SUMMARY FOR EUROPE & AMERICA

Southland Times, Issue 1172, 7 June 1869, Page 4

SUMMARY FOR EU ROPE & AMERICA

POLITICAL—PROVINCIAL. The information to be conveyed to our home readers under this heading, is j somewhat meagre. The only item of interest to chronicle is a quarrel between His Honor the Superintendent and his advisers, which has led to the resignation of the latter. "Writing on this subject on the 31st inst. we Btated: — The differences which were known to exist between His Honor the Superintendent and the Executive, for some time past, have reached their culminating point. His 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 Peabson, the Provincial Treasurer, has given offence to His Honor. In fact, we believe, ever since the members of the present Government assumed office, there has been continued disagreement between them and the Superintendent. 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 uponthe ! 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 publication of the whole of the correspondence. There is one subject upon which there ought to be no difference of opinion. The Council should be immediately icon-, vened, and His Honor should state clearly and distinctly the reasons which led him to dismiss his advisers. Every day that is allowed to pass before this is done ■will intensify andembitter the quarrel The Superintendent in our opinion will commit a grave mistake if he postpones calling the Council together. Indeed, ia the situation of political parties at' the present moment, this course becotnes an 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 effect that the contractors were to be paid in land after the work bad 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, Bobs and] Pratt. G-entlemen— I have maturely con-

sidered the resolutions passed at the last two meeetngß 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 Hallway, which I believe, and, as it appears to me, you 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 (Government of the Province can be carried on Satisfactorily, or even safely^ My reasons for differing froin yotl as) to these points 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 provisiqn for the, supervision of the railway works, as has happened before now. than to recall j your appointments as members of the Executive Council. — I have the, honor i to be, gentlemen, your obedient servant, Jno. P. Taylor, Superintendent. — ■» ■ .. luvercargill, 28th May, 1860. Sir — 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 weaccepted office, supported by a large majority of the Provincial Council, and had the assent 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 thel2ih 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 Dundas. As regards the first, you were verbally furnished with a full explanation of the causes which induced the action in question on the part bf-Mx 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 foiled ■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, 1 : or all the land, to satisfy the purposes of the contract, andV reserve the same from sale, which was all they could either demand or expect, under the 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~tne Provincial Council, which was informed by the supporters of the measure that the contractors' land would not compete' with that at the disposal of the Government until the completion of the contract. Your Honor is not : cbnterit 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, i, , , , "We cannot conceive it was the intention under the ; : contract , dee§ to make progress payments, which , junmediate 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#00 acres, which under present management, maV swell to 25,000 or 30,000 acres, aW absorbed. Your next charge is tliat we declined sanctioning certain appointments made by Mr J. F. Duriaas, 1 and refasedtoinake provision for the payment- of these salaries; Your Honor is good enough to observe that the results from^the want of a proper- supervision" of the- railway works might 'be disastrous; ff as has happened before now." Weiully concur m this remark, and to provide against such a contingency, we recommended the amalgamation of the office 6f JUxad Eiigk

neer with that oF' Assistant Railwa Engineer, which would have provided thoroughly experienced and practical office without additional cost to the province The appointments ' made by Mr Dunda were without our knowledge, and a govern ment which allows its own officer t< make appointments under it withou asking its sanction, would, we hold, h unworthy of the trust renamed in it Irrespective however, of tffira objectioi when it was found that the officers ap pointed had not the requisite previous training to enable them properly tc supervise the works we had the leas difficulty in arrivine-'at tne conclusion w« did. . >'■ The real explanation of your Honor's present position is, in our opinion, simply this. Having determined on carrving 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 Bail way ment, with its convenient appendages, swept away. "While thanking you for having relieved us from a duty rendered dotibly, 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 th6 Provincial Council which placed us in the position of your advisers. — We have the honor, &c, "W. H. Caldeb W. H. Pearson. J. Boss. ■ . ,T. Pbatt. Since the above correspondence was published, His Honor has appointed Mr Johbt Blacklock, Provincial Treasurer, and l)r Mofcktow a -member of the Executive, and the Provincial Council has been prorogued. Probably, it will be held some time in July. Notwithstanding the ' repeated failure which the question of annexation has met with whenever it has been brought forward for diacusaion in the Provincial Council, it is likely to attract some further notice this session. It would ap* pear, from the recent action of the Otago Provincial Council, that delegates from that body are to be appointed to confer with the Southland Provincial Council, with the view we suppose, of " excbang- : ing ideas " on the re- union question. But there is nothing whatever mentioned about the basis of union. It is simply assumed that the people in both provinces are willing to unite* and there ap-. pears to be a hazy kind of idea entertained that such a course would be for the benefit of all parties. The discussion, in the Otasro Council . was confined to only a few members. "Whatever little interest it may have at : first created has since died out, and the whole subject has sunk intso 1 "oblivion; We are warranted in assuming such to be the case, because we* can find no expression of opinion in . its favor in the Otago press. It is reasonable to suppose that if the question was one^of importance to the neighboring - province, some decided views would have been elicited, and some well-defined plan proposed. -But, on the contrary,, we find that the leading organ of Otago — the * Daily 'Times,* which is supposed to represent the ideas of the most influential portion of the community — discouragea the idea. "Writing on the subject sometime ago, that journal, alluding to the few persons in Southland who are in favor of annexation, says :—- ----"They believe that the moment a political union is accomplished, capital will animate their ' fields and workshops, labor will become cheaper and wealth will accumulate in all directions. , •. * * * The blessing of political independence is scoffed at by some as apoor compensation for commercial degression ; and the argument suggested is that by cancelling the political independence, the commercial depression will be '•' removed." This is to a great extent really what the annexationists believe. The idea appear* -to be lost sight of ' that the advancement of the neighboring province is' inainly attributable to th.eenergyj.of the inhabitants, and to their willingness ta bear gome of the burdens incidental^ ; c6l6nißation. The settlers of Otago freely tax themselves to.' contribute their proportion to the maintenance of roads, tp "the cause of education, and to other objects, equally conducive to prosperity «nd- -order. But we do .•» not. ' • It is : ,a ; great mistake to supposed that annexation would infuse fresh capital into, this Province. In, round numbers, there were expended on roads and public works, during the i past year, upwards of £80,000. Would we J continue to receive and expend even an eighth part of this amount annually; \% -we ;were, annexed to Otago ? tW« think not* A considerable part ;of this, sum was > expended on

y works, towards which 5 the^ettlers ought to a have contributed, aa their portion, at f least one-third.' if the people of this Province were to adopt the same plan as v } pursued in Otago they would have to o contribute about £10,000 per annum t towards the ' formation of district e roads, <&c, besides maintaining streets, j and generally carrying out the principle of local self - government. When trade gets dull; ' and money becomes scarce, it is the practice of some; of us ( to grumble and feel anxious to accept any offer which holds out a likelihood of improvement. . Such is the idea of most of those in favor of annexation. The impression is abroad that a line of railway would be constructed to the Mataura, as; the condition of our resigning our independence and abandoning the possession of our land fund. But it appears to have been forgotten that Otago is at the present moment unable to construct a line of railway of even the smallest dimensions — that, taking into consideration the larger area, "the numerous population, and the extensive goldfields, she is nearly in as bad condition financially as we are v Is it likely that the General Government, after having, we believe, twice refused to sanction loans for railway purposes, when Otago was in a far more prosperous condition then she now is, will at the eleventh • hour do so, or is it reasonable to suppose that we can divest ourselves, in a moment ; of irritation, of the responsibilities attached to ; a form of government that We clamored for ; some years since. Rather let us boldly face the difficulty we have ourselves created. Let us economise our expenditure, and devote every penny of our surplus land fund to the formation of roads and public works of a reproductive character. Let us reform the constitution of the Provincial Council, and make it essential for the Superintendent in future to be a member of that body, conducting the business of the Government, and personally defending his own policy. Let us bear some of the burdens of direct taxation until we have, got out of our difficulties, and 'by this means we ; will command 'both the respect and attention of the G-eneral Government to our wants. .We have plenty of assets. We have a ' large land fund, which properly used, js amply sufficient to open up the interior of the . country and promote immigration. During the month of May we sold upwards of 8,000 acres, which not onlyprovidesfovtheinterestandsinking fund of the debt ofthe Province to date, but will leave about £5000 to pay off pressing liabilities. We are not positive of the fact, but we believe the balance of the railway plant amounts -to only some -£7,000. With these facts' before us we have no great cause to complain. We are no worse offthan our neighbours. 'Prom every part of New Zealand we hear chronic complaints of the dullness of trade, and we believe this unfortunate state of things will continue until vigorous action is \ taken to put an end to the Maori war. c The tendency throughout the colony * is to abolish Provincialism rather than to c extend it, to obtain local self-government, . and the management of revenue for local purposes. • Annexation , to Otago means ! i the very reverse of this. If we ( are to have a change let it be a ( general one. Let it be such a change as t will free the Middle Island from the ] burdens of an ill-conducted and ruinous war, and not one which will aggrandise 1 ' one Province at the expense of another. (