The Southland Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1870.

Southland Times, Issue 1331, 4 November 1870, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1870.

The first Oouncil under the new regime meets at Dunedin in a couple of weeks, so that our anti sessional , deliberations have no time to lose. It must not be understood that the event is one to which we attach too much importance, at the same time it is very requisite that an opposite extreme should be avoided, and the work entered upon with due regard to preparation. The Superintendent's admonitions were explicit enough in discountenancing great expectations, at the same time his Honor failed to explain that if nothing was solicited, nothing would be gained. Now, we have studied tbe idiosyncracies ofthe Otago legislature to poor advantage, if that same modus operandi does not operate as a latent principle of its administration, so that the possibility suggests itself that Mr Macandbew, under the plausible pretention of regulating inordinate desires, was in reality suing for certain immunities. He has gained for himself an amount of diplomatic distinction which justifies the assumption, so tbat it is right our representatives should -be put upon their guard to prevent undue advantage being taken of their inexperience of the mysterious movements of the (to them) new political organisation. A good deal of gloomy foreboding has from time to time been batched under the morbid impression of Southland's representation being •outweighed by the representation of the province as a whole. Under such auspices, visions of culpable neglect have been conjured up, sufficient to damp the public ardor at the very moment when it stands most in need of being stimulated. Now, such an opinion proceeds upon the narrowest basis of human perception. It assumes for Southland no interest in common with any other part of the province, and that she is to continue as much ofthe political IsHitAEL as she was when the whole force of Otago was brought to bear against her. This is a difficulty we do not anticipate. Our interests are admitted to be identical with those ofthe more populous districts of the interior, so that the smallest amount of tact on the part of our representatives should enlist the sympathy and cooperation of at least one-half of the province. The subject of intercommunication, for instance, is one upon which the Western goldfields are speculating to an extent which far eclipses the enthusiasm attributed to Southland in the days of its giddiest excitement. The reason of this is obvious. Southland has at its disposal the means of advancing their social well-being to an extent not previously understood, so that these places may be looked upon as coadjutors in working out the policy of the place. Tbe construction of a road by the Nokomai, Nevis, and Cromwell is a suggestion that comes from the Dunstan, for the ostensible purpose of opening up the central goldfields' market for our agricultural produce. The advantages to be derived from such a work are incalculable. Practically speaking, the Nevis and Nokomai are unexplored goldfields, with resources admitted upon good authority in many respects equal to the first discoveries at the Dunstan. Their langor is a Bimple result of their isolation, but by making them an available thoroughfare from Dunstan to InvercargiU and the Biuff, they are placed within the healthy circulating influence of a through traffic. Indeed isolation of this kind is one ofthe secret causes of Otago's ,

depression, and every step taken for its amelioration is so much done towards promoting the common weal. The Lakes road by the Staircase is another matter involving a joint int?rest, and as for j Switzers, and indeed the entire country north of the Molyneux, whatever is accomplished by Southland, must rate as so much material aid rendered to their cause. With these facts before them the representatives of Southland have no need to enter the Council chamber as so many returned prodigals. On the contrary, their presence indicates the solution of a difficulty under which Otago's administration has labored heavily-, so that the moderating dogma of his Honor should be accepted more in the light of a general principle for the constituency as a whole than a special provision for Southland in particular.