The Dunstan Times. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1870.

Dunstan Times, Issue 452, 16 December 1870, Page 2

The Dunstan Times.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 1870.

Beneath tlie Rule of Man es rmELY jasr the pen is .mightier than the swoed

The Provincial Council has conclude! its ignominious session, and its unworthy members have betaken themselves to their several homes under a slinging rebuke from his Honor the Superintendent, and amidst expressions of-dissatisfaction from tire country at large. It is a fortunate ■circumstance that the Council not only stands prorogued, but is virtually dissolved, and his Honor will have the support of the population in applying for an immediate dissolution Such a batch of mcapables probably never before represented intelligent constituei cies, and it is most fortunate that the term of the Council has expired by the effluxion of time. Never was a month more comfort bly spent in idle talk than the last session of the Council. Instead of forwarding the interests of the Province, its progress has only been obstructed. Members when they should have been engaged in propound! g useful measures were industriously canvassing for votes at the coming elections. The whole business of the Session has been perverted to this end, but bow it will succeed can only be verified when the suffrages of the people are tested by the ballot box. The obstructiveness of the Council has virtually deprived the Produce of its laud revenue, and well nigh brought things to a dead loci; Instead of beincr able to -prosecute public works, they are necessarily stayed for want of funds, even subsidies to road boards will require to be withheld. This looks very well after all our boast and talk about railways, and the time that has been occupied iu deliberating about them. The Council must have known the folly of debating upon how to expend half a million upou railways, when they were not possessed of sufficient funds to repair the mud tracks, called roads, which intersect the interior. We hope that at the coming elections constituencies will really take some interest in Provincial politics, and return men interested in common with themselves, and not mere charlatans, whose only recommendations are a profusion of promises, most of them absurdly impracticable, while those coming within the range of possibilities are only made to be broken. The mining constituencies especially have been most unfortunate in their selection of representatives. Besides suffering from cold neglect, they have been used as* the means to an end. In some cases, members have not deigned to visit their constituents in -spite of promises that after every session they would come before them and give an account of their stewardships.; others have preferred to live away at the extreme end of the North Island. One of these offenders, the member for the Lakes, as a sop in the pan, positively issues an ukase that he will come and live

amongst his beloved and trusty supporters, while the rest plainly sin w by their acts that, they have more need of their constituents, than their constituents of them. The stoppage of the land sales has seriously embarrassed the Province, and consequently, the great outlet for labor, which was hitherto -found -in works is closed . We will not however attribute r he falling off of'the Customs revenue to this cause, as the Province is producing many articles hitherto imported, and which paid a considerable amount of duty. The affairs of the Province are certainly in a very critical position, and his Honor has done right in determining to apply for an immediate dissolution of 'the Council, and we have no. doubt but th t his doing so, will meet with the unanimous approval of the country. Never was so much valuable time lost in idle talk, as has been the case during the last session. It has been a month wholly lost, practical measures have been obstructed, while those that were carried are of very little im portance. Had the session been called forthe pm pose of peimitting Members at the expense of the Province to canvass for votes at the coming elections the sitting could not have been turned to better account.