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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4432, 3 June 1875, Page 2

Another Ministerial crisis in Otago ! Our telegrams inform ns that Mr. Bastings is “ out” and Mr. Reid “ in,” just as wo learned by the wire a week ago that Mr. Reid was “out” and Mr. Bastings “in.” We can thoroughly believe what our special correspondent telegraphs, namely, that it was a struggle for the loaves and fishes, the hon. member for Mount Ida apparently going in for “ the crumbs ” for his district. The new Executive, in all likelihood, will be a strong one. The Treasury is to fall to Mr. John Davie, who has recently returned from England, and the Hon. Dr. Menzibs is expected to represent Southland at the Executive table—a decided improvement upon Mr. Ldmsdbn, who occupied that position with Mr. Reid last year. It is to be hoped that there will now be a disposition to settle down to work. A great deal of time has been lost in a miserable squabble for office. While this carricature of Parliamentary Government is being presented to public scorn in Dunedin, the financial blunders and extravagance of the provinces form the subject of incisive criticism in leading commercial journals of England. In the provincial legislatures there is an indecent squabble over “ the spoils of office ;” in London, there is a warning, not to be despised, that provincial extravagance is gradually impairing the credit of the colony. While one set of men bid for office in Otago by proposing to squander the public estate wholesale, Mr. Vogel, in London, is pointing to that estate as ample security for the public creditor, in, reply to a hint that New Zealand would do well to “attend very carefully indeed to its “finance in order to escape disaster.” And thus the reckless dissipation of colonial assets proceeds, under the very eyes of those who have the power to check it in a summary way. We trust, that Mr. Davie, when he takes office in Otago, will look at the question of provincial finance as one affecting the entire colony. He is capable of ( taking a statesmanlike view of public questions ; and if he succeeds in restoring the Provincial Council of Otago to reason, and rests content with providing for existing wants, he will deserve well of the community. Mr. Bastings would doubtless be useful in the Government; but it is a question whether he would join Mr. Reid whom he so recently displaced, and who has just paid him a similar compliment. At any rate, provincial institutions have not gained adherents by recent proceedings in the Otago and Canterbury Councils.