OPEN COLUMN.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 12, 23 March 1867, Page 3

OPEN COLUMN.

OUR MEMBERS,

(To the Editor of the Wairarapa Mercury.) Wairarapa, March 15, 1867.

Sir, —At the meeting held on Saturday evening, I was surprised to hear one of our representatives (?) inform the meeting that although he believed the present Provincial Government had not performed their duty in not carrying out works which had been voted by the Council—still he could not say that he had no confidence in them until he had heard an explanation from them.

I would ask you, sir, how any representative can have confidence in a government composed of members, who, when in opposition declaimed in the strongest terms against those who were then in power for not carrying out their votes, and who act themselves in the same manner ? How can they have confidence in men who have merely become the willing

tools, the blind instruments of Dr. Featherston, whose master-mind dictates to them to carry out merely what he wishes—what he desires V How can any Wairarapa representative have confidence in a government who has totally ignored the district, and who persistently refuse to spend upon urgent public works (on the pretence of “ want of funds”) a single farthing for which the money has been voted, when on the West Coast tramways are laid and the greatest possible inducements are being made for advancing and benefitting that portion of the Province to the detriment of this ? I f any of our members have any faith, any confidence in such a government —they must not —they cannot represent the interests of the district —they cannot represent the feelings and wants of the electors, and should be immediately called upon to resign in order that the electors may be enabled to place men in their stead who will neither be cajoled or bamboozled, —men who will with one voice and one mind demand that the district should be no longer neglected, and if needs be to oust from their seats the present imbecile Government, and place men of ability, activity and zeal in their stead in order that justice may be rendered to the district. Yours, &c., VINDEX

ILLICIT DISTILLATION. (To the Editor of the Wairarapa Mercury.) Grevtown, March 22, 1867. Sis, —A report “ that lam or was in some way connected with the illicit distillation of spirits,” having got abroad, not only in the Valley but also in Wellington, and such a report being calculated to do me (as the holder of several government appointments) serious injury, I avail myself of your columns to contradict it most decidedly. It is now some weeks since first this report came to my ears, and I have remained quiet on the subject this far because I hoped to be able to discover the originator and make a public example of him. I beg to inform those who think that I would “ stoop ” to anything of the sort that lam not and never was in any way whatever connected with the illicit distilliation of spirits, or illegal grog-selling, either in this colony or any other, and consequently that the said report is a cold-blooded and malicious “fabrication” without a “ shadow ” of foundation. I am, Sir Yours faithfully, JAMES EDWARD IND BOYS-