Public Opinion.

Clutha Leader, Volume II, Issue 90, 30 March 1876, Page 6

Public Opinion.

VOGEL'S SPEECH. EVENING NEWS. If there be a lingering Centralist in the Province of Otago who wishes well to the Province, and is a disinterested politician, he must, ii honest, denounce the Government proposals as shadowed, forth in tho Wanganui ' oration. The * Star,' our Contemporary, is afraid to support them, so . . sweeping, so injurious .to Otago are they. Tlie Centralists have proclaimed that they desire Weal' self : government. ' "Thoy mu&t see that the Ministry desire. centralisation of power; everything at present managed 1 by 'dur own ro^ presentatives and our, own Provincial Executive ] and Superintendent is ; to be managed from Wellington. This can no lonsrorbe denied. Gaols, Police, Education, Lands, are all to be swallowed up by the .Colonial" maelstrom.. . Our railways must also Come Under the great : Passmore, and with their absorption we lose' at present £60,000 per year. , q,nd eyery ,-year will lose. more. , 'Is this fair ? Is it honest ? ; A spiemn binding en'gage- , ment ratine i.by Act. of Parliament is repudiated. Ifc would just be' as honest to repudiate the' pro^ visions of Gbvernmerit'life assurance policies be^ cause of the exigencies ot the Colony as., to repeal the Railways Act. . . ■ , 4 .And, then the land revenue, it also .must belong to tlie one purse 'ofthe Colony. With the man' agement of all lands vested in" the Secretary of 'Crown Lands,' tlie ' squatters, will tie 'in great ecsfcacies. No democratic Provincial .-Council will henceforth interfere with -theit monopolies. No Provincial; Executive to open up tlie Hun 1 dreds. But once the management is given, the funds also go. It is- nonsense hereafter to talk of the preservation of our land fund. It is irretrievably gone :if the Wanganui proposes aro given effect to. And we put it to every repre- , tentative, of Otago will he .consent to this? The whole tendency of the centralists* legislation is the despoiling of Otago, and if thsre is the spirit in Otago setters, that was in. their ancestors they will resist by all means to tho' ' very Utter* most.' '- : '" ' .'- -••"" .'. . Tliose in Otago who have so long worshipped the Premier must now,' if they are true to the Province', begin to regret their past adorations. , The-^anganui speech clearly shows that tho Land Fund and the.Education Reserves are both gone. Was anything ever .spoken of so disengenous as this method ! pf ! treating the 1856 Compact., •.. y"*T ... The Premier has 'forgotten tho 'ladder by which ho mounted to potior. /; Ho has : kidked it away. He who was placed in power jby .the - Provincial party is the one -who now sneers at. .the .Superintendents and Provincial Executives.' ' He who once demanded separation* will now. resist it to death. . . He . who , Rroclainied that, the. profits on 'the railways^wrl^^g^^ *j& BhouldJ)?. the Proving/" Acfc repe aled v £ut what -^#3^ Si^ng out; that 'Sir Julius' Vogel has' left the party who made him' Premiety'bhd be- . come: more-centralist than ; the;inoßt ultra, biembet of that party. „ Every thing is to be ina,h&ge'dfrphi Wellington," and r the : Province tha£ : lias''& lard revenue, or railway profits, or education' feßetyes "must; see them" Used for -generalbolonial-parpolfe's. yWe.wara the'Qtago r^erpbers that j^iless Jhey light' 'hard ari'd.an ..u'nißbni a 'the revenueV^f the Province will be'.swept away from it, and its industry and prosperity paralysed, if not, crushed. In the face of the Wanganui speech, wo feel that r ; it; is! incumbent: on-'; the,SupeMnt£ftd&i£ tp "at once call; a convention of the numbers of thq Provincial 'CoHifacilf and l to°dfe'Vi3% 'rfotiie f hfeth6d or meeting • 'the'wholes^le^lUderijbhatt^&yTemifer advocates. If for the mpre^purpose^ofr obtaining the dele* gated 5 powers 3 under' %He f <jroiSfields a *Acts, Mr ybgeßidvb<Jate& aUFme&sures legal or illegal, -constitutional ; surely- .in .defending .our rights we can follow such 'a'laVidable' p?ecedent. Let there be no half-hearted work. The descendants of those who showed so great determination in Cromwell's "days should not' be afraid ; of a Pre* mier. ".-'•*