The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1863.

Southland Times, Volume 2, Issue 3, 19 May 1863, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. TUESDAY, MAY 19, 1863.

The Southland Chamber of Commerce is already giving signs that its utmost endeavors will be used to fnlfil its mission in an efficient manner. At the meeting which was held yesterday, it "was determined that the subcommittee appointed to draw up the memorial to the Provincial Government on the subject of contracts, should be given till Saturday to complete their work. We confess that we look forward with interest to the result. From many circumstances which must have come to the knowledge of the mercantile community of Tnvercargill, it is apparent that the Provincial Government want " pressing" on all those points which most materially affect the interests of the public. During the last session of the Provincial Council it was broadly stated by a member of the Government that all those measures which had been for some time so loudly clamored for outside were "in hand," and that Such of them as were not already perfected might be shortly expected to be turned out from the official workshop in a style which would give satisfaction to all parties. A very considerable time has elapsed since that session terminated, and, hard as individual members of the Government may have since worked, the result of their labors uptothe present time, is about asdiscouraging as can be. The fact is, that however well suited to be at the headof affairs before the discovery of gold in the Lake district had so largely increased the material wealth and importance of the Province, they have proved themselves altogether unequal to the task of Government on an extended scale. Theirs is by no means an unusual case ; it is one which frequently meets with its counterpart in this busy world of ours. The man who performs his duties in a small shop may be at fault in a large warehouse ; the schoolboy who is well aware of what happens when he adds together two i and two, may be unable to cope with the ramifications of a more dfficult calculation. [The analogy may not be perfect, but it is near enough for our purpose.] The " twice two" business was comparatively easy to our present rulers, — the difficulties of the more abstruse calculation which is now presented to them has overpowered them. They seem

unequalto the occasion ; but the case is not altogether without hope. By a careful course of instruction, and now and then a little sterner disciplines the schoolboy oaay, if he possess ordinary brains, master his problem ; and so the Southland Government with that instruction which men of the world can give them, and that "pressure* 1 of which we before spoke, may, after a while show signs of a larger capacity than they have hitherto done. For this reason we look forward with interest to the production of the memorial which is being prepared for their perusal. Beyond the general question of contracts, the memorial will, we believe, take some notice of the treatment which our merchants have experienced at the hands of the Government in reference to the railway plant which has been ordered from Britain, and we shall be glad to levrn that in that affair ignorance of what was due to so important a class, was the cause of the coarse pursued, and that once set right the Government will offend no more in that respect. The questions of which this memorial will treat, are not the only ones which will justly merit the consideration of the Chamber, but if it does nothing further at present than convince the Government that the merchants of the Province are not altogether ciphers, but are both willing and able to hold their own, and are not content to be quietly ignored, those who compose the Chamber of Commerce will, whilst not losing sight of their own interests, have conferred a great boon on the community at large.