THE Otago Daily Times.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 316, 24 December 1862, Page 4

THE Otago Daily Times.

iS Inueniam viam aut faciam."

DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24

In the Provincial Council yesterday,

The House having gone iato Committee of Supply, the blank in the Estimates was filled in with the amount L 405,058 19s lOd. The Appropriation Bill was then put through all its stages aud passed. ■ The Otago Loan Bill, the Dog Nuisance Bill and the Turnpikes Bill were read a third time and passed. His Honor the Superintendent then entered the House, aud delivered the Address proroguing the Council. His Honor gave bis assent to the Impounding Bill, the Licensed Hawkers' Bill, fhe Oamaru Town Board Bill, the Dunedin Building Bill, the TurnpiKes Bill, the Dog Kuisance Bill, and the Appropriation Bill. The following were reserved for the Governor's pleasure:— The Utaao Loan Bill, the Miners' Provincial Representation Bill, the Port Otago Marine Board Bill, the Panama Mail Subsidy Bill, and the Unimproved Land Bill.

The Council virtually came to an end yesterday as there can be no doubt that the Governor will accede to the request to dissolve it. Had the feeling previous to the late session not been in favor of its dissolution, on the well defined grounds that its members, in respect to their numbers, intelligence, and position, were not suited to the altered conditions of the Province, that feeling would have been supplied by the course of late events. The Council is to blame, although in a lesser degree, for the outrageous conduct the Government has pursued, for it more or less has sanctioned it. It has countenanced a gross breach of a well understood condition, that during the session no unnecessary legislation should be effected. Had this not been understood, the Council would not have had the opportunity of effecting the mischief it has, because Sir George Grey would have been petitioned, in a way he would not have slighted, to dissolve the Council. Upon the pretence that nothing unnecessary would be entered upon the. session was permitted, and.in glaring violation of the condition, two-thirds of the business the Council has transacted might have been left to another House.

The Marine Board Ordinance need not have been passed until 1864, but was simply forced on to enable the Government to exercise the patronage it confers. The Unimproved Land Ordinance is not only unnecessary, but is a reproach to the Council. It is true that the General Government will not assent to it, but the fact still remains that Otago has tried to pass into law a measure that displays an utter disregard of vested rights. With all the complaints in Victoria of the ill working of the land regulations, and with all the disposition of a numerous party to legislate against an obnoxious class, no such measure as this was ever carried. Whenever Otago asks for Separation or an independent Government, this Ordinance, with its utter disregard of vested rights, will be thrown into its "teeth. The author of the Act is well known, and it is equally patent that his ideas on this one subject are morbid in the extreme. If the General Government were to assent to it, its effect would be to lower the value of the public lands fully one-half, and the public estate would be profligately sacrificed to suit the crotchets of one man whose experience does not teach him the futility of all attempts to control the disposition of capital. The financial position of the Province is left in a condition that justifies the greatest uneasiness. The Estimates provided for an expenditure of about £200,000 more than the estimated revenue, and the means of making up the deficiency are so irregular that if assented to by the General Government they are not likely to prove of any use at home. The Ordinance for raising a loan it both too loosely worded, and its conditions too unfavorable to the lenders of the money, to render it at all likely that persons will be found ready to take up the loan on anything like fair terms. Either the money will not be forthcoming, or else it will be procured at a great cost. It wil I be useless to run through the other Ordinances passed through by the Government. They all more or less display the same ignorance of statesmanship, the same stolid indifference to consequences, the same trading upon the weakness and ignorance of the Council. Now that the course of the latter has come to an end, and that of the Government is well nigh run, we should not be inclined to press harshly on the faults of either one or the other, were they of a less serious nature. But there is no guaging the injury that the late session may do the Province, and we cannot help severely stigmatising the something more than folly of nien,; who, through weakness and incapacity, have sacrificed the important interests confided*to them.

It is to be hoped these facts will not be lost sight of during the ensuing elections, an 4 that they will lead to the selection of an altogether better class of legislators than those whose actions have disgraced the Province. some exceptions, the members of the Council have shown themselves quite ineligible for re-election; and the electors, if they do their duty, will teach them as much, if they venture to offer themselves again. Unfortunately' some men are ambitious in proportion to their i

incapacity, and if we are to credit *puMc? rumor, Mr. Dick lias conceived ~the~e*tr4va-" gant idea of aspiring to the Superintendentship. How he can suppose that out of a bad" Provincial Secretary a good Superintendent can be made, we are at a loss to understand. He cannot be unconscious of hisshortcomings; he cannot be unaware that he his a mere tool in the hands of his colleagues, and on what grounds can he ask to be placed in so responsible a position as that of .head- of the- Province? As we have said, the only solution;is that his ambition is in proportion to his unfitness. The electors have- the- very plain course before them, of rebuking the one and rejecting the other. ,