THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1862.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 55, 18 January 1862, Page 2

THE Otago Daily Times. "Inveniam viam out Faciam." SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 1862.

Complaints are constantly reaching ns concerning the management of the ferries and the inadequate accommodation afforded by them. We recommend the matter to the immediate attention of the government? In cases of accident, it is said very imperfect appliances are at hand, for meeting the emergency. The government should require that extra boats be left at each of the ferries, together with spare tackle and drags. Copies of the admiral code of instructions for the recovery of persons suffering from the effects of immersion issued by the Royal Humane Society, should also be provided, together with the necessary remedies of bottles, blankets, &c. Another subject that should engage the attention of the government is, to require the employment of sufficiently capacious ferries, worked wiih sufficient rapidity to prevent any lengthened delays to passengers and vehicles desirous of crossing. If we are rightly informed, very serious delays are of frequent occurrence at those ferries, at which, from the large traffic, over, extra precaution should be adopted to guard against them. The high prices are another serious cause of <!omplaint. One ferryman it is said, is earning

,£10."00 per annum. Surely it never was con- j templated that an income of this kind should be raised at the expense of persons requiring to travel up and down the country. A tax such as this is calculated to discourage that inter-comnmnication between the town and country districts which is of so much importance lo the development of a young Colony. We have heard in reference to this particular ferry, that the lessee advances some claim to the retention of the high prices on the ground that they were in a manner guaranteed to him when he went to the expense of building an enlarged ferry. Even this we believe was only half at his expense, the government defraying a moiety of the cost. It would be better that what claim, if any, he have should be examined and settled \>y an absolute compensation proportioned tothejusticeofthecase, and the charges of the ferry be then fixed at a fair price based on the immense amount of trafiic of which it is the fortunate recipient.

Attracted bj' the rather ostentatious notice of a public meeting to be held at the Tokomairiro, at which, in compliance with the wishes of his constituents, one of the representatives of that district was to explain his stewardship of the trust confided to his keeping, we dispatched a special reporter to the spot. The result of his labours is to be found in another column, and Are fear our readers will hardly be grateful to us for the trouble and expense we have been at in catering to their amusement and .instruction. If, as far as we are concerned, the principle had not been at stake of ensuring due publicity to local political meetings, we should certainly regret that we had been led into dispatching a special reporter on a mission that the event has proved was of little or no importance. As the French would say le jeii ne vnut pas la chandelle, which freely translated we will render, the meeting was not worth the cost of the candles. In fact it was a failure, only seventeen people attended, and even of these only a portion were electors. Mr. Gillies attributed their absence to the insufficient publicity given to the meeting, a solution which we are not bound to receive. Tokomairiro must be very different to other places of the same character and dimensions, if an event so much out of Hie ordinary as one of its representatives propos'n^ to hold a public meeting, did not travel troi.. one end of it to the other. We will venture to assert that the meeting was pretty generally known, and that its scanty attendance j was due less to accident than to design. The circumstance [is another proof added to many of what we have often asserted, that political vitality is somewhat deadened in the old residents, and that the introduction of fresh blood is required to restore a healthy animation. jSTo better proof is needed than this meeting of the folly of having a general election before the preparation of a fresh electoral roll- What a farce it would be for the thousands of new arrivals unable to take any share in the election, to look on at the languidly indifferent movements of the old electors. Meetings numbering seventeen persons, with unwilling candidates to come forward, and others who would get in because no one would take the trouble to oppose them, —these would be the characteristics of a general election just now. The ok! residents have their attention engaged in other matters besides politics. Those amongst them who were accustomed to occupy prominent positions are the men who have advanced most under the lately introduced order of things. Their businesses extended, their means enlarged, and their energies braced to more ambitious efforts than formerly, the local matters that used to interest them, appear to them now more or less petty. If a serious struggle were impending no doubt they would arm for the conflict, but they would not take part in an inglorious struggle limited to only a few competitors.

Of Mr. Gillies' speech but little is required to be said. It was necessarily tame. Whatinspiration could be drawn out of seventeen heai-ers? Where was the possibility of appeal to the intelligence of an audience, each man of which occupied so lunch space that one person only could come at once under the eye of the orator, and that person would naturally suppose he was being " chaffed." How was he to tell his seventeen hearers that he was proof against calumny, and indifferent to misrepresentation, so long as he had their I expression of approval—they would think he was "poking fun at them." Nothing in the way of embellishment was left him; he had only dry matter to deal with, and to do him justice, he proceeded to his task con arnore. The leading point of his speech, the one that seemed most to concern him, was that his colleague, Mr. Hardy, had taken care to have his bread buttered on both sides, so that he had managed to make himself an enticing morsel, first to the opposition and then to the Government. Mr. Gillies did not consider there were any very destiactive features to mark the difference between the two sides of the house, so that no very hideous political tergiversation was involved in Mr. Hardy's choosing that which liked him, and which he liked best. As to who has the best of the bargain, the Government which. has joined Mr. Hardy, or Mr. Hardy who has joined the Government, events alone can prove. Meanwhile the people of Tokomairiro will be very different to "the constituents of other places, if they object to see their representative endowed with that place, pay, and power, which give him the chance of showering occasional windfalls of favour and patronage upon themselves and their belongings. If the General Government does not decide on a dissolution of the Provincial Assembly, Mr. Gillies threatens to resign, and offer himself again for re-election. For our own sake and for our readers, we hope he will pause before lie carries out this intention, as we should be sorry to have again to bore them with special reports of the proceedings of Mr Gillies and his seventeen Tokomairiro supporters.