. Sir, —In your issue of Saturday appears a letter from Mr. Steward, in which he gives a version of the granting of the second member to Waitaki. I have a very distinct recollection of hearing another version, in which Mr. Steward took considerable credit to himself for the way he had worked the oracle in that matter. I was in the drillshed at a meeting of Mr. Steward's after the session of (I think) 1875, at least it was the first time he addressed his constituents after the second member was granted to Waitaki. He then stated that he hr.i used his influence with the Government successfully to have both members appointed for Waitaki, instead of one for pamaru town and one for Waitaki oountry. The reason he gave for his action on that occasion was as follows : " That the two members being elected for the same constituency, they would work harmoniously together, as they would necessarily be elected on the same ticket, and therefore would have more influence than if they were elected for different constituencies, as, in the event of their being so elected, there would be great danger of their going in opposition to one another, and so virtually disfranchising the district." I think that is slightly different from his account of it in the letter referred to in Saturday's issue; but it is easy to account for the discrepancy. At the time he made the speech I quote from, he was addressing the town electors; when he wrote the letter referred to he was replying to a country elector; and, if my memory of

what he said at the meeting referred to is correct, he has not stated the whole truth in the letter, so I am happy to be able to supply the missing portion.—l am, <fcc., An Elector from the Country.