PUBLIC OPINION.

Evening Star, Issue 4105, 24 April 1876, Page 4

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE SUPERINTENDENT S MANIFESTO,

:. As we thought, the visit of the three Conv? • missioners was too bitter a pill for the ProVineial -authorities to swallow, and they have even refused to swallow it. We admire , his Honor’s pluck in resenting it, and . - only feel sorrow that so good a man he found advocating so bad a -cause. Provincialism, notwithstanding that the new Parliament has not ratified the Abolition Bill, is dead, its requiem has long been sung, and we can only wonder . that the Otago Executive fail to appreciate the great good the Colony will experience when : Provincial Governments will only - ' r&iiaih to ns as a matter of history. , , . The, Superintendent and his Executive ,r have done a. suicidal act in refusing inf or- ” 'n&tion to the General' Government Commissioners, and the Province will not indorse it, and we will tell his Honor, Mr Ponald Beid, Mr Green, Mr MacKellar, and

(other satelites of the Council, that place and 'pay are gone from them for ever, and that jby their action *hey have rendered themselves detestable, while the injury committed upon the people of Otago will never be [effaced. If Dunedin is up in arms against the Colonial Executive the country districts are not, and the po’icy initiated by Sir Julius Vogel will find innumerable supporters. Do something the General Government must, or people will Ipse confidence in them.—‘Dunstan Times.’ | We always held the opinion that Mr Macandrew possessed good business abilities, although marred by artfulness; and we could (not have imagined that a document so illofgical, short-sighted, and so replete with bare-

| faced misstatements could have come frpm ;his pen us is his recent letter to the Permier. ! . . . Otago is evidently New Zealand [with Mr Macandrew. If he unequivocally. ' contended for its being erected into a sepa!‘rate, independent Colony, with himself at its head, we could understand him, however i impracticable such a measure would be. But to expect that Otago, an integral part of a ■ Colony with representative government, can , be differently, dealt with from the rest of the Colony is worse than absurd. Mr Macandrew is not our lawgiver, and he must obey the laws of the country, or be cast aside. , . For our part we have no doubt of the Abolition Act being brought into operation, not-

withstanding the misrepresentations of Mr Macandrew, and the grandiloquent orations delivered at rural hagues; and with this assurance we rest satisfied.—‘Western Star.’ SELLING LAND IN BLOCKS. We regret exceedingly to have to report that it appears certain that the Otago Provincial Executive have decided to sacrifice a large portion of the landed estate remaining , to meet the demands upon the Treasury, caused by the Provincial railways now in hand. It is true that the Provincial Council sanctioned these works. It is wrong, therefore, to infer that the Executive did right in undertaking them when they knew the Council could not meet to consider ways and means. As it is the works have been entered upon, and must be paid for. The Executive, it is said, with an appearance of truth, have determined to sacrifice large blocks of land to relieve the Treasury, If this is not yet agreed upon it is to be hoped it will be even yet re-considered.— 4 Mount Ida Chronicle.’

If the Executive carry out their intentions, it will be one of the most shameful transactions that was ever perpetrated in the historv of the Province. In the present position of the Province there cannot be the slightest necessity for it. The Executive are said to be adopting this course rather than face the Assembly with the Province so much involved. But, we would ask, is the public estate to be sacrificed in this wholesale manner simply to produce comfortable feelings in Mr Macandrew and Mr Reid ? It i’s now very easy to understand why the Superintendent refused to place the records of the Province at the command of the Commissioners. He was evidently afraid to show the state of the impecuniosity into which he and the Executive had landed the Province. ■. • . . -

We say better for the Province that Messrs Macandrew and Reid should meet the As sembly with a debt of hundreds of thousands of pounds on their shoulders than that the land should be sacrificed in large blocks to capitalists to enable them to go there with the Province clear of debt. The General Government, in taking over the Province, will, as a matter of course, take over their engagements, and we see no reason why Otago should present a clean sheet any more than the other Province. So far as Otago is concerned we say let them take over all its engagements, heavy, though they may be, rather than sacrifice any more of the land in large blocks.—‘Tuapeka Times,’