Page 4 Advertisements Column 3

Otago Witness, Issue 299, 22 August 1857, Page 4

> TOWN DISTRUST ELECTION. , . \ Dunedin, August 18, 1857, To Me. W Lambeet. ■, , ;,', i t • SIB, — We the undersigned Electors , of the Town of Dunedin, being,,desirous of asserting the independence of the constituency, and of marking our sense of the Value arid' importance of consistency on the part of public, men ; being anxious, moreover, to prove that the constituency is not to be made a tool of, in order to serve the purpose of any party, or coalition of parties, beg very respectfully to request that you will allow yourself to be nominated as our Representative in the Provincial Council at the forthcoming Election. We have made choice of you, in order to show that we object to, the public funds being squandered upon unnecessary appointments, and that we believe the existing salaried officials are in number more than sufficient to govern a population much larger than this Province at present possesses. We have a thorough confidence in the independence and soundness of your judgment, in' the integrity and uprightness of your ' character, and in your common sense — characteristics which we greatly desiderate in those to whom we would entrust the functions of legislation. We feel assured that, in your hands, the public interest will predominate over private feeling, and that you have neither the need nor the inclination to sacrifice the common weal to your own personal necessities. With these feelings we earnestly hope that you will comply with our request; in< which case you may rely upon our interest and earnest exertions to secure your return. We have the honour to be, &c, William Purdie, M.D. Thomas Reynolds, sen. Thomas Reynolds, jun. J araes Paterson Robert Crainond David Adam James Brown George Crawford John Gallic George Hepburn John William Feger Robert Barnes Twelftree David Nichol James Reid William Barr Hugh Davidson William Mills John Sibbald John Healey Thomas Mathew James Souness Andrew Boyes George Proudfoot John Hill John Leek Charles Lorimer John Duncan Angus M'Diarmid James Loper George Duncan John Flanagan Andrew Summers William Simpson John Murray William Alexander James Barr Charles Brotherston William Henry Alexander Duncan Sinclair. Dunedin, August 19, 1857. fi ENTLEMEN,— I beg respectfully to ac\JT knowledge tbe receipt of a Requisition signed by 39 electors, with which you have honoured me, requesting me to become a Candidate for the vacant seat in the Provincial Council as one of your representatives. It is, I assure you, with no little diffidence that I place myself in your hands, %on purely public grounds. I have no private purpose to serve, nor feeling to gratify ; and under ordinary circumstances, I certainly should not have felt warranted in taking a position which would have been more fitly occup ed by one who was better known to you, and who, by his past public conduct, had established a stronger claim to your confidence. ,Tha<-,, however, is a subject more for your consideration than my own ; and much as I regret being placed in opposition to some whom I highly respect, the necessity for a decided stand has arisen, and that necessity I conceive to be imperative. I have therefore no choice but to yield to your decision. It is quite unnecessary, Gentlemen, for me to enter upon a recapitulation of the circumstances which have led to the resignation of your late representative. With these you are all familiar — at least so far as they are permitted to transpire— but I may, perhaps, be permitted briefly to state my reasons for dissenting from the recent changes in the Government. I believe it to be altogether at variance with the spirit of the Constitution that salaried officers should be created during the recess of the representatives of the people, but more especially is this objectionable when no public grounds can be alleged in justification of such a proceeding. I fully admit the principle that public servants should be liberally paid ; but I maintain that in making public appointments, it should not only be considered whether there are duties to be performed, but also whether the party to whom they are entrusted will faithfully perform them ; and I trust the day is far distant when the men of Otago will tamely submit to a system of nepotism which, has long been universally acknowledged as one of the most crying abuses of the mother country, and the introduction of which into a young and struggling colony cannot be too strongly deprecated. There is another and a most serious aspect in which we are called upon to view the late re-organi-zation of the Government. As is well known to you, the negotiations with regard to the loan proposed to be raised on the guarantee of the Imperial Government are believed to have failed, which will necessitate a re-arrangement of the financial policy ■.of the General Government at the next meeting of the Assembly. The injustice with which this Province has ever been treated, and the jealousy which has been exhibited towards it by the other Provinces, are patent to all. What, then, are we to expect for the future ? And, in anticipation of that future, ought we not to be united as one man, in defence of our Constitutional rights against any attempted encroachments ? But to effect this union, confidence in those at the head of affairs is indispensable ; and that confidence cannot be commanded by the coalition of those who have hitherto been so diametrically opposed to each other, b t ut who now constitute the Government. Brought together in consequence of a pretended difficulty in carrying on the Government, arising, not from a constitutionally expressed, but from an unconstitutionally presumed division of opinion in the Provincial Council, it must fall at the first shock, or quickly crumble to pieces from the incongruity of its .materials, leaving those interests, which it was its function to foster, and protect, a prey to the first attack from without, or to internal discord and confusion. ' ' ' Many subjects of importance have for some time -occupied the public attention, aud have been the subjects of legislation, upon which there is much