THE OTAGO SUPERINTENDENT.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 352, 8 March 1861, Page 2

THE OTAGO SUPERINTENDENT.

The useful and profitable science of combining business with government has just received a practical illustration in: the New Zealand province of Otago. In our Auckland correspondence it was stated that the Speaker of the Provincial Council had arrived, witb an address to the Gdvernor of New Zealand, praying for the removal of Mr. James Macandrew from the office of Superintendent, on theground that be had made use of a portion of the public funds for his private purposes. This requisition, and the very probable compliance of the Governor, will explode as magnificent a bubble as was ever presented to the wondering eyes of modern colonists. The whole affair is so scandalous in itself, and so far removed, we should hope, from ordinary episodes in the history of colonial governments, that it is worthy of some attention eveu at this distance from tbe scene. ■ The Superintendent of Otago, Mr. James Macandrew, is a colonist nf that province,: of some ten • years' standing. He claims some credit for energy and intelligence in forwarding the interests of the settlement, and his election to the important offioe he holds^seems to have justified the claim. On the llttiP'of December1 last, hia Honor opened the Provincial Council with a speech of great length, in wbicb, however, one grave proposal absorbed the interest of everything else. It was proposed at once to establish the Province of. Otago as the headquarters, 3n the South Pacific, of aline of steamers carrying the mails between Australia, New Zealand, and Pananta. In order to understand the spirit in which the Legislature was likely to receive this hopeful scheme, it will be desirable to glance for a moment at the financial state of the province at the time. The net reveuue for the eight months preceding was .£55,164. The balance in the Treasury was £9,459, while the provincial expenditure averaged .£2OOO a week. During the eight months mentioned, more than two thousand five hundred emigrants had been introduced at a cost of £, 18,57-5, while'three more vessels were on the way, the emigrants by which bad yet to be paid for. In this flourishing state of the Treasury, the Superintendent brought forward his grand project of immediate steam communication with Pauama. The language it? which he broaches it is far removed from that dry, uninviting, calculating style that j people are apt to indulge in when considering matters of this kind, and approaches rather to the easy and familiar manner of Mr. Swiveller or his. friend Mr. Chuckster. "Gentlemen," says his Honor, " there is a tide iv the affairs of man, whioh,'taken-at the flood, leads on to fortune." After this original preface, Mr. Macandrew proceeds to develop his plan. " The beauty .of it is," says he, " that it will cost nobody a sixpence in the shape of taxation." This, no doubt, would be a strong recommendation in the case.of a population of twelve thousand souls only, with a Government expenditure at the rate of £104,000 a-year. It only rests with you says his Honor, "to say the word, to utter the 'Open Sesame' whioh will put the hitherto insignificant Province of Olago into the proudest positiou of any of the numerous colonies of Great Britain in this hemisphere." This great result, he then tells the Council, is to be achieved by merely reserving a single block of pastoral land, selling it for .£60,000, and building with the money three steamers, cipable of making the voyage to Panama in twenty-five days. There is the-whole scheme, in a nutshell. It certainly may be presumed that there would be some trifling annual oost in running these vessels; but this matter is passed by very slightly. "As a matter of course, the line would _ be subsidised by all the, Australian and New Z«a .

land Governments ;" '.but, even without subsidy, bii Honor had satisfied himself that tbe scheme would pay very well. .

It is not surprising that the Provincial Council of Otago, who may be presumed to havo as much common-sense a3 tbeir neighbors, were somewhat staggered by this off-hand proposal for. the settlement of their difficulties. Some unpleasant, rumors hi reference to the Treasury chest had evidently been in circulation previously, for the almost immediate response was the appointment of a select committee to'inquire into the state of the public funds. Auditors had been'engaged-in this service some months before, but their reports had not beeu made public. These documents, however, were now laid before the Council, and submitted to the select committee, who made their report in duo time, involving the Superintendent in very 891'ious charges, and, apparently, justifying the assertion* of one of the local papers,'that the grand Panama scheme wa3 merely "the great cloud, intended to hide everything else from view.".. The report of tlie select committee was agreed to unanimously, and as unanimously adopted. It establishes first, the fact that Mr. Macai drew and another were appointed to receive certain payments for immigration Bervicies, on giving, their joint receipts; but that Mr. Macandre^,|a|ter, as superintendent,;issuing'his warrant forfffli^ payment of the money to those two parties, subsequently obtained the cash from the Provincial Treasurer, on the promise that his colleague in the arrangement would sigh tlie receipt, which, however, he has declined to do. The irregularity of this whole affur—the Superintendaufc being pecuniarily: mixed, up with an immigration system that appears to1 have been carried to an excess, and his receipt of money fro in his own Treasurer on bis own signature only when it was expressly provided that there should be another? also, is apparent on the face of it. ? But this is not the worst. It is established heyond doubt that the Superintendent; was for a long time aware of deficiencies in the public Treasury, and never consulted with his advisers, or informed the Legislature, on the subject. ,; In June last the balance in the bank was less by more than a thousand pouffds, than the balance shown in the books. The Provincial Treasurer—who it appears also carrier on business as a solicitor—being called upon to explain this, states that the whole of the deficiency was at that time in the hands of the Superintendent who had obtained it from the Treasury; in two separate sums of £QOO. arid £,4=oo, on a representation of' urgent necessity. This staternellt seems to have been corroborated by documentary evidence. In the first memorandum of the Superintendent, appended to the report of the auditors, he accounts for this apparent deficiency by suggesting that certain sums of money were probably paid out before the warrants were signed. The statements of -Mr;; McGlashany the Treasurer, however seem to have been perfectly conclusive to the committee,, supported: as they were by letters wbich he received from; the Superintendent. The Provincial Council accord^ iugly, unanimously and without remark; passed a resolution and an address to the Governor, praying for the removal of MrVMacandrew from thagpostof Superintendent, under the provisions 'of the fourth clause of the Constitution Act. The Superintendent has since published an address to the colonists, in which, while utterly denying the truth of the Treasurer^ statement, and declaring that the letter in question referred only to his private pecuniary transactions with that officer, he makes a very damaging admission, •■" For years back," he says, "I have assisted Mr. McGlashan in making up deficiencies in his balances, at a time when we had no other transactions." "At the time when I took office." he says further on, "I believed that he had got fairly before the wind, and it was not until prior to the June audit that I was awareof it being otherwise." He concludes his address by expressing his determiuatioh to appeal to the electors again, if the decision of the Goverdor should be against him.

;■■ There can be very little doubt, taking the most favorable view of this affair, that both Superintendent and Treasurer have acted niost discreditably.' The indecency, to say the least of it; of availing themselves of their public;poSii tiou for the purpose of mutual pecuniary modation; admits of no dispute and no de'fenbe. The responsibility is only the'greater upon the Superintendent because of the superior rejpon--sibility of his office. Taken in connection with the dazzling proposal of a great scheme of postal communication, to connect tbe Province, whose slender revenues were thus managed with America and Europe, the case assumes a most ludicrous aspect, aud calls to mind some of those startling speculations so frequently' exposed in London of l|te years, when some gilded scheme for the realisation of enormous profits to the shareholder's* is brought to a close by the abrupt arrival of a policeman.— Sydney Empire. : .'■; , " '■"'