MR. MACANDREW AND THE OTAGO CONVENTION.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 410, 3 February 1877, Page 3

MR. MACANDREW AND THE OTAGO CONVENTION.

Mr." Mftcandrewj in his letter to the Chairman of the Otago Council, writes:— ''l need not pay that in my opinion it is now a forlorn hope to expect to recover these' advantages ill the hands of the Colonial Parliament as.at present constituted, and t'jat decidedly the best thing for Otago, and indeed for New Zealand, would be for the former to become a separate Colony,- ib which ease there will be nothing to prevent it from uniting with the rest of jNew Zealand for purely federal ptsrposeSj should such be deemed mutually advantageous. 1 have no besilatop in saying that had Otago a supreme legislature of its own, the value of property fhrougout the Province would be materially enhatfcedj the cost of Government mightbe mu"h reduced, iU ports might be free, and thai; iffc\ery point of view the Province would, in a few years hent-e, be a century ahead of what it will otherwise become. . • I very much doubt if Rev? Zealand can become the gr?al and powerful country which it migiit' be, unless it takes the shape of :> tonfederplion of independent Colonies;" at all events until such lime as its population numbers more thousands than it now does hundreds. ~,

There is no means' that I can see whereby we cau be relieved of the enormous unproductive expenditure in which the Colony is involved, or by which "we can simplify and bring within reasonable com pass tbeuiass of statute law, of which our-present system has been so prolific 31 is ihe only means, moreover, by which the people of New Zealand will be enabled to exercise any substantial control over public affairs."