The Southland Times. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1869.

Southland Times, Issue 1168, 31 May 1869, Page 2

The Southland Times. MONDAY, MAY 31, 1869.

The differences which were known to exist between His Honor the Superintendent and the Executive, for some time past, have reached their culminating point. Hia Honor has taken upon himself the responsibility of dismissing his advisers. Whether he has acted prudently in doing so remains to be seen. It would appear that, from some cause not explained, Mr Peabsox, the Provincial Treasurer, has given offence to His Honor. In fact, we believe, ever since the members of the present G-overnment assumed office, there has been continued disagreement between them aad the Superinteadent. The result of this disagreement has been injurious to the best interests of the Province. At this stage of the quarrel, however, we are unable to determine which party merits censure, because we are not in possession of the whole of the facts. It is somewhat difficult to form a correct opinion upon the merits of a case which consists of charges and counter-charges, and which appears but imperfectly explained. The public will require the matter to be thoroughly sifted, and this can only be' done by tHe i publication of the' whple o$ the correspondence.

There is one Bubjeci upon which there ought to be no diffe rice of opinion.

The Council should be immediately convened, and, ; His Honor should state .; clearly and distinctly the reasons which led him to dismiss his advisers. Everyday * that is allowed to pass before this is done will intensify and embitter the quarrel. The Superintendent in our opinion will commit a grave nrstake if he postpones calling the Council together. Indeed, in the situation of political parties at the present moment, this course becomes au imperative necessity. We think it right to call attention to one fact. The memorandum of the Executive Council charges the Superintendent with desiring to pay the contractors at once in land. This certainly appears at first sight to be somewhat different to the terms we were led to believe had been originally agreed upon. Those were to the j effect that the contractors were to be paid in land after the work had been finished, but they were to be allowed to select the land in blocks in the first instance, such blocks to be reserved from sale. The following is the correspondence : — Superintendent's Office, Southland, May 27, 1869. Messrs Calder, Pearson, Boss and Pratt. Grentlemen — I have maturely considered the resolutions passed at the last two meeetngs of the Executive Council, relative to my letter of the 12th May, to Mr Pearson, whose every act therein mentioned you approve and make your own. To your refusal to decide how you will elect to pay the contractors for the Oreti Kailway, which I believe, and, as it appears to me, your desire will eventuate in the stoppage of the works; a result on every account greatly to be deprecated, and also to your resolution not to acknowledge the officers Mr Dundas has been obliged to appoint nor provide for the payment of their salaries. I cannot see how with such serious differences of opinion on such important subjects! it is possible that the G-overn-ment of the Province can be carried on satisfactorily, or even safely. My reasons for differing from you as to these pointsj have been stated to you often by word of mouth,, and also in various memos addressed to you collectively, and in letters addressed to the Provincial Treasurer. It is, I know, a very unusual step for a Superintendent to take, but I feel that no option is left me if I would not again see the Province plunged into disgraceful quarrels^and litigation with contractors, or still worse results perhaps from the want of proper provision for the supervision of the railway works, as has has happened before now, than to recall your appointments as members of the Executive] Council. — I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your obedient servant, * Jno. P. Taylor, Superintendent. Invercargill, 28th May, 1869. Sib — "We have the honor to acknowledge receipt of your letter of 27th inst., in which you inform us that you cancel our appointments as members of your Executive Council. That you have the legal power to take this extreme course in terms of the Executive Council Ordinances now in force, we do not deny, but at the same time, we maintain that the step is thoroughly unconstitutional, and by a Superintendent, elected under the New Provinces Act, directly at variance with the understanding on which he was elected to his office. Your Honor is aware that we accepted office, supported by a large majority of the Provincial Council, and had the assent J of that body to the scheme of Government which we proposed to carry out. Having thus been virtually appointed by the same body to which yourself and the Executive were directly responsible, you were morally bound, before taking the course you have done, to appeal to the Council, and allow it to decide which line of conduct it would sanction. You bring three distinct charges against us to justify the course you have been pleased to take. Ist. Our approval of Mr Pearson's acts, mentioned in your letter to him of the 12th inst. 2nd. Our refusal to decide how we would elect to pay the contractors for the Oreti [Railway ; and 3rd. Our resolution not to acknowledge ' nor provide for the payment of the salaries of the officers appointed by Mr As regards the first, you were verbally furnished with a full explanation of the causes which induced the action in question on the part of Mr Pearson ; and even if, on the ground of etiquette, which was your sole argument at the time you declined to be satisfied with the explanations given, we failed to see how our decision in this matter could be attended with any evil results to the interests of the Province. Your second charge involves a question of more importance. You desired that your Executive should decide at once to pay the contractors for the Oreti Railway in land ; the Executive declined to do so at this early stage of the contract, reserving to the Province the right possessed by it in terms of the Deed of Contract, of paying either in cash or land, on the completion of the works. Your Honor, however, is aware that the Government, by letter to the contractors, of 26th ult., expressed its willingness to allow them to select any, or all the land, to satisfy the purposes of the contract, and reserve the same from sale, which was all they could either demand or expect, under the I deed, any departure from which would be a manifest injustice to the other tenderers, as well as injurious to the interests of the province, besides being a direct breach of faith with the Provincial Council, which was informed by the supporters of the measure that the contractors' land would nqt compete with

that at the disposal of the Grovernment until the completion of the contract. Tour Honor is not content to state our decision simply in this matter, you go the length of attributing a motive to us which is wholly unwarrantable, viz., a desire to stop the works. If imputations are thus to be cast upon us for adhering to the plain terms of the contract, and thereby protecting the public interest, what may not be said of you who seek to depart from these terms, a procedure which has borne bitter fruit in the past. We cannot conceive it was the intention under the contract deed to make progress payments, which immediate election to pay in land, with the explanation given us by you, virtually means, placing as it does the whole lands of the province at the disposal of the contractors, until the 19,000 acres, which i under present management, may swell to | 25,000 or 30,000 acres, are absorbed. I Tour next charge is that we declined ' sanctioning certain appointments made by Mr J. Y. Dundas, and refused to make provision for the payment of these salaries. Tour Honor is good enough to observe that the results from the want of a proper supervision of the railway works might be disastrous, " as has happened before now." We fully concur in this remark, and to provide against such a contiugency, we recommended the amalgamation of the office of Road Engineer with that of Assistant Railway Engineer, which would have provided a thoroughly experienced andpractical officer without additional cost to the province. The appointments made by Mr Dundas were without our knowledge, and agovernment which allows its own officer to make appointments under it without asking its sanction, would, we hold, be unworthy of the trust reposed in it. Irrespective however, of this objection when it was found that the officers appointed had not the requisite previous training to enable them properly to supervise the works we had the less difficulty in arriving at the conclusion we did. The'real explanation of your Honor's present position is, in our opinion, simply this. Having determined on carrying out certain questionable measures, in which through your previous correspondence you considered that your personal honor was involved, and finding your Executive refused to sanction these, you decided to get rid of them in order to obtain the necessary legal sanction to those measures through a more pliant Executive. In conclusion, we have only to notice that during our three months tenure of office, the public expenditure has been reduced at the rate of six thousand a year, and the ruinous Railway Department, with its convenient appendages, swept away. While thanking you for having relieved us from a duty rendered doubly irksome and unpleasant by the unceasing resistance both active and passive evinced by you to almost every measure of economy and retrenchment suggested by us, we cannot but add that we believe the absence of that opposition would have enabled us to provide for the outstanding liabilities of the Province in a manner satisfactory to the country and to the Provincial Council which placed us in the position of your advisers. — We have the honor, &c, W. H. Caldeb W. H. Peaeson. J. Ross. T. Pbatt.