DUNEDIN. (From our own correspondent.) Dunedin, March 21.

North Otago Times, Volume 1, Issue 5, 24 March 1864, Page 5

DUNEDIN. (From our own correspondent.) Dunedin, March 21.

In my last I promised to give your readers some idea of the business which the Executive is likely to bring before the provincial Council at the forthcoming session. I cannot learn that this is likely to be very varied in its character, or that it will involve any policy for which our Provincial Ministers can claim the credit of originality. The great subject of inter nal communications will be piece de resistance of the session. Of course other matters of minor importance will be brought forward, but the only matter to which the government has given particular attention, is that of roads, and railways, and things cognate thereto, one of the most important of the collaterals being of course the money question. The Government proposal will I believe include the construction of a railway, as little expensive in its nature as may be, from Port Chalmers to the Molyneux. The financial part of the scheme will contain a proposition to set apart a million of acres of agricultural land as the security for a new Provincial Loan of £1,000,000. The Government is beginning to open its eyes to thp £ict that whon it pomes into the mm ket of the world with it? securities, its insignificance is patent enough to daindgo its credit. It has been well remaiked that have, as a Province, no secmity of any sort to offer to any one who lends money to us, but the respectability of our family connections. To lend money to a New Zealand province, is like making an advance to a young fellow on his personal secmity, well knowing that he has neither present property nor "expectations." on the calculation that whon the bill is clue his father, or uncle, or some one who cannot afford to have his name disgraced will "shell out" rather than let his young relative meet the penalties of insolvency. We have indeed no means of our own : nor have we the power to raise any except by direct taxation in thp form of rates and licenses. A portion of the customs' revenue is accorded to us, on sufferance, as it were, and may at anytime be taken from us by the power that gave it. It is not that the Provinces subsidise the General Government out of their revenues. The colonial authorities have never let the collection of the revenue slip out of their hands, and what we receive is a subsidy from them Similar is our tenure of the proceeds of the sale of Crown Lands. Things appear- smooth at present, but when the Colonial Government finds itself in financial difficulties, as from its present course of proceedings it is certain to do before long, some portion or other of the revenues we talk of as our own, must of necessity be appropriated to meet deficiencies in the Colonial Treasurer's budget. It is evident, therefore, that if we can lock up the proceeds of our lands by obtaining advances upon them with the consent of the Colonial Government, we shall to a certain extent secure our position. Such is, I believe, the idea which prevades the present government scheme, and if its details have been worked up with care, it will no doubt prove a popular measure with which to meet a Council like our own, -which, whatever its faults, is essentially a practical-minded one. Beyond these questions of public works, and the loans required to provide for them, the task of our Provincial Treasurer ought to be a pleasant one. There can be no doubt that our ordinary income is fairly in excess of our expenditure. As I hinted in my last lefter, the session of Council, if not fruitful of political changea, is likely to be by no medSuUL peaceful one. There will be a littfajfora.

about the Commission on the Mussel Bay reclamation. Port Chalmers is up in arms at the appointment of Mr Thomas Taylor on this Commission, which has led to the resignation of the other members, that gentleman being, as is stated, disqualified for the position by personal interests which led him to refuse to give, evidence before the committee of the Council, whose report led to the appointment of the Commission. Another Commission, the Royal Commission of the Exhibition, will be the source of a sharp debate when a demand for more money is made on its behalf. The Government, the public, and a majority of the Council, are just now " angry without a cause" with the Otago members of this Commission. The " Daily News," a sort of semi-official organ of the Government, makes a dreadful onslaught upon them this morning; but if you can find out what it is all about, you are more clever than your correspondent. The whole matter lies in the nutshell of " personal vanity." The Commissioners have no doubt spread their tails a good deal, but they have unmistakeably done their duty in the honorable office conferred upon them, and it would be difficult to find better men. But the vanity of other men, who think themselves as good as any Royal Commissioner, is at the bottom of the present outcry. The Commissioners will get a fine snubbing during the session, and they will survive it ; and what is of far more consequence to them and to us, their works will survive when the Provincial Council is forgotten. You will have learnt that Mr Steel has been quietly returned again to the Council. From what' I can learn, they could not find a man at the Clutha to fill his place who was sufficiently free from the " squatter" taint. I have confined my letter to political gossip, and must endeavor to strike into some other line next week.