DUNEDIN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 895, 9 June 1871, Page 2

DUNEDIN.

[ITROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.] June 3. ; Apparently it would not be the rule for our local Parliament to meet without a ' squabble . or the farce of a Ministerial crisis. The stormy period, of which I wrote in my last, has come soon. The Reid party were too jubilant over their 1 victory- at the election of Speaker to let a chance pass for improving their position, so when the reply to the Superintendent's address came on for discussion, an amendment was moved by Mr Reid. Save in the last clause, there was no difference in , the two replies. Mr Reid's contained an allusion to the Hundreds Regulations , Act, to the effect that no Government [ would have the confidence of the House . that would not try to have these Acts re- , pealed. The Executive of course at once stated that they looked upon the move i as one of no confidence directly. After ! some little discussion the vote was taken, s when the Government party were found '■ to be in a considerable minority. The i House was at once adjourned, to enable arrangements to be made for a new 1 Ministry. On meeting again on Wednes- ' day, however, it seemed that the Reid party had some difficulty in agreeing as to { who were to enjoy the sweets of office, for ■ an Executive had not then been formed, 1 so a further adjournment was found neces- '.. sary. Thursday found a similar state of , matters, and after some explanatory state- ', meats, an adjournment was agreed on till Monday. On Friday morning, however, a list was published as follows : — Mr Reid , Secretary ; Mr Bradshaw, Treasurer and [ Gold Fields ; Mr Bathgate, Solicitor ; Mr i Cutten, without office. What they may . do remains to ha semi, but a,a they have a • strong tail at their backs, it is likely that i anything they may propose will be carried through. At the same time, that very tail i contains within it some rather discordant i elements, and it will take the heads of it • all their time to manage them so as to 1 pull in one direction. From the papers laid on the table of the House, the Provincial Treasury is in a very queer state, 1 being ever so much to the bad — the princ ipal cause being the falling off in the ; revenue from the sale of land. As a good '. deal of this falling off is directly attri- | butable to the policy pursued by the Reid ! Ministry, some great change in that policy seems inevitable. The leeway to be made : up ia immense, being nearly LIOO,OOO, i aud where they are to find money to carry on public works, pay the various subsidies, grants-in-aid, and so on, will puzzle wiser heads than theirs, I doubt. Of course, retrenchment in every department is spoken of, indeed, has already begun ; but it looks as if some of the departments would have to be totally suspended or obliterated altogether, before they will be able to carry on. Retrenchment in the expenses of the Council itself is recommended by message from the Superintendent, but here is all this delay, causing no end of expense, as the country members all look for their Ll per day, and resist strenuously any reduction. This will be a very pretty discussion when it comes on. ( The Conference of Mining Delegates is finished for the present, and the result of their labors in a long and comprehensive report, lias been published. The dele- j gates seem to have treated very fully all the matters submitted to them, and the suggestions they\tnake are both numerous and valuable. If a new Act be drafted on such a foundation, it ought to go a long way towards remedying many of the grievances by which the miner is at present harassed and fleeced. The Council of the New Zealand University are at present in session in Dunedin. Business has only been formal as yet, but it is believed that an effort will be made to bring about an amalgamation between the Colonial and the Otago Universities. There can be no doubt if this could be done on equitable terms, it would be much to the advantage of both. Nearly all the Church of England Bishops are here. just now, the reason for their assembling being the consecration of the Rev. S. T. Nevill to be Bishop of Dunedin, which takes place next week. The consecration service is to be performed on Sunday in St. Paul's Church. Bishop Moran had his usual tirade against things educational in general on Sunday evening. But he has sadly fallen off in vigor, and his address has degene- , rated into a mere rigmarole of personal defence and attack. The public opinion of the Province is decidedly against the clergy, either Presbyterian or Priest, having any control over our schools. Mr Caldwell, the Governor of the Dunedin Gaol, has presented his report to the Government for the pasb financial year. From his report I extract the fol- j lowing :— Out of the vote of L 8985 10s, 1 L 5254 9s 4d has been expended on the ; European, and L2BOI 3s on the Maori ; prisoners, making the total expenditure < L 8055 12s 4d, or L 929 17s 8d lesß than j the estimated expenditure. The value of ] the labor performed by the prisoners) to- t gether with the payment of thoOteaeral i

Government on account of the Miori prisoners, and a few small miscellaneous items, amount to L 9791 153 Id, showing an excess of revenue over expenditure of L 1736 2s 9d. The rates of wages at which the value of the work done by the prisoners has been calculated, were submitted to the Government Inspector of Works, and considered by him to be moderate. From this it will be seen that Mr Caldwell continues to keep the good name his establishment has gained for economy and efficiency. Very few prisons can show anything like such a balance. In other matters he also reports favorably. The general health has been good, and the behaviour of the prisoners rery quieti with few instances of misconduct. The Supreme Court has been sitting in banco during the week, trying cases in which points of law of more or less dubiety have turned up. The criminal session begins on Monday, but there are only four cases to try — one forgery, two stealing, and one embezzlement. There is also the case of libel — Regina v. M'Leod — arising out of the late election for Superintendent. The smart little screw-steamer the Taiaroa haa come to grief. She took the ground in crossing the bar at the mouth of the Clutha River, the current slewed her round, and before steerage way could be got on her again she ran ashore on a very ugly bit of the beach. Her cargo was got out all right, but next day she broke in two. Her cargo was sold for L 54, The rumored loss of the Queen of the Thames has occasioned a good deal of feeling here, there being several Dunedin people on board. Authentic accounts are anxiously waited for. Weather— first half of week fine, latter half cold and wet.