PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3103, 20 January 1871, Page 2

PUBLISHED DAILY. FRIDAY, JANUARY 20, 1871.

The " unity and. harmony of the colouy as a political whole," is, in Mr J. C. Richmond's idea, his continuance in office. Upon that condition the alternative, humanly speaking, ol chaos or cosmos depends. Ho considers himself what Professor Huxley calls protoplasm, and that all ministerial bodies must absorb him in order to secure their vitality. Ego et meus Neio Zealand, is his family motto. In 1809, when a vote of want of confidence in the Ministry, of which he was a member, was pending with every prospect of its being passed, Mr Richmond declared his desire to sacrifice all his political convictions, to a longer lease of power. His words are, " I am prepared for one, to do my part in dealing with that evil as it ought to be dealt with. I mean the evil of this political anarchy and disunion. At present, I think parties are in such a condition within these walls, that no one can fairly claim that any particular policy should bear full sway ; and this is a time when the country demands of us that we shall come into this House prepared, like men of business, to compromise those differences which we cannot absolutely do away with. I, for my part, am ready, and my honorable colleagues are ready, to postpone for a time every one of those distracting questions which for many years have disturbed this Assembly. Honorable gentlemen laugh : they are welcome to their amusement. They charge us with awakening these questions. ... I will go further So grave does the emergency now upon upon us seem to me, that I am prepared, even in the future, to compromise these differences of^ which I have spoken ; I would even meet opponents on that great question of separation ; for it does appear to me that there are far greater evils, great as I think the evil of the separation of the two islands would be. I think that national bankruptcy, and the disgrace of an utter paralysis in the face of present danger, would be far worse than separation. I have such confidence in the good sense of my fellow-countrymen around me, and in my own conviction as to the essential importance of national unity for these two islands — se£ by 'themselves in the wide ocean, and singularly adapted for intercommunication by sea — that I know that separation, if it came, could only come for a time ; and I would face that rather than see this country plunge into a worse anarchy, as it seems likely to do from the state of parties in this House." The "far greater evils," and the " worse anarchy " in Mr Richmond's mind's eye, were the downfall of the Stafford Ministry, — which, according to established usage, he elegantly periphrases in those terms. Mark this, electors of the city of Wellington: Sooner than be longer kept out of office, Mr Richmond is prepared to go in for separation of the two islands. That question is not dead, but J-leepeth. It will be revived, and if hard fate still shuts the office door, Mr Richmond, as a member of this city, " would even meet opponents on that great question of separation," and " would face that rather than see this country " longer governed without a Richmond, or, as he poetically puts ir, plunged into anarchy. We scarcely need to point out to the electors of Wellington the moral of separation. Is it as formerly Native and, virtually, Defence Minister, that Mr Richmond appeals to the city of Wei lington ? If so, it must be an appeal more to compassion than to gratitude. We may forgive, but wo can never forget his disastrous administration, that wretched tissue of rashness and indecision, that recurring series of blunder and bewilderment in an obstinate and blind pursuit, per fas et nefas, of an impracticable theory, which plunged the colony into bloodshed and ruin, and rendered life and property insecure throughout the length and breadth of the Northern Island. If we are now, as we trust we are, emerging under other guidance from that valley of the shadow of death into which he led us, are we again, at his delusive beck, to retrace our steps and to re-enter perilous labrynth. We are sorry that Mr Richmond bases his effort to become our representative on the creation of bitterness and discord between two great classes of colonists, the agricultural and pastoral classes. Were any question at issue between them involved in this contest, such a course, though necessary, would obviously not conduce to that unit} and harmony of which Mr Richmond professes himself the advocate, but it is gratuitously uncharitable to do so when the " enmity " which he sows is quite irrelevant to the matter in hand, namely, the policy of the Government. A child in politics knows that immigration and public works on an extensive scale afford no special encouragement, but rather otherwise, to the pastoral interest. If then persons engaged in that interest declare their confidence in such a policy, they cannot fairly be charged with selfishness. That policy would be eminently beneficial to the agricultural and small farm interest, and to hold it out as otherwise is a distortion of facts, and an insult to the meanest intellectual capacity. Mr Richmond comes out under the auspices of Mr John Plimmer and the 6emi-spiritual and unsubstantial Reform Association, and we think that there is between them a mutual misunderstanding, and that neither kuows the other's political views. We need not travel far to find out the reason. The Association has°no " story — God bless you," to tell. It was intended as merely the catspaw of Messrs Plimmer and Gillon. The former feeds fat some grudge against the Superintendent, the latter against

Mr Fox. It was therefore necessary that opponents of the present Ministry should be returned for Wellington dis trict. Mr Gillon, with a spirit of selfsacrifice which deserved a better fate, made the first experiment on his own body, and, like the engineer, he has been " hoist with his own petard." MiRichmond is to be the next victim. It is amusing to see with what affecJtionate interest the versatile Travers, " everythingby turns and nothing long," urges the diffident Richmond into the contest. Mr Richmond was as Native Minister, the incarnation of sin in the eyes of Mr Travers, who now generously recommends him to Wellington. Un connected as" Mr Travers says, "I have hitherto been with the politics of Wellington, it would not become me spontaneously to offer myself as a candate to represent them." Mr Travers feels no such delicate reserve in spontaneously offering another person, totally unconnected with the place. He is quite willing vicariously to represent Wellington. His modesty is too great to allow of a risk of defeat in his own person, but not in that of another. He is the big boy in the crowd who, when a pugilistic encounter is imminent, pats the little boy on the back, and tells him to "go in and win." But soft ! We have just learned that, after all, the modesty of Mr Travers has given way before the irresistible Plimmer, and that he has accepted the invitation to be the " colleague of Mr Richmond." Verily, Noah's Ark never sent forth such an oddly assorted pair !