PROVINCIAL MINISTRIES

Press, Volume II, Issue 51, 3 May 1862, Page 1

PROVINCIAL MINISTRIES

Thiri is such a thing as riding a hobby to death ; and responsible government seems just now to be the hobby of New Zealand. Our friends at Otago c f rom the first votaries to this doctrine, and. ith a Provincial Council of nine members, had a provincial ministry of three. These gentlemen were believe sometimes turned out, and their places occupied by other three; vo that out of the nine members there must have been the three ministers in and the three ex-ministers* out, with the odd three ou the cross benches to complete the House. The independent triumvirate of course must have ruled the country ; or rather any two of them, as two out of three could put cither party into power. The Provincial Council of Otago is now larger than it was in those days, and the ministry does not bear the same numerical relation to tin . House as formerly. The affection of the Province, however, for a responsible government under all difficulties appears to be uudiminishcd. A crisis has just taken place in Otago. One ministry has been turned out by a vote of want of confidence, and a new ministry has been taken into office out of the majority of the Council. Aud of whom does this new ministry consist J Out of the five gentlemen of whom it is composed, three ought to have been excluded from office, for the most obvious reasons. First, we see the name of Mr. McGlashan. Now, if the Otaco people iiave forgotten the circumstances attending the retirement of Mr. Mc Andrew from the Superintendeucy, we have not done so here. The ' Daily Times' did us the honor to remark the other day, that we paid too exclusive attention to local polities: we shall endeavour to profit by the reproof on this occasion at all events, and supply that censorship of public eventß in Otago which the local press apparently very inadequately provides. Perhaps the Otago journals feel that the criticism of the press is of little consequence in a town where public abuses are nightly satirized to the delight of crowded rooms, by the reckless wit of Thatcher, the comic singer. However this may be, the fact of the installation of the new ministry into office, and the tameness with which such an event is aubinitted to by the public and the press, are events which demand the attention of the whole colony. We say then, that Mr. McGlaehan was the gentleman who a very few months ago was Provincial Treasurer of Otago when Mr. McAndrew was Superintendent. In that capacity he paid over to Mr. McAndrew one thousand pounds of the public monies of the province, not to liquidate any public charge, but to supply Mr. Mc Andrew's private neces- - B>ties; and he paid'that money to Mr. McAndrew *ell knowing that it was to be used for private and not for public purpose*. We are simply stating tocte which are known and admitted on all hands; which were stated by Mr. McGlashau himself in his w " letters; and which were published in all the Journals only a few months ago. Xow, if Mr. is a tit man to hold a seat in the Execulve * why was Mr. McAndrew dismissed from the •Vrintendency ? The money indeed was applied '' -Jr- McAmlrew's use, not to the Treasurer's, but c use to which the money was put docs not, in our ***' aft>Lct the character of the act of talcing it out c the public till. We do not intend to give any t , 4Ule to this act. A variety of terms will suggest to every one wlm-h will fitly characterize 1 , lndeed - the Treasurer himself at the time n a x '* l J fitting amount of sorrow and shame

at having been induced to dispose of the public money in such a manner. If Mr. McGlashan had remained in private life no one would have pursued him into hid retirement; but when he re-appears, as the man of all others whom the Province of Otago delights to honor, he cannot be disappointed if an instinct of self-preservation compels the public to j recur to his antecedents. The fact of such a man being placed over such a community, at such a time, is one which has a peculiar significance, and reads a memorable lesson to the rest of the colony. The next name in this new government is that of Mr. Reynolds, a gentleman lately a partner of Mr. McAndrew, and concerned with that gentleman in the emigration to Otago. A considerable sum of money was upon one occasion due to this firm, and was ordered to be paid to the joint receipt of Mr. McAndrew and Mr. l'eynolds. It was paid however to Mr. McAndrew alone, upon his promise, s > far as we remember, that his partner would sign the receipt. But Mr. Reynolds repudiated the arrangement, and claimed the sum again from the Government; and, as we arc informed, still claims it. The third gentleman we have alluded to is Mr. Paterson, against whom we are informed the Provincial Government have a considerable claim outstanding, for which they have brought an action in the Supreme Court—a claim also still pending. These, then, are the materials out of which an executive government is formed. Out of five members, three have qualified themselves for office as follows. The first, by displaying a great singularity of opinion i a3 to the objects to which the public monies in his custody were applicable; the second, by having a considerable claim against the go'vemmcat of which he is to constitute a part; the third, by being the defendant in a cause in which, as a member of the government, he " must now appear also in the character of plaintiff. Now if these are facts —and we really believe we have not stated one word more than appears on public documents —there is such an obvious folly and absurdity in such a government, that we are led to ask how can it have been committed ? What is the remedy for such an unseemly proceeding ? la the cause peculiar to Otago ? Or does it arise from some vice in the constitution to which we are all subject ? One thing we may remark: in all discussions on the subject of responsible ministers, it seems to be forgotten that the head of the Executive power is the personage who really appoints the ministers. Men usually speak as if the Provincial Council appointed the individual members of the Executive Council, whereas the Executive Council is really only the medium of communication between the Superintendent and the Provincial Council, and must have the confidence of both. The Superintendent is bound to curry out the policy of the Provincial Council, but it is ' his duty to select the men by whom that policy shall be administered. The win le blame then of such a ministry as that now ruling in Otago lies with the Superintendent; and it is quite incredible to us, how a gentlemen in Major Richardson's position, and with his antecedents, has failed to ace the gross public indecency which has been committed by taking into his councils men who have private pecuniary interests antagonistic to those of the Government, or men whose financial idiosyncracy obscures in their minds the difference between the two words " public " and " private" in the disposal of monies in their custody. There is in Otago, as elsewhere, a class of persons who hold back from the Provincial Government, and, while they take no share in it, presume to despise it.

Those men have nothing to complain of. There are many who complain bitterly of the law by which the diggers have been given a right to vote—a right of which we are told they have largely availed themselves so fur as registering goea. For our own parts we hail the new blood as necessary to put an end to in slate of things disgraceful to any community. No I diggers' government could bo more obviously xinfit for the task than the present one. If Otngo alone suffered by the anomaly we should not interfere; but the example of such a state of things affects the whole colony. The late Lord Norbury, after the acquittal by an Irish jury of a prisoner against whom there was the clearest evidence of having committed a horrible murder, concluded the trial thus: " Prisoner at the bur—You have been acquitted by a verdict of your enlightened countrymen. Jailor, turn him loose on them." If Otago only were concerned we should console ourselves by reflections which the anecdote euggests. But these escapades affect all the colony by gradually but surely bringing the Provincial institutions into contempt, and so preparing the way for the absorption of all their powers into the central Government.