The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2451, 23 December 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1870.

Wz need hardly give much attention to Mr Reid’s apology for the action of the Provincial Council; for the slightest consideration of the facts as they stand, will tend to shew that either the majority in the Council cannot comprehend their relative position to the General Government, or that the debate on his motion was intended as a pure electioneering dodge. In either case, those who adopted the course followed are unworthy of confidence ; for if they were so ignorant as not to know that the course they were taking was pure waste of time, it is unsafe to place the interests of the Province in their hands ; if, on the other hand, they used the opportunity afforded them for the purpose oj* raising a popular cry that may be used for electioneering purposes, they have abused the trust reposed in them by the electors for personal ends. On Wednesday, in order to let our readers have a clear comprehension of this special point, we reproduced a part of a speech by Mr T. B. Gillies, of Auckland; not because we have any Northern sympathies, but with a view to shewing the folly of the resolution passed at the instigation of the Provincial Executive, refusing to take action under the General Government scheme until it had been considered by the electors. The mistake —wilful or unintended, we care not which —the mistake made by the Provincial Council was, remitting the matter to the electors for consideration when it was too late. The measures were passed. Had the adoption ot them depended upon the Council, it would have been another thing. Had the General Assembly asked the Council to give its opinion, so that they might be guided by its counsel, it would have been another matter. But that was not the state of the’ case. The General Assembly never asked the Provincial Council of Otago whether the measures proposed were right or wrong. They assumed to be quite equal to the task ot judging what was the best for the Colony ; and whether the Provincial Council of Otago and Southland approve or condemn —whether the electors of Otago and Southland sanction the action of the Provincial Council by their votes or not—it is too late now, and was too late at the last session of the Council, to ask them to decide upon measures already adopted. Had Mr Reid and the Council been content to have passed a resolution expressing disapproval of the Acts having been passed without the country having had opportunity of considering them, we might not have agreed with them, but we should not have condemned them. It would not have been inconsistent with their dignity as a deliberative assembly, and they would not have exposed themselves to the ridicule of the Colony. Had they passed a resolution deferring their decision as to the works to be undertaken in the Province until the assembling of a new Council, there would have been sense iu the proposition ; because it would have been clearly one which the electors had power to determine. But the resolution passed by the Provincial Council does not narrow itself to that with which it has power to deal. It goes beyond that, and assumes that the electors of Otago can dictate to the Colony. It approves of the works proposed being done, but not until the whole policy of the Public Works and Immigration Acts have been considered by the various constituencies throughout the Province, Our object in publishing Mr T, B. Gillies’s address was twofold. He is known here, has Otago sympathies, and from his known integrity of purpose and clear judgment, the opinions he expresses must carry weight with them. He is now called upon to administer the affairs of Auckland, just as Mr MacandkEJV was those of Otagoi But although Auckland is iu the North Island, it stands relatively to the General Assembly precisely the same as Otago does. Mr Mac Andrew, iu the same way as Mr Gillies puts it, asked the Provincial Council to take advantage of the measures passed. What he describes to be his duty, was equally the duty of Mr Macandrew, and is thus fairly stated “But seeing that “ the proposals had been accepted, it “ became ray fixed duty, my sole idea, “ to take care that this Province Giould “ have its fair share of this expend*.- “ ture. I applied myself to that object “■ alone.” If Mr Reid were Superintendent he must do the same, or sacrifice the interests of the Province : and he either knows it, or is unfit for that office. It is idle to discuss the question of repealing the Acts. Other Provinces arc too deeply interested to

allow that. Modifications may be possible ; but if we wait for our water supply to the goldfields and construction of railways, until those Acts are modified to suit the whims of every Provincial Council, we shall have to do without both. The old Dutch proverb says truly, “ Those who wait for a dead “ man’s shoes are likely to go bare- “ foot.” In the face of such clear evidence that the obstructive resolution passed by the Provincial Council was either for election purposes or through inability to grasp the real state ot affairs, we cannot believe otherwise than that the electors will condemn it, by.rejecting those who identified themselves with it, and bv electing men who think more of the welfare of the Province and less of themselves.