The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2261, 5 August 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, AUGUST 5, 1870.

There is no necessity to search deeply, to leant the cause of the depression of trade in Otago. The' Provincial Treasurer’s balance sheet for the quarter is a sufficient index to it. Those clodocratic members who raised such a hue and ciy about the Hundreds Regulation Act, were warned at the time of the consequences of what they were doing. It was pointed out to them that their opposition was useless ; that though they might fume and rave, their eloquence would be lost upon the Ge'neral Assembly, and that while they were frantically protesting against an

confer the highest qponrtfiejProvin.ee, their refusal to bring it into operation by stopping the sale of land would be fraught with disaster, and that ultimately they must submit. The prophecy has been fulfilled. For twelvemonths the Province has been without land revenue and consequently without the means of prosecuting public works for twelvemonths trade has languished and employment has been scarce. We have lost more ground in that time than will be regained in the next two years. Instead of enjoying progressive development ; the doings of the Provincial Council of Otago, had formed a basis of argument in the House of Representatives for the abolition of Provincialism. “Whom the gods intend to destroy, “ they first deprive of reason,” So said the ancients, and the conduct of Mr Brown and his supporters seems to justify the aphorism. Himself the mover of the resolutions which the Provincial Council adopted as a settlement of the question, he asked the House to reject his own work and to place the Province in the same condition as a Commission had reported to be unsatisfactory. It is to be hoped that before the next election of a Provincial Council the electors of the Province will learn not to trust the land quacks who have hoodwinked them so long, nor the country press that has fostered and pandered to their nostrums; and that henceforth men trained to think will be elected, instead of those who by nature and education are only fitted to guide a plough, tend 1 cattle, or wash sheep. That these remarks are justified is evident from the following analysis of the revenue for the quarter ending June 30th. The total receipts were £41,204 Os 7d. Of this amount, returns of Customs duties amounted to .£19,457 7s lid; Sale of Crown lands, £5,324 16s 4d; gold export duty, £3,605 3s 8d ; goldfields revenue, £3,557 10s sd; sale of Government buildings and land, £1,427 12s 4d; harbor dues, £515 2s 7d; jetty dues, £943 9s Id; powder . magazine and weigh bridge, £42 13s 3d; dog tax, £1,586 10s; goat tax, £l9; licences, £430 7s; repayments, £551 13s; education, £661 13s 9d; gaol, £ll 4s 6d ; tolls on roads £2,633 11s sd; incidental receipts, £lOl 5s Od; | sundry receipts from miscellaneous i sources, £328 14s 9d. During the same period the expenditure was . £67,337 16s 6d, of which the expenses of the Provincial Council were £2,199 0s 4d ; Superintendent and Executive, £1,147 10s; the Provincial Treasurer’s department, including police, public schools, hospitals, gaol, etc., £38,870 8s; Crown lands and survey, £3,190 9s Id; roads office, £507 9s 2d ; goldfields, £2,187 18s 2d; General Road Board, £lO5 13s 4d; roads, £15,391 18s 3d; works, £1,476 17s 7d; bridges, £1,073 7s 2d; jetties and harbors, £l,lßl 5s sd. Such has been the result of the opposition to bringing into operation the Hundreds, Regulation ; Act. That opposition has not only deprived tire Province of the means of prosecuting public works, but it has done more to alienate the ablest men in the Province from supporting Provincial institutions than any event that ■ has lately occurred. Like Mr Driver, they begin to think that whatever good Provincial Governments may have done in time past, “their usefulness is gone,” Though not agreeing altogether with this idea, we feel convinced that if, in future, they are to be made useful it i can only be by electing other men than the Browns, Thomsons, et hoc genus ornne. They are powerful to obstruct, but powerless to evolve a progressive policy.