Wellington Independent. THRUSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3097, 12 January 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent.

THRUSDAY, JANUARY 12, 1871.

"NOTIIINO KXTKNCTATE; NOR BKT DOWN AUGHT IN MAMOB."

Mr John Plimmer has made himself immortal ! The father of the Wellington Reform Association will go down — we will not say how. But, great as he is, | there are things too high for him. He may invite a Richmond, but he may not \ address the electors of Wellington ; they will not hear him. The scene on Tuesday night, reported elsewhere, emphatically proves this. It is only what we j have all along predicted. It would have been strange if it had been otherwise. No earnest-minded constituency cares to have its representation bandied about by a secret society that will not publish the names of its members, nor allow its proceedings to be open to the public. How much more English was the proceeding of the deputation recorded in our last issue. A number of the citizens of Wellington, representing all sections of the community, headed by an old and respected colonist — Sir Charles Clifford — in open daylight, asked Mr Hunter, who has a large stake in the city and province, and in whose integrity and ability they have the utmost confidence, to stand for the representation of the city. All was plain, straightforward, and business-like: and yet, forsooth, because they did not belong to an association that absurdly arrogates to itself the name of constitutional reform, they are pooh-poohed as the " upper ten" and the elite. This attempt at raising class distinctions between fellow-set-tlers is idle and reprehensible in the last degree. We are all exactly on the same level, and any distinction that obtains must be the effect of eternal laws that cannot be sneered down. We maintain that there is an eternal and inherent supremacy of virtue over vice, of knowledge over ignorance, of property over — nothing at all. And, while all human institutions are necessarily imperfect, the more these three qualifications are found united in the governing classes the better for the governed, because then the Government will be that of a true aristocracy; it will really be the Government of the hest. This pseudo-Reform Association, more fitly termed the Private Grudge Redress Association, by the in- i itials of which we . shall henceforward style it; this P.G.R.A. boasted of having "many influential gentlemen" in its ranks ; but it is passing strange that it never published their names. But this talk of " influential gentlemen" and " upper ten " can do no other harm than sow the seeds of jealousies which ought never to exist in a new country. The ballot makes no such distinctions. The citizens are free to choose whether they are the elite or the canaille. Doubtless they will reflect before they vote. They will examine before they decide. They have heard a good deal about the family and personal claims of Mr Richmond, and it is for them to consider whether these outweigh the consideration that by voting for him they are creating votes against the other Wellington representatives. They feel grateful to Mr Bunny, and they may naturally be expected to pause before they show their • gratitude in so singular a manner as to return a member who will vote against and thwart him on all the great questions of the day. They are anxious to see progress, and they will not rashly send in to the new Assembly the most anti-progressive member of the last. They naturally wish a member who, in the event of any change in the provincial institutions, will always be ready and on the spot to advocate with the other Wellington representatives, their case before the Colonial Ministry, when Parliament is not in session, on the many local and provincial questions that may then require adjustment. But if they weaken the voting power of Wellington in the House, — if they show civic ingratitude to Mr Bunny, — if they pass over their fellow-citizens who have long borne the burden of the day and elect an acknowledged " place-hunter" and the most determined opponent of the progressive policy of the Government, — the city, the province, aye, and the colony, will expect them to show such an amount of family and personal claims possessed by the member elect as will out-weigh all these considerations. We deny that any such claims can be set up hy any family in New Zealand. And even if they could, those who supported them in opposition to their plain duty and interests would be justly branded as traitors to every principle of public virtue and fools besides. But what have the Richmonds done for New Zealand, and what are they likely to do ? Mr Fox, in the House of Representatives in 1868, declared that "it would have been cheap for New Zealand to have given the Richmond family a million of money to stay away from the colony." The statement was received with loud cheers and very general assent. It was spoken in a debate on the nepotism of the Richmond family, audit was stated that six members of that family, and its immediate relations the Atkinsons, had at one time engrossed nine Government offices among them, from seats in the Ministry downwards. Mr Fox's estimate, however, was much beneath the mark, if calculated in money value alone. Let us look at a few of the items. William C. Richmond was the author of the Taranaki war. That, and its consequences cost the country three millions of money, and the loss of the friendly relations which had up to that time existed between the races. The same Minister, also, when Colonial Treasurer, devised the miserable financial system under which the General and Provincial Governments dipped their hands into the same purse, which has led to the long conflict of centralism and provincialism', and which has, with the universal assent of both Houses, been superseded by the capitation system of the present Government. W. C. Richmond was also the father of the New Provinces Act, which has done more to ruin Wellington in particular than any other political measure, and which has

created bankrupt provinces that have been the weakness and disgrace of the colony. These were the great acts of statesmanship of the elder brother, and head of the Richmond family. Not one really beneficial measure can be pointed to as claiming the same parentage. Of Mr J. C. Richmond our recollections are more recent. It was under his administration as Native Minister that the West Coast war, under Tito Kowaru, burst out on the surprised colony, at the very time the Ministerial speech was assuring us, through the mouth of the Governor, that native affairs were in the most satisfactory condition. A few weeks after, his administrative skill received the further testimony of the escape of Te Kooti and his murderous baud from the Chatham Islands, a fiasco which any Native Minister of the most ordinary calibre would have prevented. Then, he was party to the feeble and pusillanimous action of his colleague Haultain in abandoning sixty miles of settled country, and fleeing before the enemy to the very streets of Wanganui. Last session, while the House and country earnestly set themselves in the reviving spirit of colonisation, to consider the great questions then submitted to them by the Government, his colleagues, Stafford, Hall, Pitzherbert, and Haultain, supported the Government policy ; but Richmond bitterly opposed it, with a perverseness that has for ever damaged his reputation as a statesman, and a futility that has ruined his prestige in all future Parliaments, until at the head of a miserable minority, which gradually melted away to three, scarcely likely to find seats in the coming session, he presented a {< spectacle to gods and men," and by his arrogant censure of all the leading statesmen of the colony, and questioning the sincerity of their political action, he became a political Arab, his hand against every man, and every man's hand against him. We care not to speak of other members of the family, but we ask — Is it for such a man, whose bitter opposition to the great measures approved of by the Assembly has already caused his rejection from the seat he has so long held ? — is it for J. 0. Richmond that Wellington is to obey the behest of " Mr John Plimrner and others?" Is this Richmond family to stand in the way of our supporting that policy which, if fed by the millions they have cost the country, will inaugurate an era of prosperity the colony has not yet seen ? We trow not, and the P.G.R.A., and their illustrious president, with all his antediluvian notions, will find that the heart of the city of Wellington is yefc in the right place, and that the ballot box will show the electors' sense of the " great personal and family claims" of this Richmond family, and their determination to exercise their trust with a single eye to the best interests of the colony as a whole, and Wellington in particular.

The remarks we recently made on the necessity of the Corporation bestirring themselves in the matter of sanitary reform have led to the receipt of further communications on the subject. We have learned, however, that the Corporatiou have passed bye-laws, which will come into force on the 11th day of February next, and any complaint in the interim is a matter for the police. Under a Provincial Act, passed in 18i9, some, if not all, of the evils may be removed, but the parties complaining would have to set the law in motion. We despair, therefore, of anything effectual being done till that time comes round, and the Inspector of Nuisances becomes armed with full powers to prosecute. We have long contended that the Act under which we have been incorporated requires revision, and we think the candidates for the city may fairly be questioned as to tlieir earnestness in this matter. The municipality is only a name and not a reality, so long as the Corporation have not ample powers to make bye-laws of their own, and to compel their observance in the Mayor's Court. The fines and fees accruing would thus form no insiderable item in the revenue of the city. It would also be more in harmony with our other institutions if the election of Mayor were vested in the ratepayers as a body, and not in the Council, and if all the municipal elections were conducted by ballot. Such reforms would popularise and strengthen the municipal system among us ; and their advantages can easily be learned by referring to those parts of the colony in which, thanks to provincial legislation, they have for five years been established. Wellington contains a great number of Justices of the Peace, and if they sat in rotation daily with his Worship the Mayor, as they do elsewhere, the advantages would be twofold ; they would be better fit for the office to which they have been appointed, and a proper court would be created for the trial of offences within the city. We shall probably hear that so long as provincialism exists this will not be possible. We can only say it has existed for many years where provincialism is strongest, and the advantages of such a court have been acknowledged by Judges of the Suprome Court, by gentlemen holding her Majesty's commission of the peace, and by the citizens generally.

We are informed that Mr Commissioner H. T. Kemp arrived in town last night, after having spent several weeks in carrying out the details of the plan adopted by the Hon. D. M'Lean, as Native Minister, for the final and amicable settlement of the native claims to the Manawatu-Raugitikei Block. We desire not at this time to go into the merits of the question, but this we may say, that the Government, as well as the province, have, under the circumstances, been fortunate in enlisting the services of an officor so entirely free from bias, either on one side or the other, and we are assured that, while endeavoring to bring about a clear understanding with the natives on all points at issue, ho has at the same time spared no exertion to facilitate the Provincial arrangements for bringing, as soon as possible, some of the surveyed lands into the market. Everywhere he has met with a friendly reception from the settlers and natives of the district.

Mr Kemp, we hear, is about to retire from active duty, /after an uninterrupted service of thirty years ; and proceeds to Auckland by the Rangatira to-day, to be in time, if possible, for the elections at the Bay of Islands, for which ! district he has been requested to become a candidate. After so long an official career, it must be very gratifying to find himself invited by his fellow settlers to represent their interests in the higher councils of the colony, and from his old and intimate association with this province in particular, we cheerfully join in offering him our own congratulations, in the earnest hope that he may be thus enabled to give the colony the benefit of his great experience in all questions affecting its general interests and prosperity. '

Mn George Hunter, we are glad to learn, has allowed himself to be put in nomination for the city. A requisition is also being largely signed asking Mr Pearce to stand on the same ticket with Mr Hunter. The electors of Wellington will, therefore, have no excuse for electing an outsider to represent them in the next Assembly. If anything could convince Mr Richmond that any attempt to enter the House through' the back door of the Noah*s Ark will only result in his ignominious defeat, we have only to refer to Mr Plimmer's reception by the large body of electors assembled in the Odd Fellows' Hall on Tuesday evening. The fact is that" the next meeting of the General Assembly is of such vital importance to this province that the electors see the necessity of putting in men whose every interest is bound up in the future prosperity of the place. Wellington's great aim should be the opening up of her country by roads and the colonization of the vast tracts of unoccupied land within her boundaries. This can only be effected by the introduction of capital from outside, and its economical and judicious expenditure on great public works and a careful system of immigration. Wellington can best secure the great ends she had in view when assenting last session by the unanimous voice of her representatives to the policy of the Government, by now returning men of clear business views, and with a sufficient stake in the country to secure their entire independence of all outside influence. She does not want men who will impede the administration of the policy she helped to inaugurate, nor will she be contented with representatives whose votes will only neutralise those of the well-tried representatives who have won her confidence. J