THE PENDING ELECTION.

West Coast Times, Issue 1658, 23 January 1871, Page 2

THE PENDING ELECTION.

To the Editor of the West Coast Times mid

Observer.

Sir — A correspondent signing himself "An Elector 11 in y -ur morning contemporary of yesterday's issue, starts by informing us how commendabl • a tiling it is to have tame election meetings with very few to attend them, such as Mr White had the other evening in the Town Hall, and " without any indication of cats in distress, dogs with thorns in their feet," or, worse still, of suffocation from the flumes of tobacco proceeding from the "great unwashed." and then he goes on to tell us that " tbe candidate was not so lively uor bo humorous as he generally is, but that this might arise from a knowledge of the importance attached to the work he had in hand, and the desire be might have to awaken in the mind of others a due sense of the duty devolving upon them in electing a member for the General Assembly." Here the candidate is described as a patriot crushed by a sense of a nation's ignorance. Of course " Honest John" is himself again. But to continue, your contemporary's valued correspondent, still acting the schoolmaster, teaches us that, " if we are to have a due share of the revenue we raise or enforce our claims on the Government for assistance in the construction of public works, and in making our varied revenues productive, it will be incumbent on us to select men who will bring the whole of these energies to our service." That is to say, speaking from this correspondent's point of view, that if we want tho«e rights and privileges mentioned, it will be necessary for us to exhibit Mr John White in paroxysms of rage and virtuous indignation (\i\ the floor Pf t%

Assembly. I allow, .Sir, that s :t cats in distress or dogs with thorns in their feet" would not create a greater or dissimilar effect there ; but would not we be sacrificing our dignity by the exhibition ? Comparisons are always said to be invidious, and so they are, but this great delineator of character, this writer iv the Independent, draws his lines so clear and distinct that they ennnot be copied too often. He says, " A dispassionate observer cannot long hesitate in deciding which should be preferred" (Mr Barff or Mr John White.) "Mr White is too out spoken — too generous of word and thought to be misunderstood. Duplicity and iutrijue are quite foreign to his nature. He is certainly at times hasty and impulsive — Hotspur-like— but this is a feature of character often allied with the noblest perfection of manhooV &c, &c. Here ia the brL'ht side of the picture. Let us look on the dark. Mr Barff is known by other traits of character. He is dull and prosy, delighting in blue book?, and basis his political faith on standing orders. In fact, he is a political mummy, that ought to be duly deposited in the limbo of things obsolete. But in the very next sentence of this illogical scribble we find that Mr Barff is not a mummy— at all events, not a dead one, for he is complained of in regard to his action in the election of County Chairman, in not supporiing certain members that " were ready , and better able to fill the office than the man he chose to support." Independent of the question of ability, which is merely a matter of opinion— and surely Mr Barff is entitled to his own, and he has had peculiar opportunities of judging— is it in human nature to support men who have habitually distorted his purest intentions and best actions as proceeding from vulgar and mercenary motives. Then, again, Sir, Mr Barff i=* abused •• for soliciting the appointment of Warden's Clerk," and if he got it, as he ought to have done, who had a better right to it than Mr Barff, who haa given some of the best years of his life (to his personal los^, and when no one else would do it) to the public service ? I think, Sir, posts of profit and honor ought to be "onferied on nien who have devoted their time and ab'lities to our well -governing, in preference to the favorites, acquaintances, or relatives of the Ministers of the day. The latter system, to quote the eloquent correspondent of your contemporary, ought to be duly deposited where he recommended to deposit Mr Barff—" in the limbo of things obsolete. In conclusion, Mr Kditor, I think, <peakiny: impartially, that fir Barff is the wrong sort of man to throw overboard. l le stood by the helm in our darkest hour, when the whole House were against us, when one of bis colleagues was doing his utmost to dismember us, and the other intriguing to saddle on us a nominee Chairman, without consulting us in the least in the matter. He stood by us, and our interests, and for his integrity, are we going to reward him now by throwing him overboard, aud for whom ? For Mr John White, a gentleman who has evidently no policy for the future — who has never troubled himself apparently by a thought as to how the country is to be permanently settled— and who has confessed that he knows nothing of raining, but relies entirely on his good intentions, which no one doubts, but as we know of a place payed with such, and still uncomfortable, we rest dissatisfied with him. T am, &c,

FAIR PLAY.

20th January,