The Dunstan Times FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1873,

Dunstan Times, Issue 583, 20 June 1873, Page 2

The Dunstan Times FRIDAY, JUNE 20, 1873,

Beneath the Rule of MenENTiRELY just the pen is mightier than thea word.

Before this reaches the hands of the majority of our readers the Provincial Elections will have been decided, and we can only regret ourselves that these results, in which we are all so highly interested, can scarcely be known to us ere the Dunstan.' Times is in the press. We may, however, make pretty certain that Mr. Macandrew will be rc-elected to the Superiutendency, and it is earnestly to be hoped that, out of the new Council, he will be fortunate enough to find a congenial Executive. fMr, ii Macandrcw i has not been particularly happy with his advisers of late. When they [have possessed the confidence of the country, they have been too slow-going for his Honor, and when they have happned to work in harmony with him,'the country has never had confidence in them,'viewing them more in nominees than as responsible and independent Ministers. This state of affairs, as a matter of course, led to the only alternative—a dissolution ; and 'now we shall very soon know’ how we arc to get on for the future. So far as the elections have gone, Mr. Macandrew’s supporters aredn the ascendant. Still it is difficult to say what’ may be the final result, and we can only hope that for the peace and prosperity of the Province’ the majority will be with him. Public business has been neg lected long enough while private factions have been fought over in the most determined manner, and without any result but the discomfiture of all the parties to the quarrel. Mr- Macandrew promises fairly enough in his manifesto, and we believe him when he says that it would have been better for the Province had the Constitutional powers of the Superintendent been always exercised with a firmer hand. Provincial Governments are, as a rule, too easily approachable. Everybody holding office has had too much of his own way, and Government has been committed to acts it should never hove undertaken. There has been no accord whatever, and instead of our Provincial Parliament acting as a body sufficiently powerful to command respect and be respected, it has been one heterogeneous mass of confusion. Of course the Superintendent must not be permitted to have everything his own way, or there would be no necessity for a Council; .but, as every act must come through the Superintendent and receive his sanction, those whom he is thrown in contact with as his advisers should do their best to work in harmony with him. The late Council having been in Session thirteen days, at a cost of 1,100?., is sufficient proof that, without concord of Ministers, business is impossible. It is by no means satisfactory to the public to find useful measures frustrated by a narrow majority ; and, were everybody bent upon having his own way in carrying out his own ideas, there would be no escape whatever from confusion. The Members must accommodate themselves to circumstances, and not waste their time in discussing Constitutional privileges which have only a supposed existence, and bear in mind that they occupy their seats to do the work of those who sent them, and not time. Owing to the early meeting of the General Assembly, the coming Session can only be a short one, and we do therefore hope that the estimates will he allowed quickly to pass, so that the work in progress for the welfare of the Province may not be delayed. If we are to accept the late opening address of his Honor the Superintendent as reliable, the affairs of the Province were never so prosperous, and with so many schemes for its advancement just started into existence or upon the point of being given effect to. it would be not only a great pity, but a serious public loss, to find their operations frustrated. Mr. Gillies,

no doubt, means well, but he is scarcely the man for the present. He may be an old Victorian miner, but he does not appear to possess any of their goa headism, and wo should imagine that his contact with Australia sacrcely even sharpened his ideas. He would doubtless make a very Constitutional Superintendent, because he would be afraid £to wrong; but we want something better than old-fogy-ism, and, as an old proverb says, “To do a great right, it is sometimes necessary to do a little .wrong." Upon the land question Mr. Gillies is liberal ; but, so far as'circumstances appear at present, the subject is pretty well worn, nor is there any great desire on the part of the population to possess land. Agriculture in New Zealand is not a very flourishing occupation, for reason there are but very limited markets, and we do not see thatj even with the railways, this difficulty will be removed. Manufactures and the development of our mineral resources are,' 4 in our opinion, the desideratum requisite for the advancement of this Colony. Nature has liberally endowed it with raw material and the means of converting it into useful articles, and we should be working against our destiny to set ourselves to the poorly paid occupation of corn-growing where such natural advantages and means of manufacture lay untouched at our' feet. Of the result of the local election there can be no doubt. Mr. Hazlett’s election may be regarded as an absolute certainty, and we feel assured our readers will join issue with us in the opinion that a'better representative it would be impossible to find. Mr. Thomas Luther Shepherd has been tned and found utterly wanting. No Member ever made such promises and did so little! in fact, the district may just as well have been unrepresented. This grandiloquent individual claims the suffrages of the, miners because he has done so much for them ; but no one can see it, and at any meeting he has held his hearers have not been slow to tell him so. In looking after the Provincial “ pickings” Mr. Shepherd has been all alive. He has watched for every little office or commission that would turn in a pound like a hungry cat watching for a mouse; and he comes again, with a face of brass, to ask his deluded constituents to give him another trial. Happily for the District, his offers are spurned; and we heartily follow up this opinion by saying : Begone, thou most unworthy of representatives! We are glad to be rid of you ! We want no more of your boasting senseless talk ! Your mission and politics are at an end! You must seek fresh fields and pastures new! With Mr. Hazlett for Clyde and Mr. M'Kellar for Kawarau, the Dunstan District is most fortunate in the selection of its representatives.