MR. STAFFORD'S LATEST COMPLIMENT TO NELSON.

Colonist, Volume XII, Issue 1160, 6 November 1868, Page 6

MR. STAFFORD'S LATEST COMPLIMENT TO NELSON.

(From tlie Nelson Colonist, Oetoher 27) We understand that the Hon. Mr. Stafford has acknowledged receipt of the letter of the chairman of the Lite public meeting in Nelson, in a communication extending to some four or five lines, and without note or comment beyond the bare acknowledgment. One might have expected something more than this at least, but probably Mr. Stafford is waiting until he obtains an opportunity of meeting hia constituents, and perhaps of endeavoring to spread that discontent and disunion which he threatened he should do liis best to set afloat during the recess. But although he is thus cavalier in his acknowledgement of the opinions expressed by such a large mass of his constituents ns was then assembled, surely it was not necessary that he should stoop io the small spitefulness of maligning the constituency for which Lo has safe for some fifteen years, and to whom he has always, with what seems now very like mere lip service, been profuse in his expressions of gratitude for the " kindness and consideration" with which that constituency had " invariably treated him " during that long connection. And now, what does Mr. Stafford say of Nelson ? This is what is specially reported :—

"There are two Provinces still—Otago and Canterbury—which have yet a right to expect a revenue from their land. I call Nelson only half a Province, as it has no land revenue, although it has a fictitious revenue, regarded in a permanent sense, from its gold. Nelson was a little quiet sleepy humdrum place until gold was discovered there. Its population was only being increased by the number of births which exceeded the deaths.. Thero is no immigration into the Province, and no life; in fact, it wns proTerbially the " sleepy hollow " of New Zealand. It was not a Province in the proper sense of the word, and was simply a town, because the one country district traded with Chrietchurch from firßt to last, as it will always continue to do, It ia no more &

part of Nelson than the Channel Islands are a par* of France, although tbe people there speak more French than English.*'

Possibly a different version may appear m Hansard, because Mr. Stafford habitually eliminates his disagreeable expressions from print. This is the treatment Mr. Stafford gives his constituents, and this is the gratitude for favors received. Let Mr. Stafford examine the records of his fine memory during the past score of years, and think what Kelson has done for him, and then compare that with this petty bespattering of an old, kindly, and betrayed friend.