The Globe MONDAY, MAY 1, 1876.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 582, 1 May 1876, Page 2

The Globe MONDAY, MAY 1, 1876.

As day succeeds day, and thus rapidly shortens the time when the Legislature of the colony will assume its functions, so does the confidence in the strength of the Ministry increase, and not alone in its strength, but in the soundness of the political changes which it will inaugurate. Should there still exist any politicians who hold to provincialism, it would be well for them to study the movements which have recently been made by some of its supporters, and to convince themselves that it is the voice of the people of the colony which supports the Premier abd his colleagues, in the administration of the Government, That the Executive are being

supported in their work may be inferred from the telegram received from Dunedin on Saturday. Alluding to the refusal of the applications at the land sales by the Waste Land Board, the Guardian says this renders necessary the stoppage of every public work in the province, from which the Provincial Government (of Otago) cannot withdraw without incurring heavy penalties, AVhat we have to inquire is, why was the sale of the lands stopped ? There are but two solutions that we can conjecture. First, that the General Government has called upon the Provincial Executive to delay the sacrifice of so large a portion of the est ate of the colony; or secondly, that'the Provincial Government has suddenly become aware that it would be perpetrating a piece of political sacrilege to dispose of so vast a tract of available land, whilst such Government may simply be said to exist upon sufferance. Should the first of these suppositions prove to be the correct one, we cannot too highly commend the step taken by Sir Julius Vogel to prevent so monstrous an iniquity; should it however be but the fear of the certain consequences which might accrue, it is si ill fortunate for the country that there was sufficient sense existing in the Otago Executive to stop the sale. The Otago Daily Times writes, “It is plainly slated “ that members of the Waste Laud “ Board, contemplating the constitu- “ tional changes as certain, already “ regard themselves as agents of the “ General, not the Provincial Govern- “ meut, and look to Wellington for “ orders.” This is in reality what all the provincial officers should do, and those who do not do so, and lend themselves to any piece of jobbery for the sake of showing their fealty to institutions which it lias been resolved by the voice of the colony shall be swept away, will not and should not have to look to the continuance of their services being required when the new regime comes intooperation. Wedonot, however, agree with these journals, when they foretell distress amongst the working classes in consequence of such surmised stoppage of the Otago public works ; a temporary suspension is the most that may be anticipated, although it is to be hoped that the General Government will see its way even to obviate this. It is not unlikely that the Superintendent of Wellington will become Speaker of the new House, in which case another of the obstructionists to the policy of the Premier will be removed from active opposition. Mr Bunny, as editor of the New Zealand Times , must also be considered as having joined the ranks of Sir Julius Vogel’s supporters. There are, then, but two members of the House, of any particular note, who may be expected to retain Provincialism as a portion of their political creed. We allude to Sir George Grey and Mr Macaudrew, and* as these gentlemen look only to serve the interests of those portions of the colony of which they are at the present moment Superintendents, and totally ignore New Zealand as a whole, there is but little fear that either of them will be enabled to form a party in the House of sufficient power to overthrow the existing Ministry, especially as the requirements of the provinces which they represent are directly antagonistic in all their bearings. Should such a calamity as a coalition, successfully formed under the leadership of these gentlemen, befall the country, and be successful in securing the reins of Government, what can be expected as the result; but that they will use all the power they may be vested with to secure to their own provinces the special advantages that should be equally extended to New Zealand as an unit. We see no reason to suppose that an event so ominous to the continuance of the present prosperity can be by any possibility brought about, having every belief that the majority of the members of the new House of Representatives are fully alive to the fact that the uses for which Provincial establishments were created have now ceased to exist.