The Puapeka Times.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 118, 12 May 1870, Page 4

The Puapeka Times.

THURSDAY, MAY 12, 1870. "Measures, not Meii." The Goldfields of Otago h-we several repi-eservta-tives xix tlie JProvincisxl Council — some better and some worse — but they have none to equal the redoubtable Thomas L. Shepherd, who is electrifying the Council day after day with speeches redolent of wit and wisdom. There is not a subject within the range of human ken with which Mr. bhepherd is not familiar, and on which he is not prepared to descant for hours, to the enlightenment and ainubtmsnt of his audience. That supreme organ of wisdom, the " Otago Daily Times," has at last come to appreciate the man of our choice, and instead of reporting his speeches in that abrupt and offensive manner which it adopted at last year's sittings of the Council, and which grievously offended Mr. Shepherd, devotes column after column to the report of this wise man's utterances and faithful sayings. Since Mr. Yogel betook himself, from sheer necessity, to other fields and pastures new, Mr. Shepherd, as the only man in the- Council possessed of the prescience and intelligence required for the government of Otago, has undoubtedty taken that position which his great abilities and intimacy with colonial legislation warrant. He is not the coming man, but the man that has come — and made a fool of himself. The king must have his jester, and so the Council must have its plaything. It would be one of those things worth making a note of if the Provincial Council of Otago, or any other place, had not its fool. Our Councillors must have relaxation. It is impossible for them to wade through dreary Road Ordinances and a hundred other equally technical documents without something in the shape of light reading. Our Goldfields member supplies them with this element.

Ho affords them a fund of amusement. He has the happy knack of making propositions when they are least wanted, and calling for the division bell when there is not a quorum. One remarkable attendant on Mr. Shepherd's resolutions we cannot help observing is this : that when they are brought to the vote there is invariably a rush of members to the refreshment-room or to their beds, and the House, as a matter of course, is counted out. It seems to us that our Goldfields member, by the exhibition of his consummate vanity, is doing nothing more nor less than bringing the Goldfields into contempt, and besides making himself a pest to the Council. We would venture to give him a little bit of advice, — although we hardly suppose him capable of accepting it, — and we would say : Mr Shepherd, you are our representative. You are a man of undoubted ability. You are destined yet to become a great man. We can see in you the elements of a great statesman ; but surely you might find some other means of showing your extreme desire to serve your constituents, about whom you are prating so much, than by raising trivial and unnecessary points of order or privilege, by which the business of the Province is hindered. You think of occupying Mr. Vogel's shoes. Forbid that Otago should see such a consummation. Forbid that you should fill the position which a more conscientious man at present occupies. Forbid that any Superintendent should 1)0 compelled to ask you into his councils. Woe betide Oato-o when one of its chief seats is again filled by a political adventurer. Many of the settlers on the Taieri Plain are beginning to feel unen.sy owing to the gradual rising of the bed of the Taieri river, caused by the extensive sluicing into the river going on at the Upper Taieri. Evident signs are given by every flood that the time is not far distant when a great portion of the Taieri Plain will return to its original state, namely, a vast swamp, unless some extense scheme is carried ont by which the river will be kept wi thiu its banks. The Waipori Lake, which within the memory of some of the neighbouring settlers was over ten feet deep, is now less than that number of inches. The result was the country surroun ling the lake was inundated five or six times in the course of List ye ir. The same process going on in the beds' of the Taieri and Waipori rivers for twenty or thirty years would make the Taieri Plain uninhabitable. Some months ago, at the solicitation of the settlers on the plain, Mr. Thomson, Chief Surveyor of the Province, was instructed to report upon the flooding "of the Taieri, and, if possible, to point out a remedy. That gentleman has now furnished a masterly report on the subject, treating it in a most comprehensive mnnner. He submits two schemes — one involving an expenditure of £145,000, which WOU.IJ. be it oomplete s xfUjftuwtl ii\_>in the flooding of the river doing any damage to the adjoining property ; and one involving an outlay of £70,000, which would bo of a less beneficial chaius-ter, and besides would involve the immediate destruction of a good iiKM3 r holdings The Taieri settlers mot on the 30th of last month to consider the scheme suggested by Mr. Thomson, and from a report of the mooting given in the " Bruce Standard," we notice a great many silly things spoken by men who might bo supposed to know bettor. The gre.it argument used by the various speakers is the following : If the Provincial Government give £200,000 to encouiap the mining industry, — the one to which they attribute the evils they complain of, — why not give them a like sum to carry out the Surveyor's plan? If the Government of New South Wales expend £1 50,000 on a river which is constantly overflowing its banks and causing destruction to property, why should not the Government of Ofc-igo do the same. One of the speakers, a Mr. James Reid, commenting on the proposed recommendation of the Superintendent to develope the Goldfields by a guarantee on £200,000, is reported to have said that " if a farthing was to go to the Goldfields, they (the Taieri farmers) ought to have £1 for every sixpence spent there." The chairman of the meeting, a Mr. Rennie, with about as good logic as Mr. Reid, " considered that the Taieri Plain was entitled to more consideration than the Goldfields, because it was the scene of a more permanent industry." But, we ask, is the retaining of a patch of land in one corner of the Province to be set against the more speedy development and

settlement of the Goldfields, which constitute by far the greater part oi the entire Province ? Surely not. We would use, although with a different application, the closing words in Mr. Thomson's report, as an answer to the bad logic of the Taieri farmers. "We must ntylect," says he, " the limited interest for the large majority — the incon- 4 venience of the few for the safety of^ the whole." We do not blame these* , unfortunate farmers in their efforts to stem the flooding of the river ; something must eventually be done for them ; but they should try to view with a more liberal mind the farming interest ou the Goldfields, as also the great mining interest which has been the making of Otago. They should remember that the Taieri is not Otago, and that tht Taieri Plain would have been oi~ very little consequence for generations to come had gold not been discovered in the province. To the development of the Goldfields we look for the future prosperity of the country ; and until the Government initiates some great water scheme, conjointly with either a more liberal Land Law or a more liberal administration of the present one, we do not anticipate anything but a continuance of the present stagnation and depression of trade which exists in nearly every part of the Province. The necessity for some description of pound or pinfold, such as exists in the rural districts of England, where stray horses and cattle may be secured until their owners are identified, is becoming every da}'' more urgent in the Municipality of Lawrence. Scarcely a night passes over the heads of the peacefullydisposed inhabitants of our steadily progressing town without annoyance to their quiet slumbers, arising from some poor, wretched, stableless nag rubbing his shivering body against the corner of some of our dwellings. If that were the only grievance of which the residents had to complain they might, in compassion for the poor inoffensive creatures, and in consideration ot their poverty-stricken owners, suffer the annoyance without a murmii", But Lawrence has so far advanced in refinement as to boast of a fewneat garden - patches, which are planted with some choice specimen^ of floriculture, horticulture, and ar- - boriculture, and it is most provoking to rise in the morning and find those plants upon which we hail bestowed so much pains, and m which we had taken so much pride, trodden down by the hoof of horse or ravaged by the voracious J^jjetite of a half-starved cow. >Qan nothing be done to obviate this state of things % We know that tht idea of a public pound is repulsive to many persons in the district, or account of several runs being ir close proximity to the town, uno the fact of these valuable institutions having been on many occasions greatly abused by runholders ; but we think that the strong public feeling in Tuapeka in favour of the settler would be a sufficient guard against any such abuse of the Impounding Ordinance. If, however, now that our wise men are assembled in Dunedin, a requisition were forwarded by the Town Council to our Goldfields members to introduce a measure suitable for the emergency and applicable to all the up-country municipalities, we have little doubt that it could be successfully carried out before the rising of the Provincial Council. We merely throw out this as a hint to our Town Council, although we are of the opinion that a public pound established under the Impounding Ordinance could be worked withou t any infringment of the liberties of the neighbouring settlers.