The Globe. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 569, 15 April 1876, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, APRIL 15, 1876.

One of the most astonishing pieces of Belf-adulation we have ever had the opportunity of reading, ie in the form of a letter from his Honour the Superintendent of the Province of Otago, addressed to the Premier and pub lished in a Provincial Gazette Extraordinary on the Gth iustant. W h en we say self-adulation we will give the Superintendent of Otago the credit of believing that Otago is New Zealand, and that He is Ofcago. It appears upon'the face of it that the " Bluid of " McPoyd" is up, and that the knife is being whetted that is to avenge the honour of the Soots. What with Sir George Grey in the North, and Mr. Macandrew in the South, Sir Julius Vogel must have a nice time of it ; but it is quite certain that the Premier has listened to brayings many a time and oft, and that although the utterances are not yet from beneath the lions' skins, it is only on account of the scarcity of Hone ekins, and »ofc because the

animals would not don them. The fine old story of " Scissors" is heroin illustrated to the letter. The drowning provincialist even as he sinks back into the obscurity from which he has so obstructively emerged will still elevate his arm and make the sign of "Scissors." His Honour says: " You may rest assured that it is a " grand mistake to suppose that " the people of this province will " tamely submit to have forced " upon them a system of political " communism from which they have " everything to lose and nothing "to gain to aid and abet, in which, on " my part, would be to belie the posi- " tion which I have for so many years " held at the hands of the people." Here is indeed the challenge direct •' And he who would these boots displace " Must meet Bombastea face to face." We wonder whether Sir Julius Vogel will be frightened at the suspended Otago boots; but the honorable Don Quixote of the South, says, " I must " inform Messrs Gisborne, Seed, and " Knowles, that so far as the " Provincial Government of Otago " is concerned they cannot expect any " aid in their mission." This is tilting against the Parliament of the colony with a recklessness entirely consistent with the rest of the proceedings of the Otago Provincialists —we say against the Parliament, because we have no question that the action of the Ministry, in commissioning these gentlemen to make the enquiries which they have had delegated to them the power to make, will be cordially endorsed by every member of the House. But Otago, through its Superintendent, will not yet believe she is to be a portion of New Zealand, and that New Zealand is not to become a portion of Otago. The days of the supremacy of Dunedin we believe to be numbered. We see other cities progressing in the rate of increase of population with a per centage greater than that of the New Edinburgh of the South ; and although the merchants of Dunedin Jhave hitherto held the rest of the Colony at their mercy. We know that other enterprise and other capital is being introduced that will ultimately limit the arrogance and assumption of these sons of the thistle to a somewhat reasonable circle. Mr Macandrew knows that he will have to accept the inevitable, and why he should give publicity to such an old womanish kind of a fretful protest we cannot imagine, there can bo nothing manly in an obstructive course and action which are such as throw impediments in the way of tie Government's making its proposal in proper form, and only tend to show the little narrow minded policy of the Provincial Government of Otago, and so small do these course 3 make the people appear in the eyes of the rest of the colony that we should not be much surprised were the Ministry, during the next session of Parliament to take the necessary steps to alter the name of the province of Otago ; Macandrewland or Greyland might suit them better. According to Mr Macandrew, " the probable revenue of Otago may " be set down at about one-half of the " whole colony,"—but he does not state when. Here are the figures for June, 1874: Otago customs, £322,727. The rest of the colony, over £1,000,000, with a population of 85,082 for Otago, and 214,602 for the rest of the colony. This should be sufficient to convince any person unprejudiced that the obstructive policy of the present leaders of the Opposition is a course which will be the means of embarrassing the proceedings of the Premier and his colleagues, as well as to damage the credit of the colony in the eyes of the world.'