IsiXhosa Intellectual Traditions (IsiXIT) Digital Archive

A preliminary meeting was held on the 15th inst., in Stockenstrom, to consider the mode of supplying the vacancy caused in the representation of Fort Beaufort by the retirement of Mr. Laing. We understand that the final meeting at which the popu¬lar candidate will be chosen will be held on Friday next. As chairman of the preliminary meeting the Rev. James Read made the following remarks on the various candidates:— 'Gentlemen and electors of the Fort Beaufort and Stockenstrom constituency ; our representative, Mr. Laing, who has for twelve years served us efficiently, having resigned his seat as a member of the House of Assembly, we are called on to exercise our right and privilege as electors to fix on a gentleman who may be nominated as a candidate, and it neces¬sary be elected in Mr. Laing's room. Seeing the critical circumstances of our country it behoves us to act with great discretion, prudence, conciliation, fore¬sight, and firmness in carrying out our behests as electors, and perhaps leaders of public opinion. In certain political emer¬gencies there are such safety valves in the political machine called coalitions, when neither party is strong enough to carry out its peculiar views, and that is to make concessions and to meet on the same common ground of action. It is proposed then to endeavour to act with unanimity in the matters before us, and first to form a committee consisting of, say sixty members, half Natives and half Europeans, to comprehend Stockenstrom, Blink¬water, Heald Town, and Winterberg; none have as yet been proposed for Ade¬laide, Fort Beaufort and Koonap as no correspondence, and negotiations have taken place with them. There are 1,523 electors in the constituency, of whom there are 424 of English descent, 438 of Dutch descent, and 661 of Native or Colo¬nial descent, and if we act with discretion there is no doubt but we shall be able to return as our member an able and good man. Five gentlemen may be said to have sent in their cards offering them¬selves as candidates for the vacant seat. 1st.—Mr. Hutton intimately known, to some of us as an able and accomplished scholar in classics and science, versed in statesmanship and the theory of legisla¬tion, and who has served the country and this division efficiently in Ilie upper House; a tried man. 2nd.—Mr. Advocate Solomon, a consum¬mate jurist, an eloquent and successful pleader, who promises to be an intelligent, influential, and leading statesman, able to cope with such compeers as the Upingtons, the Innes's, the Leonards, the Merrimans, and others. 3rd.—Mr. Dormer, the powerful editor of the Cape Argus, who also lias sent in his card, of him I would repeat that lie is an able, intrepid, and liberal journalist, who has already done great service to the country. He has taken a comprehensive view of the situation and sought to recon¬cile the interests of all sides impartially— Natives, English, and people of Dutch descent beyond the Colony. Whatever he undertakes he will pertinaciously stick, to and carry out. 4th.—Mr. Huntly the late C.C. and R.M. . of the Eastern Metropolis and City of the Saints has also sent his card to solicit our suffrages. I do not know much of him, except that he matriculated at the Cape Col¬lege with me and some of the now leading men in Church and State in 1830, and since occupied a high and responsible situation in the Civil Service. I can only say that he is well spoken of by a popular and rising Nonconformist minister of the city, and it is no doubt an honour to our constituency that the ex-Magistrate and Civil Commissioner of the second magis¬tracy in the Colony should appeal to our little community for support. He is well versed in official duties and public affairs. 5th.—Then comes our friend Mr. James Green, whose friends have also brought him on the political tapis or arena as a fit and proper person to represent us in Parliament. Of him I would say that we have known him from infancy, that he holds liberal views, is a thorough man of business and of liberal education. He has filled several offices of trust in the settle¬ment as M.D.C. Board of Supervisors and Management, and is withal a man of means and independence, and not de¬pendent on the Government or public for pecuniary considerations. The committee will adopt the candi¬date who receives the majority of votes and will labour for and try to secure his return. Had I a vote in each of five constituencies I would give one to each of these gentlemen.