PUBLIC OPINION.

Evening Star, Issue 4099, 17 April 1876, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE SUPERINTENDENT’S MANIFESTO,

If for no other reason than to avoid inconvenience that cannot be other than associated with the proposed change of government Mr Macandrew should have rendered the Commissioners every assistance, as was 'done by the Superintendent of Canterbury. • Should, the new Parliament not ratify what was. done last session, as Mr Macandrew is fain to hope, the information he would have been able to afford the General Government would not have weakened his position as Superintendent, but in the event of the new Parliament maintaining or carrying out the Abolition Act to its fullest extent the damage his conduct will do to the Province is incalculable. It seems to us that his Honor and his Executive are doing their very best by their resistance of the proposed changes to incite the inhabitants of the Province against the Abolition scheme.— ■ Tuapeka Tunes.’ “ Truthful James” is on the rampage, He has daubed himself with his most terrific war-paint, and has decided that he will be a real live Superintent of Otago, come what may. . . . The indignant Superintendent winds up bis silly letter by saying that be won’t give the Commission any information. So much the better. The information can be much better got from one or other of his subordinates. Decorated facts are very pretty, but Sir Julius Vogel and his Commissioners are men of business, and probably prefer the naked truth, without even one of Mr Macandrew’s best variegated petticoats to cover it,—‘Southland Times.’ Mr Macandrew has for years possessed the reputation of being an exceedingly shrewd man, but nemo mortalium omnibus horis sapii, and in this instance we think that his strong-headed determination to resist an inevitable change has led him to make the blunder of not accepting the inevitable, and hence depriving himself of the opportunity of making the best of the situation. His letter to the Premier is a document which challenges criticism, and to say truth, we think can very ill bear it. His Honor sets out by begging the question, and the whole superstructure, bvult upon unsound principles, falls to the ground at the first touch But Mr Macandrew evi dently feels that the position which he takes up is an unsound one, and hence a little of the “no case abuse the other side ’’ procedure is [apparent in the use of such phrases as “ political communism,” “ dead level of Colonial uniformity,” “vicious system of finance,” etc., but hard words break no bones, and what is more, seldom prove mnch, and the “fireworks ” which embellish this high rope performance in the shape of the hardly - concealed threat “ that the people of this Province willnottamely submit,” etc., albeit they savor of the bounce of Auckland as to cutlasses and gunpowder, are, while they might just as well have been omitted, per- ‘ -4. ectly harmless, and Will end as all fireworks smoke.'—‘N. 0. Times.’^ The Superintendent of Otago has chosen to place himself in what all sensible men must look upon as an absurd attitude; and, although a few of his supporters may pat him on the back admiringly for his persistent kicking against the pricks, he will assuredly lose caste as an intelligent politician by following a course of action which can lead to no good, and which must have the effect of retarding the business of the country to a certain extent whenever Parliament meets. —‘ Bruce Herald.’