Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1892. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIV, Issue 2802, 18 October 1892, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit TUESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1892. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS.

_ •» The Ministry acted wisely in not separating for the recess until the nominations to the Upper House had been made. Delay in such matters generally means wire-pulling, and often prevents the best men being selected. The choice of new Councillors is a good one and will be generally approved, and we have no doubt they will do credit to their selection. Special interest attaches to the present appointments as being the first in which the right of labor to direct representation in the Council has been recognised. This right is admitted by all parties; in fact from Mr Fish, a member of the "middle party," we had early in the session a summary of the qualifications which a working-man Councillor should possess which will be pretty unanimously coincided in. Mr Fish said he had "no objection at all to a man being appointed to that body simply because be is a working man, always on the assumption that he has done something in some public position that renders him a worthy object of elevation to that sphere. . . I understand by a working man being in a public position, one, say, who has been elected a member of the City Council, or who has been elected Mayor, or who has shown an aptitude at public meetings in the way of advocating reforms. In point of fact, if he has shown any abilities above those of ordinary men, or if he has been president for many years of a large trade association, or trades council, as is the case with my honourable colleague the member for Dunedin City (Mr Pinkerton), I would say he occupied a position which might justify his appointment to thft Council. But the mere fact of a man being a working man, and a working man alone, is not sufficient to justify a man's appointment to the Council." These are the lines on which the Government have selected the working-man nominees. Mr J. E. Jenkinson (Christchurch) is a boilermaker, employed at the Addington railway workshops, and is President of the Boiler Makers' Union. He was a Vice-President of the Trades and Labour Council during the time that Mr F. S. Parker was President, and when the latter gentleman resigned he was appointed to the vacancy. He has occupied a prominent and responsible position in the Labour Movement, of which he has been one of the staunchest and strongest supporters, while of moderate views. He is selfeducated, and of great intelligence and thoroughly straight-forward. Mr J. Rigg (Wellington) is a printer in the Government Printing Office, but better known as President of the Trades and Labour Council (a position in which he has done good work), lie is a prominent and trusted Unionist, Mr W. Jennings (Auckland) is foreman printer of the Auckland "Star," and is well and favourably known in Auckland and Dunedin. He has been many years the Secretary of the Auckland Liberal Association, and is prominent both among Unionists and Knights of Labour. Mr Jennings is a Roman Catholic. Mr W. M. B,o]t (Dunedin] is a man of great reading and informal tion. He wrote, in reply to Dr Laishr ley, of Auckland, a remarkable pamphlet, on the causes for and cure of " the exodus," which has been described as a model of close reasoning and incisive writing. Mr Bolt is entirely selfeducated, having been born and brought up in Shetland where schooling VTfIS Y6ry scarce in the forties. In his youth he h*d ft somewhat adventurous career as a sailor. Of hi* chgiraQt^i' jt need only be said that ! twenty-eight yeats ago, he was engaged by Mr Harris, of the firm of Bing, Harris and Co., as storeman, and he has been in the same employ ever | since. Mr Bolt took a prominent part in advancing the Freethought movement in Dunedin. He has been vicepresident of the Dunedin Trades pQuncfl and chairman of the Dunedin Schools Committee. Frpm these brief [ particulars it will be seen that the I labor Councillors are well qualified tp ' • part in the legislature of the take »nt»ree of the other nominees Colony, x. *'^vh, Kerr, and —Messrs McCuiiu^ fJ —ious ParMcGregor—are without prew. liamentary experience. Mr W. McCullough, proprietor and editor of the Thames " Evening Star " is well known in the Auckland district as an able and earnest advocate of Liberal principles both in print and in speech, Mr James Kerr (not to be confounded with Mr John Kerr, of " shammy " renown), is one of the proprietors of the " Gray River Argus," and is as well and favorably known on the West Coast as Mr McCullough is in the far north. Mr James McGregor is a member of the firm of Duncan and McGregor, leading lawyers in Dunedin. He is a Perthshire man and M.A.of Edinburgh University. He has taken a keen interest in educational and agricultural matters, and is a member of the Otago Education Board, of which he was for two years the chairman, Of the five ex-members of the House of Representatives who have been promoted, Mr Montgomery has taken a prominent part in Provincial and Colonial politics for nearly thirty years, and there are few, if any, wen in the j Colony who hayed more to advance

1 Liberal principles. As an upright j man of business Mr Montgomery is well known in Ashburton as the head of the late firm of Montgomery and Co. Mr Montgomery was a member of the Canterbury Education Board from 1866 to 1875, and of the new Board of Education from 1877 to 1885 ; appointed Governor of Canterbury College in 1873 and elected chairman in 1876, a position he continued to hold until 1885, when he resigned all public positions and went to England for the benefit ©f his health and domestic reasons. Mr Richardson has also a long record of important and valuable services to Canterbury and "New Zealand, and though nominated as a representative of Wellington, where he now resides, Canterbury people will feel that they have an interest in him and be confident that he reciprocates the feeling. The faithful manner in which, in partnership with Mr Holmes, the contracts for the Lyttelton tunnel and the railway to the Selwyn were carried out pointed to him as a proper person to hold the portfolio of Public Works, which he did for several terms. He received the honor of O.M.G. in 1884, in which year he withdrew from the representation of Kaiapoi, the state of his health precluding his taking part in a contested election. The conduct of the Kaiapoi constituency at that juncture was, and is to this day, regarded as a conspicuous example of the proverbial ingratitude of the public towards public servants. Both Mr Montgomery and Mr Richardson earned long ago the seats in the Council which they have now received. It has for some time been an open secret that Mr Walker, our ex-member, would be one of the first nominations to the Council, and he has the heartiest congratulations of his old constituents on his appointment. Mr Walker has served the district well, in many other capacities beside that of Parliamentary representative, and though at present resident in Christchurch, he retains the keenest interest in all that pertains to the town and county of Ashburton. Like Mr Richardson^ Mr Feldwick, editor and part proprietor of the " Southland News." is an old Canterbury man, having been for many years connected with the " Lyttelton Times," and widely and favorably known in Canterbury. He sat in three Parliaments, and, like Mr Walker, was a most excellent whip for the Liberal party. Mr Thomas Kelly was for seventeen years a member of the House of Representatives, during eight of which he was Chairman of the Public Petitions Committee before its work was divided and given to two Committees. Mr Kelly is one of the earliest settlers in the Taranaki district, and while a consistent Liberal was one of the late Sir Harry Atkinson's oldest and closest friends, so that it is fitting that he should succeed him as representative of Taranaki in the Council. The newspaper press cannot complain of want of representation in the Lower House, but of late their only representatives in the Council—we believe the Hon. Mr Scotland has retired from journalism—have been shareholders in certain Conservative organs. This is changed for the better by the appointment of Messrs Feld- ■ wick, McOullough, and Kerr, and, in a less degree, Messrs Jennings a,ud Rigg. In this connection it may be noted that »• brother of Mr Jenkinson 1 occupies one of the most responsible positions in Australian journalism, that of sub-editor of the Melbourne " Argus." The journalist Councillors have our special congratulations. There are some names, prominent among them those of Mr W. C. Smith, member for Waipawa, and Mr Vincent Pyke, of Central Otago,which were expected to appear in the list of nominations; but the selection has been so wisely made, and the nominees are so well qualified for the position, that the Government may congratulate themselves on having strengthened the Legislative Council, the Liberal party and the Ministerial position in a manner that has the complete approbation of their supporters and the country.