THE Otago Daily Times "Inveniam vaim out faciam" DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1862.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 126, 11 April 1862, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times "Inveniam vaim out faciam" DUNEDIN, FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 1862.

Difficult as it is in Otago to excite any sustained interest in political matters, we arc quite convinced that on the question of the separation of the Islands, the apathy whicli the inhabitants continue to display will be shortly overcome. They have proved themselves a patient and long-suffering people, difficult to excite, prone to endure. But everything has its limits, and we presume they will somewhere draw the line to their endurance. We give them to the termination of the coining Session in the House of Representatives to arrive at the conclusion, or rather. |we should say, to become alive to the fiict, that they cannot hope for equitable legislation, or efficient administration of the laws, so long as the seat of the Legislature and of the Government continues in the Northern Island.

The novel position which Otago has assumed as the wealthiest province of New Zealand is likely to receive a vry welcome exemplification at the hands of the other provinces, in the shape of a liberal use of its money. The apportionment of the cost of the General Government, anil of other items that come under the class A is made upon the principle of the relative, amounts contributed by the several provinces to the General Government Revenue. Five-eights of thi* revenue as collected in the provinces are ini[joundftl for the purpose of meeting th.c expenses under class A, the remaining threeeights, the provinces retain. Whatever is left of the five-eights after defraying the expenses under class A, is repaid to the respective provinces from which it is collected. Fur example, supposing the General Government revenue collected in Otago, amounted to £160.000. Sixty thousand of this would be retained by the Province, the retraining otic hundred thousand pounds would lie impounded for the expenses under class A. The payment of these would be divided amongst the Provinces in proportion to their several contributions to the revenue. Thus supposing Canterbury contributed to the revenue one-eight of the whole amount collected, and Otago one-half, the relative proportions of Canterbury and Otago would be- as 1 to 4, or in other words Otago -would contribute to the expenditure four times as much as Canterbury. The proportion which Otago had to contribute having been deducted from the five-eights—the £100,000—the balancewould be returned. From rough approximate calculations, hastily made, which appeared in our last summary for Europe, we may conclude, for the purposes of argument, that the following will be about the contributions to the revenue of the several provinces during the current year: — NORTH ISLAND. .£ Auckland 75,000 Wellington ■ ... 35,000 Napier and Taranaki 10,000 120,000 MIDDLE ISLAND. £ Otago ... .. 160,000 Canterbury ... 40,0)0 Nelson, Southland, and Mnrl borough ... 30,000 230,000 £350,000 Five-eighths of the Northern Tsland revenue will be £75,000, and of the Middle Island revenue will be £144,000, whilst thesatne of Otago will be £100,000, (or nearly half the entire contributions oi" the two Islands), and of Canterbury, £25,000. Thus of every pound voted away bj' the Legislature for General Government purposes. Otago will have to contribute nearly 10s. whilst Canterbury will have about 2s. 6d.; Wellington, 25.; and Nelson, Southland, and Marlborough conjoined about Is 9d Otago will be contributing one third more than the whole of the Northern Island together ; for every pound paid by the Northern Island Otago will pay 265. Sd . whilst out of every pound b}"- the Middle Island Otago will be paying I3s. lOd. Here arc a few instances in round numbers, extracted from the Summary before referred t 0 : —" The contribution of £5 a-head to the troops, was settled by the House last session : this will amount to £30,000 a-ycar —to which Canterbury would pay £3500, the other Provinces of the Middle Island £-2500, and Otago alone £14,000, besides the whole charge for the company of soldiers now on garrison here Or take the Civil List, £19,000: the proposed cost of Sir George Grey's native scheme. £50,000 ; the troops' contribution, £30,000 ; and other general charges borne by the whole colony—say, £11,000 ; making a total of £110,000 ; the Middle Island would pay £73,000 towards that-amount, and Otago alone-more than £50,000—nearly the whole being spent in the North Tsland." But whilst Otago will be made to contribute this large proportion to the revenue, her voice in controlling the expenditure will only be able to make itself very feebly heard Out of a house of 53 members, Otago has only five representatives, one of whom, Capt. Frr.ser, must necessarily be away. We are not to expect any very nice discrimination in public men performing what they conceive to be public duties; honorable members will coasider they have so much revenue to deal with, and will not think themselves bound to. remember how or by whom it was contributed. The extent of their reflection in this direction will be, how much their respective provinces did not subscribe, when they will feel very comfortable in apportioning that to which those they represent had been at little or no expense in contributing. " The greatest good of the greatest number," will be their motto,— only for people they will substitute provinces. With charming freehaudedness, they will vote money in every direction, cheered with the knowledge that whilst their constituents will enjoy the benefit, these will only have to pay a portion of the expense. Do any of cur readers recollect when as very young boys, they first went to school, their boxes loaded, by anxious parents, with cakes, jams, and other delicacies As soon as one of these little hoys makes his appearance amongst his older and more experienced companions he is asked for the key of his boxes and is assured that the delicacies they contain shall b<3 divided for his benefit amongst his schoolfellows.. Powerless to prevent it, he sees his treasured resources, the contemplated devouring of which has-been his chief comfort during his journey to school, scrambled for by a host

of boys in whom'he has little or no interest,' and who have little "or no interest "in him. In the midst of the scramble he will, perhaps, find it difficult to secure a crumb of the cake, ■i bite at one of the apples, or to insert hi? .li»its into the jam pots. But all around him he will see his lively companions (who, by-the-bye, have a great contempt for him the while) gorging themselves with his treasures, and, perhaps, out of mere wantonness palting one another with the remainder, which they are unable to consume, like mon* keys playing with cocoa nuts. Otago, in the coming session will be the home-sick boy, who will go up amongst his experienced companions with his trunk well filled with the luxuries they covet. What congratulations there will be over the sumptuous repast; how eagerly the chest will be unlocked, how freely the members will hand the contents about amongst themselves. The}' will never dream of returning any to its owner. What good, it the end of the session, to let some of the cakes go back; better to prodigally waste than to return them. Like Dickens' fat boy, the members msiy fall asleep over anything else, bin they will be wide awake in disposing of the eatables. And Otago will have to calmly submit, while the other provinces enjoy their cannibalistic feast off their fair fat sister. It is difficult to anticipate the liberality with which the supplies will be voted. Ministers will not have even to ask, their requests will be forestalled. If money will put an end to the war, here's the public purse, don't spare it. By all means deal liberally with native questions, shew the Home Government that we don't care for the expense. If we " pay by proxy" now, Otago's shall be the favoured treasury to be looted, not that of the Imperial Country. Native institutions by all means we'll pa}' for them : we'll pension as many as Mr. Conciliating Fox desires, and if the Aiaories prefer golden syrup or honey to treacle let them have it. The liberality of the members will be something like the philanthropy if the Samaritan, who boasted The nnkud every day lie clothed — Wlien he put on his.clothes. And to make all safe, there is verj' little doubt that the presence of Otago Members will be discouraged by the Session being held at Auckland instead of Wellington. It is scarcely necessary to point out the little that Otago will be able and should do, to make the best of the anomalous position in which she is placed,i —providing the means for half the expen-. diture, with only about one voice in twelve to control it. That-.little consists in < send-j ing up the best members that are to be, procured ; in seeing that there be no truant' members in case the session be held in Auckland, and in preventing a recurrence of the same spoliation in subsequent years, by procuring an immediate separation from the Northern Island. ,