The Southland Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1864.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 9, 21 June 1864, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, JUNE 2 1, 1864.

His Honor the Superintendent - has returned from Auckland, having obtained for ua all we anticipated; all which, under tho circumstances, we could well have expected the G-eneral Governraent would do. We understand this amounts to instructions to the SubTreasurer to pay over to the Provincial Government £15,000 per month for three months, to complete the railway works. By this, we presume, is meant the opening of the Northern Eailway, as far as the Makarewa, at once— possibly further; and continuing .the fVVprKs :on the Bluff and Invercargill YLine, so' far as to prevent their destructibk^opi' wither an£:ptlier* causes, pending the time.' when we ; shall have sufficient fundstocomplete iiii' This accommodation is- accompanied - with -theinstruction, whicli we V nave previously stated would be the case, viz., to iijipreas our Landy Revenue. ¥c never • indulged * ' ; in^ "aay : ■ "high-flown^ expectations ;. but looking Yat tbe c^cum*-, stances i as .consistent,' wi%^stri^^s^e" and a due sense of what it owed to' the 1 Colony .vat;. large as *.;■ custodial y ,oiyj^y interests, we assumed that if the General Government -assisted us at all, it

would, as security forj the prevent&n of \ further mal- administration^ impress our ' _/, revenue^. v Our views have turned^utgfco.'f 'S be strictly correctN As to assenting taaS^^Vsuch absurd loans as the " one hundred and twenty thousand pound one," any hopes doomed' tq disappointnnent:^'„ln referringr to^this loan in 'a- previous isfiue'J we ex- 1 -' posed.wthe' mistake Jof ,T.elieving».^hat^ifo^ would ever be granted, or thatthe granting YofyifcVvas_.an act .of :justiee.._due to 'ourselves ; that,, thft principle of spending ,-money,yfi^)|Y^iid; ; yYgoing tc> the ; General G^er^pnte^fterwards for • assistance, "was^' -a - 1 one, and; not* likely, to be tplepated. •-- It „ wotdd appear that thatl Government ' • has j taken a similar: >viewr of Tithe case, and declines .sanctioning a, system .which would soon plunge 'tHe whole' Gdlbny^ in ruin. "We are not tobegot out of our' " difficulties so easily % and before we f are,\we shall haye ■-. plenty, of f time-; ;to 7 chew-rthe t ._ . , fitter cud of experience.' "*"' A YEhe assistance now tendered is on the express condition that,the mcmeyfisf toj;be devoted for Railway purposes solely. The past has not given us much' confidence in the; Government appropriating* to its y legitimate purposes the-mohey it obtains ; but; after the fT lessanv. ,we. ;T iaye^,h£ui in the. stoppage, .of pur railway. wprkß,_and_ the embarrassments in every department of business which have resulted thferefroriii ' ? we ■ would imagine thaTHis Honor will have received such Ta 4es§on7a^wi_t make ; him more careful for the future. If this last assistance is, misapplied, the Provincial Council bas'tti^pbwer'-of pimishSig**- ■■•*-■' by fine arty such sra-eactt-^apowerriwe hope they wiH..not„hesitate„in..exercising v _ Had the Superintendent r .when nr Auckland before, askiedthe General Government, ■'-'■"■ on the disallowance of the* Appropriation. Ordinance, 1863, what -it would do for vs r probably. -it;; might -have*, granted r a loan for a moderate_.amount at a short date; the. misappropriation^ of -the,. Railway Loans would, perhaps, : have not taken place, and. thus our credit with -the ; General Government have not .been destroyed ; the Bailway" works would not ' have been stopped, and much evil "■ prevented. Driven "at last to do what it was his duty to have done months ago, His Honor has obtained -more- than his deserts, at the expense of the impressment of our Land Revenue, and the 'refusal of any accomodation in the-shape of lorras. We presume the Provincial Council will be at once summoned to pass anew Appropriation Act, when, the events of the past will, it is to be hoped,, obtain a careful scrutiny. 111 i *