The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 15, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2571, 15 May 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, MAY 15, 1871.

The work of preparation for the coming session of the Provincial Council is progressing, as is evinsed by the meet-

ing of mining delegates to-day. What the Executive will propose it is impossible to say. We learn that the late Ministry have not been the best managers .in the world, for reports somehow get abroad, and it is said that the expenditure has very much exceeded the revenue during the last two years. Nobody will be much surprised at this : for never did a Ministry take truer pains to cramp Provincial resources than they. We should not be much surprised, if with true clodocratic obtuseness, when the result of their mismanagement is published to the world, one or more of them may be found to endeavor to excuse themselves by reference to their opposition to the Land Bill. Neither would it much astonish us if, in fulfilment of their rash pledges at the hustings, some of our newly-elected members should endeavor to place obstructions in the way of selling land under the provisions of the Hundreds Regulations Act. We arc quite prepared for any act of folly from some of those, who, unfortunately for the Province, have obtained seats in the Council. But the majority, in view of the position to which our finances have been reduced, will no doubt see how important it is that a different class of men from the last should be allowed to conduct our affairs. For two years literally, so far as settlement and the initiation of progressive measures are concerned, we have been at a standstill. If it be pointed out that events outside the Colony have contributed much to its depression, we quite admit it; but they have not been the sole adverse agents. Not only have we had difficulties without, we have had dissension within. Had it been unavoidable, there would have been valid excuse; but it was factious, and therefore might have been avoided. Every person, not blinded by prejudice or warped in judgment, well knew that opposition to the Acts of the Colonial Parliament was idle and useless; especially when those Acts had had the sanction of nearly all the representatives of Otago, and were looked upon as improvements by a very large proportion of the people. The motive for that opposition has to a great extent passed away; the ambition of having the reputation of being a people’s champion has led many a man into trouble, even when his cause was a good one, but when, as in our case, the course taken was one that was adverse to their interests, it was alike wild and unlikely to succeed. In the prosecution of the schemes of personal ambition, which were the prime movers Of the late obstructiveness, everything so loudly insisted upon as necessary to prosperity, was overlooked. It was proclaimed time after time by the party of the late Executive, that the outgoings should be kept within the bounds of the income of the Province, To this end a reputed careful Secretary for Land and Works, was associated with an equally economical Treasurer. Many people looked upon them as a model couple, and some were loud in their expressions of approbation that Mr Yogel, with his large ideas, had no longer opportunity of mismanaging the Provincial revenues. But how lias the matter turned out 1 Merely that Mr Yooel, on his retirement from office, left a surplus in the Treasury Chest, which has been spent, and we hear some fifty or sixty thousand pounds, in addition to that and our income. We remember a man, who abounded in wealth, in order to save the expence of sweeping a chimney, setting his daughter below and his son on the roo r , to draw a wisp of straw up and down the chimney with a rope. They pulled it up and they pulled it down, and true enough, they cleared away the soot, but finished their performance by pulling the chimney over. The whimsical old fellow then very quietly retired into his office to calculate what sweeping that chimney had cost him. Now we, like him have been going on the cheap, but it has proved the most expensive way. We remitted the working of our institutions to incompetent hands. The rich old man could ascertain his loss, but it is impossible for us to say what our cost has been. We may fairly estimate the loss of two years’ receipts from land sales at £200,000. But contingent upon them several other sources of revenue depended. Although during those years there has been an increase of population amounting to ten thou • sand, the addition is not nearly what might reasonably have been expected. Had the land been sold, many additional families would now have been busy producers and consumers of taxed articles : those would have added alike to our wealth and revenue. Then, several who would have invested money in the Province have gone elsewhere, and taken their capital with them. By their leaving the Province the revenue has been lessened, and its means of maintaining a population curtailed. Dependent upon these fair expectations for success, several trades-

men who might have been prosperous at this hour, had common prudence been evinced in fostering development, have either failed or relinquished business ; and had not the General Government been in the hands of men who saw the necessity for prompt and decided action, Otago would have been in a more deplorable plight than it even now is. So far as our goldfields are concerned, they have simply been left to themselves. Nothing has been done to render them more attractive. In fact, the late Government tied their own hands, and could do nothing because they refused to supply themselves with means. We are glad to think that the gold-mining branch of Provincial industry is likely to receive more attention than hitherto. On the West Coast the miners are grumbling because of the smallness of the vote of the General Government for water supply, and the paltry amount was spoken of with contempt by Mr Reid and his friends. We believe that neither the General Government, the Government of Otago, nor the County Council of Westland, has any clear idea of how much is needed, or of the best way of investing it reproductively. Nor ought it to be forgotten that whether the sum be enough or insufficient, it is not usual for Governments to make special appropriations for the benefit of a particular class. The only justification of such a vote is, that so important an industry as raining, on public grounds, demands a departure from established practice ; and it remains for us who are bencfitted to make the best we can of that portion which falls to our share. This, no doubt, will form one important subject for consideration with the Mining Conference.