RETROSPECTIVE.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VII, Issue 393, 23 September 1874, Page 3

RETROSPECTIVE.

(To the Editor.) Sib, — The Parliamentary drama of this" year is ended; the curtain is dropped and the actors have taken leave of the public, till ■ their next appearance. But, what has been done ? Has some good been accomplished ? Or have our representatives in Wellington j contented themselves with considering the time of their session as another opportunity for improving their elocutionary powers and serving their own interests, without attending to the matters, they ought most to have at heart— the matters concerning the interests of their respective constituencies. As far as I can see some very important questions appear to have been left undecided or have been submerged by the overwhelming eloquence of Mr. Yogel in re Anti-Provincialism. The Wafer Pollution question for one is as far from an equitable solution as ever. And still it is one of immense importance ; it invokes the grand desideratum, whether we are to be governed' by a certain class of men, who are insatiable in their thirst, for usurped authority, and have pnblicly shown themselves to be perfect strangers to the true principles of forwarding the well-being of a young rising country. In fact its solution will decide whether New Zealand is to be the home of an industrious people fully aware of rights they possess and ever ready to shed their last drop of blood for the protection of hhese rights because they have earned them by the sweat of their brow, or whether it is to become the hot -bed of tyranny — tyranny the more odious because it springs from men who seldom if ever have done anything to command public respect. Stronger than ever the squatting party naturally raise their yoices, as

the full conviction bursts upon their mind that do whatever they may then* measures will ever be sanctioned by a Government totally blind to the interests of any other portion of our social community. It is strange to say, but no less true, that every measure brought forward this laßt session in any way connected with the mining interests appears to have been either totally ignored or put upon the shelf, to becomp dust covered and cobvrebbed. As for Mr. Togel'S leading measure regarding Provincialism (apparently the grand question of the day) it must first be scon how it will act. lam confident the change must be for the better. For aB things stand at present it is hardly possible that any change of the mode of administration, whatever it may be, can be for the worse as far as the mining community of this province are concerned in it. Should a new administration be introduced into the middle island it is hardly to be supposed its members would commit the same faults of glaring injustice towards the mining population so characteristic of the present Provincial Executive of Otago. Whatever they may do they will not allow the squatter to tread the miner under foot, after the latter having contributed more than ten times as much as the former to the public revenue of the country. It is to be hoped the tims may arrive, when we will not only have to read the speeches of our representatives in Wellington, but also to have the satisfaction of recording their measures passed for the common, welfare of theis constituents. — I am, &c.,. „ Auti-Sham.