The Evening Star. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1869.

Evening Star, Volume VII, Issue 2060, 11 December 1869, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1869.

Our contemporary, the Daily Times, seems to have suddenly arrived at the conclusion that the Government are to have a “ walk over,” and that, because no violent opposition has been manifested on the Reply to the Address of the Superintendent, therefore no opposition of importance is likely to arise either as regards the railway policy, or as regards the more important question of the Hundreds Regulation Act. We believe our contemporary is mistaken —at all events with regard to the latter point. Leaving for a moment the railway question, which still seems involved in a good deal of obscurity, we think the main question respecting the Otago Hundreds Regulation Act is fairly put by the amendment of Mr Ashcroft, which we believe is so framed as to meet the views of a large section, if not a majority, of the Council. The terms of the amendment are as follow : —“ That in the opinion of this Council “ it is undesirable, in the meantime, to “ pass any resolution tending to bring “ the Colonial Legislature and Provin- “ cial Council into collision, and that, “ without committing the Council to “ an approval of the provisions of the “ Otago Hundreds Regulation Act, the Act should be put in operation in so “ far as proclaiming two or three Hun- « dreds under its provisions, with the “ view of testing how far it is calcun lated to meet the requirements of “ settlement Jn the Province, and “ ascertaining whether any and what il amendments it might ho desirable to “ apply to the General Assembly to “ have effected at some future time." This amendment expresses the feeling which will be uppermost in the mind of any thoughtful and unprejudiced man, viz., that the Act ought to have a fair trial ; and it only can have a fair trial if it is put in operation in some few instances by the declaration of Hundreds under its provisions; although we think the limitation to two or three unnecessary and undesirable. This course would enable both the opponents and supporters of the measure to ascertain what its working would really be—what amount of compensation would be granted by the arbitrators; and whether it would be wise to proceed to take land under it for settlement. For, be it observed, the Act specially provides that if the Government are dissatisfied with the award of arbitrators, they need not proceed to take the land ; and the only liability incurred would be some smajl expense connected with the arbitration. The great advantage would be the avoidance of direct conflict between the Provincial and General Governments—a conflict which, if it once commences, nan only end in one way, viz., the extinction of the former. The amendment of Mr Ashcroft, proposed, as he stated, in no hostile spirit, gave the Government an opportunity of escape from the position into which they have placed themselves by their obstinate determination to force their own views on the country. We scarcely think they will avail themselves of it, and adopt the amendment; but if they do not, they will only further convince the country that they are determined, for the sake of their own personal ambition, to place the two great interests of the Province—the pastoral and the agricultural—in direct antagonism. Their course is something like that of a young and inexperienced “ book-maker ” at a race meeting, who was told to his horror by an experienced hand, on seeing his book—“ I have examined “ your book, and find anyhow you “ must lose five hundred, and may lose “ five thousand.” Such is the position of the case with the Government if by a small majority they carry their point, they must lose in the end, for the Assembly will never reverse an Act which has never been tided, and they may find that they will in reality lose all the little power they have by the doing away with Provincial Government altogether, now that it seems becoming powerless for good, and powerful only for evil. As we have said, however, we do not hope much from men who seem too bigoted to hear the other side, and determined to risk everything for their own pet views; but we hope the Council will not on that account be afraid to step in and say: “We refuse <• to endorse your dangerous and wilful “ policy, and will give the thing a “ trial.”