TOPICS OF TALK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 222, 30 May 1873, Page 6

TOPICS OF TALK.

The Commissioners : appointed to enquire into,the sale of land at Switzers conclude their report thus:—"We recommend a strict adherence to the practice of calling for a report from the Warden or other suitable person, before dealing with any applications for the purchase of land within Goldfields," &c. It is clear that such a course is very desirable, as it at the same time obtains the opinion of an officer expert in such matters, and also thoroughly notifies to the public the application in question. We would like to know whether any sach report ' was obtained in the matter of the Otekaike block, the sale of which the Waste Lands Board entertained so far as to make it almost an act of duplicity on their part at last refusing (by a majority of one only) to sell—a course determined on owing to the ability of Mr Stout, and to the indignation of the residents at Maerewhenua. Other sales occur to us where no such report was called for—where the land being, auriferously speaking, valueless, no notice has been taken—yet the Commissioners talk of the usual practice in this one case not beiug followed, and blame the Goldfields Secretary's office for the exceptional omission. It is well, however, that it should be understood that in future, at any rate, every application to purchase land in any Goldfields district should be reported • on by the Warden of that. district—and for the confirmation of that principle we are indebted to Messrs. Maitland and Shepherd. The Colonial Secretary (the hon. W. H. Beynolds) met his constituents at the Masonic Hall, Dunedin, on Saturday evening last. He was received enthusiastically by a very crowded room. His hard, straight blows at the conduct of the late Council were very well received. Indeed, the hon. gentleman did not mince matters. He told the meeting that he had now been a member of the Council for nearly twenty years, and he never yet had seen a set of such inferior men as were holding seats in the late Council. He felt it to be a disgrace to be a member in a Council which contained the unprincipled (as far as political matters went) and incapable men that so many of the upcountry constituencies had returned. He denounced, in strong terms, an evil that wo have again and again exposed—that men made a living by politics. They possessed, he said, no trade nor|profession to enable them to earn an honest living independently by; they bad no stake in the country, no wife or bfiirns ; and, above all, they were devoid of all principle : yet these men were returned not only to the Council but to the Assembly. It is to be hoped that Mount Ida will wipe off her share of the reproach generally throughout the Province attached to her electorate, of which the member for Dunedin was only the echo, and return members who not only have a stake, be it small or greit, in the district they represent, but will be honest and fearless exponents of the requirements and views of their „ constituencies. Is it right we should have to go to Dunedin to find two representatives for. the most important Goldfields district in Otago ? A member certainly should follow his principles rather than the, clamor of an angry ' constituency ; still,*when the action he may feel called upon to take is detrimental to its interests, in honor he should resign. . • , ::. '■;.■]■ •■.', Tueee is perhaps no; more dismal and dreary task than a ride through the North Taieri by Silverstream. , On every side are visible decay and ruin; fine fields lie virtually unfenced ; the ground that is worked is, for the most part, only scratched; houses/are shut up; barns are falling in—grass growing to the very doors; old rags are stuffed in the place of window-panes ; and throughout all there is a mouldy smell of dissolution enough to breed spiritual fevers sufficient to poison a large- community. If Dunedin Spiritualism ever had a beginning we should . say, it first appeared through North Taieri. The * Otago Daily Times/ that di, vides the honor with the 'Bruce

Herald ' alone, of opposing Mr Macaudrew on every conceivable opportunity, has been great of late on the expense of a dissolution. Far too generally this view of the Provincial crisis has been allowed overdue weight. What does this cry of expense really mean? Why, merely that a little floating capital is to be redistributed—there is no waste. A small tax is placed on political ambition, which, considering-the position of most of the candidates, can'not be considered oppressive. This .tat is returned to the constituen'cies to again circulate ia the purchase of the necessaries of life. Where/ then; is the waste ?