Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3118, 8 February 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 1871.

This election for the City has terminated as we predicted. Messrs Richmond and Travers have been defeated. When we consider that Messrs Pearce and Hunter had to contend against such experienced politicians, it argues well for the general acceptability of their views that they obtained so decided a» victory. Great praise is, however, due to them. The contrast between their conduct as candidates and that of the two gentlemen referred to, was the subject of general remark. isTot one statement made by them has been contradicted ; no private conversations have been by them indecently dragged in to bolster up a losing cause. Their supporters followed their example, and at all their meetings Messrs Travers and Richmond had a full and patient hearing, uninterrupted by the claqueurs of the opposite party. We would not dwell upon thepaßt. We only hope that Mr Richmond will learn by his third defeat at this general election more moderation in this tone, and a less overweening conceit of himself. To talk of the country " being given over to spendthrifts and gamblers" because it has a progressive government without a Richmond, he must now see is as unsuccessful as it is reprehensible in the last degree. As to Mr Travers we may be permitted to express the hope that before again making charges of embezzlement against constituted authorities he will pause to enquire whether they are well founded, and that he will not so readily construe a private and confidential enquiry by a personal friend into a formal offer of office. At all events we think there is little danger of him again appealing to & Minister to support his assertions without some clearer warrant for bis evidence being favorable. When next he enters the political arena we venture to submit a little more temper will not injure his chunce, and that one who cannot take as well as he can give in an electioneering contest stands a fair chance of being laughed at, if he indulges in violent ebulitions. Out* country settlers will be glad a tha result. They will 6ee in the election of Messrs Pearce and Hunter not only an endorsement of their election of members holding the same views, but a strong assurance that in the fierce struggle against separatiouists in the coming session, Wellington members will form a ytrong, because a united, phalanx. The interest of the city is the interest of the province, and only in proportion to the progress and prosperity of the latter can the former hope for advancement. In the colonising measures of the Government, Wellington will be. largely benefited. The gradual settlement of ,the native difficulty by the Fabian policy of the presents-Native Minister, the increase of setttfement, in the interior, and the multfgjphg of means of communication everywhere throughout the North Island tend all directly to add to the trade, and increase the importance,of Wellington. If our lands ure opened for profitable oe'eupution (by a system of cheap railways and rouds), Wellington will be the outlet for all the produce of the interior, and the only inlet for all the articles required to be imported for a large and increasing population. Manufactures will follow in due course, and for these, as the undoubted centre of distribution for the whole colony, Wellington possesses special facilities. If the present Government remain in power we are sure of peace, wiihout which there can be no progress, and it would have been, as we have all along

insisted, perfect infatuation for Welling-ton-to have elected a gentleman whose career as a Minister, broughtcolonisation in the North Island to a very low ebb, leaving Wellington a port et preterea nihil. "We trust to see her not only the capital of a united colony, but the seat of a vast trade for the splendid country between Napier on the one side and New Plymouth on the other, and the centre of distribution for various products and industries which it is the policy of the present Government to foster by bonuses and prizes, and by a judicious readjustment of the tariff. With a view to this, and to secure our fair shaie of the benefits of the great measures passed during the last session, we congratulate Wellington on having secured two such representatives as Messrs Pearce and Hunter. We trust that the asperities of the election contest will disappear with the placards that have disgraced our walls, and that, the farce of the Reform Association having no iv been brought to a 61ose, we shall hear less of private grudges and more of true and necessary reforms.