DUNEDIN.

Auckland Star, Volume VI, Issue 1819, 14 December 1875, Page 2

DUNEDIN.

Per Press Telegram Agency. Tuesday.

Mr. Macandrew and Mis Constituents.

Mr Macandrew addressed a large and unanimous meeting at Fort Chalmers to-night. He argued at considerable length against the evils of centralism, and said that no man used to debate with more scathing eloquence upon the evils of an intermeddling Central Government than Sir Julius Vogel. Another result of centralism was its enormous extravagance. While it abstracts from the pocket^M eich^ man, woman, and child, some £5 a year, it gives back nothing adequate in return. Nearly all that Otago gets is the honor and glory of belonging to this great and united colony, of being governed from Cook's Strait, and of sending some men for three months in the year to aid others in doing for us there what could be done so much better and i

more i conotnically here. It is a -.latter of pounds, sbil.iii^s, and pence. It would pay Otago to take unon itss-lf conside ,;Wy m or j[ than its share of the debt of the colony jn order to ha»e the disposal withio itself of'itg own revenue. In the management.of itsown affairs it is difficult to conceive how a voudd country like this hf s allowed its reeourcsto be a y sorted in an extiavsgant, unproductive ,-> expenditures, altogetherii/comp«tible-withthe nanie of things, and which the re was rot a practical way of cutting out of, unleßs brought wore riireotlj und?r ibe eye and cnptiol o f th« people than could possibly be the case uncier a distinct and ce>mparativfly ims-pnn. sible Centralism at Wellington. Afcanittstanee of bow the money goes, there is now being erected in Wellington a wooden building, the contract price of which is upwards of £40,000. By the time it is finished and ig full of furniture we may reckon upon it costing at least £70,000. It will contain a whole army of officials, at salaries varying from £200 to'£Boo a year, very few of whom are absolutely required for the good government of the colony, but all of whom will find employment under the bureaucratic centralism now proposed. In the building in question there are several hundred rooms; they would, however, be found far too few to accommodate the amount of patronage which •would be at the disposal of the Central Government when the provincial administrations are abolished. He believed that if a plebiscite could be taken in Otago, not a tithe of the electors would be found in favour of Centralism. It was only the want of good men that twenty men were not sent up to Wellington in favor of Provincialism. A vote of confidence was unanimously accorded and the meeting refused to hear anything against the speaker.