OTAGO FREE FIGHTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 35, 23 September 1871, Page 15

OTAGO FREE FIGHTS.

In the House on Tuesday last, two of these parliamentary entertainments came off. In the afternoon the Superintendent moved the second reading of a Dunedin Water Supply Bill, and the Provincial Solicitor moved that it be read that day six months. The latter gentleman was perfectly sure “he had the House with him.” His own colleague in the representation of the city was, however, against him. The Provincial Secretary denied his Honor the Superintendent was requested by the Provincial Executive to take charge of the bill, to which the latter replied that he would telegraph for the minute of the Executive and the names of the members present. The next occasion was one of those land bills which Otago sends up now every year. This time, rather significantly, the bill is not brought in by the Superintendent, but by the Provincial Secretary. The reason of this appeared in the debate when it was explained to the House that the Executive “ had locked out the Superintendent” and sent down resolutions to the Council he had never approved of! We have it on good authority that even after doing this they had the effrontery to ask his Honor to propose the bill to the acceptance of the House ! What added a zest to the entertainment in the evening was the sparling between the Provincial Secretary and the ex Treasurer. It seems that these two gentlemen, by a private arrangement, settled the question, so that what the former described in his stump oratory as “ a great blow to the Province,” was, after all, not so important as retaining his seat (and his salary) as Provincial Secretary. The country would be ruined by the Hundreds Bill passed by the Assembly, but the loss of Mr Reid’s services on the Government Benches was much more ruinous to the province (and

to himself!) Hew Zealand without a Richmond, we have been often told means chaos, but from this private compromise on the most vital question conceivable we learn that Otago without a Reid means ruin and disaster. We are puzzled however, on learning further, that this compromise between Mr Reid and Mr M'Lean was only worthy of being respected so long as it suited the convenience of the former! Reid on the benches, and Reid at all sacrifices of honor, seems to be the only thing necessary to save Otago, We begin to understand now how Mr Gisborne’s circular excited little attention. It was unpardonable in the Colonial Secretary to say so much of actual settlement and say so little of present settlers and the settlers’ friend. His ideas of village settlements might have gone down had he only said he meant to settle them in hundreds! Verily these Otago representatives are a peculiar people. The “ liberal” party are in the ascendant, and they have just sold 50,000 acres of land in one block to one of the richest squatters in Victoria, to whom they had previously sold the Island Block, one of the fairest spots for settlement in the interior. The views of the “illiberal” party may be gathered from those of Mr Macandrew, whose liberal proposals for the settlement of large numbers of immigrants from Scotland, Orkney, Shetland, Cornwall, Norway, Sweden, and Germany, on free grants of land, was referred to in our columns recently. “ Liberal” in Otago seems to mean narrow-minded ; illiberal is applied to those possessing the largest share of a colonising spirit. Great fun may be expected next time, five or six being al ready anxious to make speeches. The bil was deferred, and comes on again on Thursday. So ends Otago Land Bill, chapter one!