The Evening Star FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1874.

Evening Star, Issue 3491, 1 May 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, MAY 1, 1874.

The change in the Executive now in course of arrangement may prove more perplexing to the Superintendent than one resulting from purely political considerations. The retirement from office of Mr Turnbull and his colleagues was not Unexpected. Rumor had led the public to believe that such a course was probable; Mr Turnbull’s explanation yesterday, therefore, was received without surprise. It is to be regretted that such a result has followed a year of administration which has proved so advantageous to the Province, and creditable to the Executive under whose guidance its affairs have been conducted. We yesterday drew attention to the difference between the present financial condition of the Pro"rince and that of two years ago, or even one, when the Government was paralysed by the tyranny of a factious opposition to measures that have proved in every way so advantageous. We were, therefore, much amused to hear from Mr Reid that he claimed the credit of having been always opposed to selling large blocks of land j for we pould not forget that it was. while he held the reins of government that the most questionable, the most extensive, and most disastrous alienations took place. Since,

however, he claims to be at one with the retiring Executive in the course they have pursued, they may fairly calculate upon his support in the re-arrange-ment of their offices. - , Under the peculiar circumstances of resignation, it was naturally to be expected that the task of forming a Ministry would be remitted to, and undertaken by one of their own number. This removes much of Mr Fish’s ground of accusation against them that they conducted the affairs of the Province through the recess, but (lid not meet the Council as responsible officers to ask its approval of the past, nor devise measures that in their opinions were advisable for the future. We certainly think that had they shown a disposition to shirk responsibility by their course, it would have been one that could not have been too severely condemned. But equally reprehensible would it have been to have adopted that which Mr Fish considers ought to have been taken. When a representative body leaves an Executive in office to carry out the measures adopted, it is expected that they will again meet that Council to explain the manner in which they have fulfilled their duties ; and, excepting under very extraordinary circumstances, they have no right to throw the responsibility they have undertaken upon the Superintendent, through the appointment of others in their places. They might, by arrangement amongst themselves, have re-distributed their offices ; but to this course, too, unless under peculiar circumstances, there are grave objections, for, although jointly answerable for .their doings, they are individually supposed to have peculiar qualifications for their special departments. The reconstruction of the Executive by one,of their number, to a great degree overcomes both objections: it is a guarantee that their policy will be unchanged; and since it seems to have met the general approval of both sides of the House, there should be little difficulty in getting rapidly through the work of the session. But Mr Turnbull must not imagine the spirit of the Opposition, is dead. Place and power have charms that render men keen critics; and pros perous as his administration has been, there will be no difficulty in finding grounds for fault-finding' with 1 it. The note has already been sounded; In the Superintendent’s speech it was stated that nearly all the contracts .for which appropriations had been provided, were either completed or in course of completion ; but that some of them had cost more than the sums authorised. We have no doubt that the retiring Executive will receive a severe rating for that. It would be very unseemly if they did not; for even in a family, if a young lady saddles papa with an extra sovereign for a dress, although she may plead that material and cost of making up were so increased that she must either pay the money or go without the dress, she would only be forgiven after receiving a caution agaiust extravagance in future. Then contracts for railways, Mr Reid complains, have been accepted since the appropriations expired on the 31st March. We leave any remarks upon that subject to the future, for it is not for us to give explanations that the Executive are quite able to do for themselves. We only mention these mutterings to show that the session is not likely to be oppositionless, nor is it desirable that it should, although we deprecate party rancor, grounded frequently on personal feeling, that so very generally ends in the growth of a faction equally descreditable to a representative body, and detrimental to the interests it was designed to foster. We have had too much of that in Otago, and we trust it will never be revived.