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Wellington Independent, Volume XXVII, Issue 3116, 6 February 1871, Page 2

The second act in the great political farce entitled " the Reform Association" (Plimmer and Gillon, playwrights) was brought to a close on Saturday, The audience was large and attentively waited the denouement which was predicted to be one of the greatest triumphs of these distinguished gentlemen. Alus for human expectations! When it was raade known it was received iv solemn silence ! No shouts of applause rent the air, no voices called the performers before the stage. In moody silence the crowd slunk away one by one with guttural expressions of rage and disappointment, which it was j well for those ingenious gentlemen were j too deep for utterance. A greater iailure we never recollect seeing in Wellington, j The first election (that of tho Country District) was, to drop the figure, the first trial of the strength of this redoubtable Association. The country was to be saved by Mr Gillon! Mr Gillon was defeated ; but the country, for aught we know yet, wili survive. This second election was even a better trial of their strength. The foregone conclusion that Provincialism was dead in Wellington was all in their favor. At an early hour accordingly the indefatigable JPlimmer was seen striding np the streets of Te Aro, and the eloquent seconder of Mr Travers at the hustings was no less active in canvassing for voters. We observe in our advertising columns that Messrs Richmond and Travers " do not believe that their committee used their influence and exertions to promote the election of Mr C. Croft as a member of the Provincial Council." This is somewhat perplexing. Mr Richmond's seconder (Mr Carpenter) stated on the hustings that "he had beeu asked at the last moment to second Mr Richmond." Who asked him? It must have been either Mr Richmond or his committee. It .was therefore a fair assumption on our part that Mr Carpenter belonged to "the RichmondTravers party," and it was surely justifiable to say,' that that party of which he, from his being selected to propose the candidate, must be one of the most impoitant, were using their influence to promote the election of Mr C. Croft. Had a doubt remained, the presence of the seconder of Air Travers the day before, and his friendly hugging both of Mr Carpenter and Mr C. Croft, to the intense amusement of the assembled spectators, was sufficient to dispel it. How Mr Trueman strutted and gesticulated on that platform, and Low he in his enthusiasm proposed a vote of thanks to the Returning Officer, were the common talk of the city throughout the day ! When we observed, therefore, that "Mr Con. Croft was proposed by the gentleman who seconded the nomination of Mr Richmond, and was publicly greeted and patted on the back by the gentleman who seconded the nomination of Mr Travers, and that both were loudly cheered by Mr Cornelius Ryan and a number of other gentlemen we see every day walking and talking with Mr J. C. Richmond, it seems to us altogether impossible not to believe, that the Richmond-Travers parly were anxious to secure the return of Mr C. Croft, better known as " Con." It may be that this denial to what everybody in Wellington knows to be a fact, is couched in somo subtle form of words conceived to make it literally true. We have had numerous illustrations of this of late. If it is literally true that Mr Carpenter and Mr Trueman are not members of the Richmond-Travers Committee, then it would appear that in spite of the repeated boasts of this Association, of having so many " influential gentlemen " in their ranks, their committee could not furnish them with either proposers or seconders. A confession sd damaging we did not expect

to hear. Their committee seem to emulate the secresy of the Association out of which it larva-like has developed, and to be also " nocturnal in its habits." The «' influential gentlemen" of whom it is composed, we must believe are of so retiring a disposition that they would not or could not come forward to propose their candidates, because it was daylight, and Messrs Carpenter and Trueman- were called on to do their t duty, although not worthy to be enrolled in their august ranks. It will be observed that we never affirmed that , Messrs Richmond and Travers had anything to do with the Provincial Council election, but we said (what no one, with Saturday's poll before him will surely now deny) that the organisation called into being by the Richmond-Travers party, though contemptible, may do much harm if not energetically opposed." Had the electors not taken our hint and recorded their votes in such considerable numbers, how great would have been the rejoicing of that faction may be conceived by noticing how great was their mortification at the defeat of their candidate. A more disgraceful exhibition was never witnessed in Wellington than the nomination of the Town Bell-ringer, in his peculiar circumstances, by a gentleman who holds the office of City Councillor, and who had the day before proposed on the hustings the Hon. J. C. Richmond. Messrs Travers and ' Richmond must see that there is something radically wrong when they could find no better seconders than gentlemen of such morbid taste, and for whom they have so little respect, as to deprecate the bare idea of their being members of their committee. The respectable working men of Wellington feel themselves insulted by the encouragement given to Mr Cornelius Ryan, Mr M'llroy, and others of well known antecedents, forming the Richmond-Travers organisation, and refuse to follow such representatives of the " working-man." They do not envy the familiarities they see passing between an Honorable and them, and the shaking of hands, &c, they cannot away with. The ballot will be their chance of expressing their contempt for thistemporary alliance, hollowhearted on both sides, it being the best protection against the worst form of tyranny — the tyranny of an organised rowdyism. The show of hands on which so much stress has been laid is demonstrated to be a meaningless farce, and as " the overwhelming majority at the nomination " is relied on as an element of hope, we may safely predict it will be as delusive to-morrow as. it proved on Saturday. The sensible working men of Wellington do not shout at meetings and bawl down the speakers of the opposite party, and Messrs Richmond and Travers will learn to-morrow that tbey are not so simple as to be taken in with spurious claptrap, or a great concern for their interests suddenly uffected. Imagine working men, reading the remarks of Mr Travers, re-printed elsewhere, uttered be it remembered not seven months ago, and say how can any who have listened to his recent harangues honestly vote for him ?