DUNEDIN.

Southland Times, Issue 1336, 18 November 1870, Page 2

DUNEDIN.

(FBOM OUR OWN COBBESPONDEHT. 1 ) Saturday, Nov. 12. Since the finish up of the city elections matters have been remarkably quiet. Indeed Dunedin journalism might have taken an afternoon nap to itself, had not Mr Justice "Ward poked it up with a little bit of judicial scandal. The history of the affair is this. Twelve or eighteen months ago, the bar status of one Smythiea, a Dunedin barrister, was impugned en the ground that he (Smythies) had been at one time convicted of forgery. This afforded Judge Ward a magnificent opportunity for airing his judicial sanctimony, and to such an extent did he improve the event, that had his general characteristics been more evenly balanced, the religious element of the colony could not have been blamed for anointing him special conservator of the moral law. Leaving that view of the, subject on one side, Chief Justice Arney and his colleages have administered to the learned gentleman one of the soundest rebukes one judge could have received from another. A voluminous correspondence has passed between the belligerent powers, and for the edification of the world at large, it has been published in the morning paper. Meantime Judge Ward has been transferred to the West Coast circuit, and not having found the select circle he gathered around him in Duaedin, his personal peculiarities are being attacked with more or less virulence. One Hokitika journal puts the matter in this wa y : — •« Can the new ruler of the court lay bis hand to his heart and say he has none (referring to faults) ? pan he say he is as pure as Joseph — and as unwilling — pure as snow, white as damask, and untainted as are the angels ? Where is the man who, if his life were 'enquired into,' and sat upon by a government official searching for evidences of peccadillos, could stand the test unscathed ? Could the present occupant of the bench ?. He appears to be a gentlemen very much prone to getting himself into hot water with his equals, and that perhaps disposes him to have it out with his inferiors. Having crossed f swords with the Chief Justice and the rest of the big wigs — and come off second best — he flourishes his weapon with extra vigor where he can lunge without fear of a return. Should he, however, meet with a foe who could battle with him, and he should get vanquished, we should weep most bitterly." The special session of Council commences on Tuesday at noon. Southland and its affairs form the main subject for consideration, so that, generally speaking, it is not looked forward to with much in* terest. Forming as it does, the expiring cry of the current provincial council the event suggests a retrospective view of the legislative term now about to close. The past four years have been singularly uneventful. The great expectations that , were called into play with Mr Macandrew's electionhave all vanished into nothingness, and the affairs of the province generally are pretty much in the same condition in which he found them. He cannot be said to have improved his position; on the other hand no serious objection can be raised against his administration. A man gifted with a greater amount of personal independence would probably have been induced to place his resignation in the hands of his constituents at the time the Hundreds Regulation Act was so violently attacked, but the fact is Otago men, holding lucrative appointments, are not, as a rule, guilty of rash, ness in that direction, so that Mr Macandrew did nothing more than nine. tenths of his probable successors would have done. -His re-election is considered tolerably secure, from the Tery fact that he is esteemed to be a man of might in the estimation of Southland. Poor Southland! it is not the first time -she has been beguiled by the serpent into eating forbidden fruit. Of the Council generally there are a ' few members we hope to see upon its benches for the last time. J. C. Brown, Matthew Hay, T. L. Shepherd, James M'lndoe, and a few more of that stamp might judiciously be left out at the next election, and neither their constituents nor the public at large

would ever miss them. Of Southland members we can say nothing, still it speaks well for the place that you have been already casting about for such good game as the Hon. Mr Gisborne is presumed to be.