The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1869.

Southland Times, Issue 1118, 5 March 1869, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 5, 1869.

The present session of the Provincial Council has been remarkable for the disclosures elicited from the Provincial Treasurer. The spectacle of mutual anger and recrimination was not an inviting one. The personal quarrel between Messrs Blacklock and Pearson should not have been fought out in the Council. They should have buried their differences so far as to proceed with the business of the session, in place of which the most unseemly conduct was indulged in by both hon. members. It only proves the truth of what we have lonoago stated, that provincial iustitutions are daily getting into greater disrepute — that in place of the Provincial Council, as it is now constituted, conferring any benefit on the community at large, the reverse in many cases is but too common. So sure as the Estimates are brought up for discussion, so sure is it the occasion for a scramble for the loaves aud fishes. Ifonly half theenergy was desplayed in the advancement of the public interest, that is manifested by members of the Government to secure both place and pay, we should not have to complain of the barren results of each session. The present one is a case in point. Instead of proceeding with the business of the country — instead of endeavouring to carry out to its final stage the completion of the railway, and thus confer a positive benefit on the community at large — the time of the Council has been taken up with a squabble between two of its members iwho, from their position, should have set a better example. It must be remembered also that this trifling with the time of the Hoiis^, is rather an ex. pensive luxury. It costs the country ou an average about £15 per day, and how the Government can reconcile thfs fact with their professed desire to carry out retrenchment appears to us somewhat incomprehensible. But the members of the Council are equally to blame. There is no system adhered to. Everybody appears to do exactly as he likes, and to crown all, the Speaker, who receives a salary for presiding, aud who is supposed to be well up in the iorms of the House, is the most noisy and obstructive. Every five miuntes he must makea little speech, he must becontinuailv popping up aud down, reminding one of ilu *>>tiquated " Jack in the Bon," aud ill sense of the dignity of the Speaker, is iost in the noisy litilo man. It was only the other evening that he received a well merited rebuke from Mr Calder for the unseemly way he interrupted one of the speakers. It is to be hoped that in future he will endeavor to put a curb on his tongue if it is at all possible.

I?r consequence of the resignation of Mr 1 Blacklocic, His Honor the Superinten- ] dent sent for Mr Calder, who undertook to form a Government, composed of the following gentlemen :— Messrs Calder, < Peajbson, Pratt, and lioss. The,, new i ]

Executive, we believe, intend to carry out a vigorous system of retrenchment. If such be the case they will receive the support of the public. But there is another subject the importance of which canuot be overrated —we allude to the completion of the Oreti Railway. The Government should take the earliest opportunity of satisfying the public mind on this point. The contractors, Messrs Abbott & Packham, should be instructed to sign the deed at once, and the work commenced. If this is not done, we predict that before two months expires the population of the Province will be sensibly diminished. Numbers of men are now waiting about town in expectation ot obtaining employment, who will be compelled to leave the Province if this work is not proceeded with. It will seem strange indeed, if, on the one hand, we are encouraging Immigration, whilst on the other, able-bodied men are leaving the Province for want of employment.