THE LATEST MOVE IN OTAGO.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4848, 5 October 1876, Page 2

THE LATEST MOVE IN OTAGO.

(BY TELEGRAPH)/ ■ 1M } 1 Dunedin, Wednesday. ; > The, following is the reply,of iMacaudrew t'q the ; Governor ;—“I have the honor to ac-' knowledge the receipt late yesterday: of your telegram in reply to mine of the previous' day. 1 1 now" venture to express' my deep regret that your Excellency’s Government seem to be as completely under a cloud both as to the prac,tical effect upon Otago of abolition and as to the feelings of the people thereupon. I admit that there is a very small minority in favor of abolition,, inasmuch as the interests of many of them are likely to be served thereby, although at the expense of the community. I observe that your Government attribute the strong feeling which exists against abolition to misrepresentation and agitation, for which they hold me in a great measure responsible. This is a grave charge against myself and others, which is utterly without foundation in fact. It is moreover a poor compliment to the intelligence of the people who, I would beg to assure your Excellency, are perfectly competent to understand and judge for themselves in this matter, and who cannot but see in abolition the destruction of their provincial entity, and the almost entire abstraction of their local revenues, for colonial purposes outside the province. This they regard as a grievous wrong, which they are determined to use every constitutional means to avert. As it appears evident that no redress need be looked for at the hands of your Excellency’s Government, it only remains now to appeal to the Imperial authorities, in the hope that what is understood to be the law 1 of the Empire will be maintained, namely, that constitutional privileges once granted to a people are never taken away without their consent. Your Government deeply regrets that a Superintendent should venture to tell your Excellency that the action of your Advisers must, if persisted in, result in the dismemberment of the colony. Knowing, however, as Ido the strong determination which animates thousands of those who are the stamina of Otago, not to submit to- a policy which is detrimental to their interests and being forced upon them by what they believe to be a minority of the people of the colony, I should be much to blame did I not tell your Excellency what I know and believe to be the truth. Indeed, I might have gone further, and said that but for the fact that the people of Otago are a lawabiding people, entertaining the utmost loyalty for her Majesty and the Imperial Parliament, this determination ere now would have evinced itself in more decided action. Thanking your Excellency for your permission to publish, which I presume applies to this communication also, —I have, &c., Macandkbw.”