Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, May 20, 1873.

Cromwell Argus, Volume IV, Issue 184, 20 May 1873, Page 4

Cromwell Argus, AND NORTHERN GOLD-FIELDS GAZETTE. Cromwell: Tuesday, May 20, 1873.

As our readers are aware, Council affairs in Dunedin have been nearly at a standstill for the last ten days ; a state of things which has arisen from the successful result of Mr Keid : s attempt to oust the Tolmi Government. This attempt was instituted early in the session : Mr Reid went quickly and with decisiveness to the work. Little or no fault was found with the administration of Mr Tolmie and his colleagues ; indeed, satisfaction with what they had done was admitted by some of those who had voted against them. But insulted dignity carried the day. The Council could never allow it to have place as a precedent that, during their non-sitting, the Superintendent could dismiss and appoint an Executive at will. Therefore they took the earliest opportunity of showing the Superintendent that he had gone too far; and would have nothing to do with the Government he had after a fashion foisted on them. As usual in a crisis, the head of the Opposition, Mr Reid, then had to try his hand at the formation of an Executive. But before he had succeeded, Mr Macax- | drew sent a “ message”—message No. 3 to the Council. He had yet to learn, he I said, that his action was unconstitutional, j and it was an action he would feel bound to adopt again under similar circumstances. Further, he said ; “ In order to the successful working of the constitution, of which the Superintendent and the Provincial Council are each an integral part, it is of the utmost importance that more correct notions should prevail as to their position in relation to each other, so that neither may arrogate to themselves the functions of the other.” Doubtless that more correct notions should prevail is of the utmost importance j hut how they are to be arrived at, his Honor does not suggest. Then, again, he says : “ The Superintendent cannot but feel that there is between the i*,\jority of the Council and himself an absence of that mutual desire for progress, and of that community of sentiment which are so essential to tUo promotion "of the

public weal. Under all the circumstances of the case, therefore, the Superintendent . is of opinion that it would be better to afford the people an opportunity of electing a Superintendent and Provincial Council which may work together harmoniously; and with which view he respectfully soli. , cits the concurrence of the Provincial Council, in an application to his Excellency the Governor for an immediate dissolution." His Honor affects to be chagrined at the short Reply made to his opening address: or rather, perhaps, that even that short Reply was never agreed to by the Council, (for, as will be remembered, Mr Reid’s motion, in consequence of which the Go. vernraent had to retire, was an amendment on that proposed by Mr Fish when he moved the Reply.) The Council, his Honor says, appear altogether to have ignored the matters referred to in his opening Address; and therefore he “cannot but feel,” (fee., as quoted above. But even had the Reply been carried, its shortness would not have afforded, as the Times shows, any reason for his Honor to complain that the majority of the Council were at not one with him in a mutual desire for progress, and so on. The Address in Reply was proposed by a supporter of the Tolmie Executive, and was, judging by the usual rule in the getting-up of such Replies, prepared or at least approved of by that Executive itself. 1 Therefore his Honor’s complaint regarding the majority of the Council falls to the ground : the evidence he adduces cannot support the charge. The only reason his Honor ought in fairness to have given fori •asking a dissolution was that he and the Council could not agree as to the persons who should form his body of advisers. This is the real and only question at issiifT The Council and the Superintendent having a kind of trial of strength in the matter. At the time of our writing, the latest news to hand is that Mr Reid has succeeded in forming an Executive, as follows : —Messrs Reid, Stout, I.itmsden, J. C. Brown, and Green. But this Executive his Honor declares to Mr Reid he will not accept; and hy “ message No. s’’ reiterates his request that the Council will j concur with him in an appeal to the Coverno ■ for a dissolution. Mr Reid, having fulfilled to the best of his ability the tusk entrusted to him of forming a Government, but having been unsuccessful in pleasing the captions tniperintendent, has, he says, done quite sufficient, and all that he considers himself justified in doing. ThelloLMH Ministers, holding office only until others can be found to fill their places, and having been declared unworthy of the confidence of the Council, are not prepared to conduct the business of the House ; ami, wanting leaders, the Council cannot enter into consideration of his Honor’s messages, And thus all business is over until some! gentlemen can be found to occupy the Gu-jl vernment benches. Perhaps a dissolutions is the only way of getting out of the diffi-9 culty ; that is, if more correct notions as* to the position of the Superintendent amlj tire Council in relation to each other have* any chance of resulting from a dissolution,* although that there is such a chance ween® tirely fail to see. Both Mr Macandkew 1 and Mr Reid are almost certain to be re-9 elected : the former as Superintendent and* the latter as Councillor once more. And* how the recurrence of a similar state.(h things to that which has produced tVa® crisis is to be guaranteed against in tin® future is a question very difficult, we take® it, to be answered. A dissolution will,® after all, let no new light in upon the mat* ter. But if Mr Reid can do no more for® the Province in the matter of an Idxecu® tive.than he Ims promised us, out of the® materials in the present Council, then i® dissolution was never more needed. Ha® has taken a week to effect even so ninclt® And in the meantime, all the worthy Com® cillors get a pound a day—less one farthing® j—and are doing nothing for it. If tli|S Governor could only give an order thaH Mr Macanduf.w’s Tokoraairiro lunatifl asylum scheme be applied to the CouncilH that the sclmmer be constituted warder-in® chief, and theoretical planner ; and tin® Mr Reid have the management of tlit® practical farming, what a blessing it wonlij® be for the Province ! Even then the t«'l® would never agree; but their disagreement® would cost less. pb