THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1865. THE ELECTION SPEECHES.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 769, 7 March 1865, Page 2

THE COLONIST. NELSON, TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1865. THE ELECTION SPEECHES.

Few public men could have found themselves in a more difficult position on a public platform than did Mr. Saunders, after listening to Mr. Barnicoat's speech, on Friday last. "With the knowledge of Mr. Barnicoat's political opinions and conduct on public questions, which his experience in our Provincial Council for the last nine or ten years has given to Mr. Saunders, he, like ourselves, must have been astonished afe the expression of views so totally opposed to those which Mr. Barnicoat, and the vast majority of those who have brought him forward, have for so long a time advocated and pi'ofessed. Mr. Disraeli and his party, during the last short Derby Administration, was taunted by the Whigs with catching the former Ministry bathing, and running away with their clothes, because, to draw support they adopted many of the measures which out of office they had strongly condemned. Mr. Barnicoat, in his speech on Friday, has just done as barefaced a thing. His supporters are the men who with hardly an exception, in and out of the Council, bitterly, and with unreasoning enmity, opposed the late Superintendent. Mr. Barnicoat " exercises his memory," and he finds that the opinions and principles which Mr. Robinson held carried him triumphantly through many contests, and he "invents" for himself a policy as like to that of Mr. Robinson as he can make it in general terms, without committing himself to those details which show at once conversancy with the subjects, and prove them to be part and parcel of a man's political being. He adopts a policy entirely antagonistic to that to which his supporters cling. Even Mr Stafford, who did what he could to rob the electors of the power of listening to his fluent speech on Friday, carefully guarded and vaguely general as that speech was, committed both himself and Mr. Barnicoat. He alluded to his differences from Mr. Robinson's policy, and everyone knows that these differences were and are strong enough. Yet he praised Mr. Barnicoat as every way fitted for the office of Superintendent; and the opponents of the late Mr. Robinson tender to that gentleman their warm support. Now, either Mr. Barnicoat has changed his opinions, or Mr. Stafford and the long list of persons who think with him have changed theirs, and are prepared to adopt the policy which Mr. Barnicoat now praises, boasting as he does of the confidence reposed in him by Mr. Robinson; or, if not, they support Mr. Barnicoat because they expect that his newly-found opinions will not last long; and that in him they hope to find a ready representative of that selfish and reckless policy which Mr. Robinson and his friends strenuously withstood, and thus preserved the province from ruinous debt and social suffering. But we know that the opinions of that party have not changed, and that frequent defeat has only embittered their opposition.

If Mr. Barnicoat really held sentiments which appear to be so nearly akin to those of the late Superintendent, it was certainly a curious way of showing his concurrence by opposing him even at his last election, and voting against his policy on all occasions when in questions of vital importance to the province, Mr. Barnicoat, as Speaker of the Council,had an opportunity of recording his vote in Committees. We enjoy a good memory, and, casting back to the night of 30th July, 1863, we find that in committee on the proposal (how shall we now, in the light of nearly two years' experience, characterise this tremendous scheme ?) to carry a railway to the "Western Eanges, Mr. Barnicoat, by his one vote, secured a majority in favor of that scheme, which is now acknowledged to be the most injudicious that was ever proposed in this province. This is one strong case implicating the judgment, calculation, finance, and business capacity of the Speaker, who now claims to hold with those whom he thus opposed on a question of such great import to the welfare of the province. Not one word of railways does he say now. It is " dray roads, horse roads, tracks, and even mere blazed lines," that Mr. Barnicoat now professes to advocate, as the necessary means of rendering land accessible, which had not been so hitherto. Why, this was the policy of Mr. Robinson and his Government all along; but it suited those with whom Mr. Barnicoat voted, to denounce these as " mud tracks," "blind tracks," and useless; and to say that railways were what was required. Circumstances alter cases, yet we should be glad to see Mr. Barnicoat explain the contradictory position in which he places himself.

There is one statement made by Mr. Barnicoat which it is our duty to notice. That gentleman says: —"I shared largely the confidence of the late Superintendent. He offered me the office of Provincial Secretary, which would have carried with it a seat in the Executive." This is an appeal for votes from electors who supported Mr. Eobinson's opinions which wecannot silently pass. "We must view it as "an inaccuracy on a matter of fact," and besides it is stated in such a way as is calculated to convey an impression more incorrect than even the words themselves. The office of Provincial Secretary in itself was never really offered to Mr. Barnicoat, and even if it had been, would certainly not have been accepted, as no salary whatever would have been attached to that office. The only foundation for the statement was, that when the offices of Commissioner of Crown Lands and Provincial Secretary became vacant by the promotion of the former holder, Mr. Domett, to the office of Colonial Secretary, Mr. Robinson, knowing it to be his duty to recommend a new Land Commissioner to the General Government, recommended Mr. Barnicoat, as a gentleman who was qualified both by his profession as Land Surveyor and by his experience as a member of the Nelson "Waste Lands Board to fill that office, and, moreover, one towards whom he could not be suspected of entertaining any personal or political bias, inasmuch as Mr. Barnicoat had just done his best to deprive Mr. Robinson of his own office. This recommendation was of course made with Mr. Barnicoat's knowledge and consent, and with the understanding that the acceptance of the office to which the salary was attached would necessarily imply the acceptance of the one to which there was none; and in this sense Mr. Barnicoat may have been offered the office of Provincial Secretary. But that by no means implied that he shared largely the confidence of Mr. Robinson. As it was, Mr. Domett, who had none of Mr. Robinson's scruples about giving office to his friends, chose to set aside the recommendation, and appointed as "Waste Lands Commissioner a gentleman who had been an exceedingly zealous and useful supporter of his own, but whose qualifications for the office were eminently inferior to those of Mr. Barnicoat, for he was utterly ignorant of this province and had never seen an inch of its Crown Lands, and was still more disqualified for Mr. Robinson's Provincial Secretary by his connection with those of this province who had ever been ready to strain every nerve to oppose and remove him from the office of Superintendent. "We shall say nothing of the then existing connection of the Provincial Secretary with a newspaper whose principal business for many years has been to misrepresent everything done by the G-overnment, which he was bound to support in virtue of his post of Secretary, an office which we think no newspaper editor ought to hold, however friendly, and far less one diametrically opposed to the Grovernment of which he was a member. The proposal to recommend Mr. Barnicoat for the office which Mr. Domett thus disposed of, proves, if proof were required, that Mr. Robinson was not actuated by party bias, and that he appreciated and acknowledged fitness for office of a certain kind wherever it was found. But it does not show that Mr. Robinson shared largely of. his confidence to Mr.. Barnicoat. His personal friends know better than this, and it was not likely that he could, when Mr. Barnicoat had so recently travelled from Motueka to Wakapuaka on a personal canvass, to convince the electors that he, and not Mr. Eobinson, was the man they ought

to choose for Superintendent. But enough of this matter, which opens questions we had willingly have allowed to sleep, had it not been necessary to correct in the eyes of the electors a mistake connected with the memory of the late Superintendent.

This article has reached to such a length that we can only shortly refer to the character of the speeches by the candidates. Mr. Barnicoat's is exceedingly general, and the new opinions do not sit well upon him. He is by no means explicit, except where he says that he will speedily solve the question of whether the proper coal is to be found at the Buller or the Grey, a question which the Provincial engineers and coal surveyors have been engaged in solving for some years. He is reticent in details, and, sure of the support of his own party, he throws out baits to others by a general acquiescence in a policy which his past conduct denies. The speech of Mr. Saunders is full, clear j and exact. He conceals nothing because he has nothing to conceal. He does not deal in allusion, but states his facts and opinions without the least reticence. He enters into ample details, and touches more or less exhaustively on every topic in which at such a time the public may feel interested. Mr. Barnicoat says " the Superintendency will suit me." Mr. Saunders tells the electors that he does not ask them to elect him; but to express their approbation of those political principles under which the province has avoided those evils which h<.ve fallen on so many of the sister provinces. Mr. Barnicoat professes to be inoculated with these principles, or at least that he approves of their practice. But look at his history, and that of his followers and supporters, and how inconsistent is the argument. But even if such were really Mr. Barnicoat's policy, his newly found policy, —much more is it [that of Mr. Saunders; and whether will the electors commit the carrying out of that policy to the man who has for the last ten years consistently advocated and supported it or leave it in" the hands of one who has adopted it, because it may suit him and the moment? The 21st of March will tell, and we have no doubt of the result.