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Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1355, 2 December 1872, Page 2

Our telegrams this morning contain the intimation that Mr. Joßeph Shephard has "thrown up" the office which for nearly three years he has, with credit to himself and advantage to the Province, held as Provincial Treasurer of Nelson, Whatever may be the reasons for Mr Shephard'a resignation, the foot itself oanno

but be a source of regret to those who have had the best opportunities of judging of his fitness for the office, his fellow Councillors, but ?* the reasons are, as we suspect they are, associated with his action in another political sphere than that of the Provincial Council, the regret on their part, as on the part of the public who may be leas acquainted' with his 7 per- '■ sonal abilities, will be tempered by the feeling that further proof has been given oi the incompatibility of seats in the Assembly and in Provincial Executive Councils being held by one and the same person. So far as we at present know, that is the only gain achieved by the loss of Mr Shephard's services as Treasurer. When Mr Shephard, at the solicitation of a majority of the Council, and as a sequence of a new Executive Ordinance, accepted the Treasurership, as nominally offered to him by theSiiperintendent,he succeeded awretched state of things in tho Treasury department—a department, if department it might be called, supervised, against all precedent and propriety, by a General Government servant, and carried on by subordinates to one of whom the absence of all oversight, as much as any evil on his part, brought sad disgrace. Added to the mere clerical work of his office, Mr Shephard had for a time, / and only for a time, to share in the it , work, praise, or shame of a responsible Executive ; he had also to "lead" the Council as, in many particulars, the principal representative of the Government ; and in both capa-* cities he exhibited a liberally in sentiment, and an ability in speech and action, which proved him to be immeasurably a-head of his colleagues or of any others who sat with him at the Council table. That bis prejudices or his position forced him to favor the "settled" parts of the Province, to the disadvantage of the Gold lields, has been often enough asserted by West Coast members and in these columns, but there is reason to believe that that favoritism was more the result of his position than his prejudice. Possessing power and freedom of action, it would be hard to suppose that a man of his sympathies, intelligence, and foresight, could fail to deal fairly with the Province as a whole, and, whatever may have bsen his shortcomings in the past, we • shall not be sorry if his present resignation of office should prove preliminary to his having, sooner or later, a chance of exhibiting how far he would do so.