Colonial.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XII, Issue 735, 23 November 1859, Page 4

Colonial.

OTAGO.

We have by the Salopian Dunedin papers to the 12th instant. • . ' , .

The Provincial Council business was brought to an end on Thursday the 10th, and that body was prorogued for the last time, on that day with a short address from the Superintendent. The business done has been, among other matters, the enlargement and redistribution of the representation in the Council, one district being divided into two, and' a third new district being formed out of portions of two others. The number of membersisfixedat2s. Aselectcommitteehasreported in favor of subsidising two steamers for the coasting trade of. the province. In the estimates (which, were passed for six months only) a sum of £1000 was put down for this purpose. (\ A select committee reported also upon the coal-field question, recommending that the Clutha coal-field should be leased, and that.a sum of £3000 should be spent to make it available by the formation of a railway from the mine to the bank of the Clutha, a jetty and discharging apparatus there, and other works. This report was adopted. A sum of £1500 has been appropriated to the Dunedin jetty. Upwards of £30,000 has been devoted to public works and buildings for the year.. The following resolution was unanimously adopted with reference to the proposed transfer of Mi". A. C. Strode's services as Resident Magistrate from Dunedin to Lyttelton:— " That in the opinion of this Council, the treatment which Mr. A. C. Strode, late Resident Magistrate of this Province, has received at the hands of the Government whilst absent on leave, in being deprived of his office and transferred to Lyttelton •without his option, and contrary to his desire, was alike uncalled for by the exigency and economy of the public service, and not in accordance with the consideration which a public officer of long standing has some reason to expect from the Governor. This Council therefore unamimously expresses a hope that his Excellency will review the decision of his Government in this matter, and place Mr. Strode in the same position which he would have occupied had he not been absent on leave."

The following articles from the ' Colonist' gives the views of the press upon two subjects in which Canterbury has some interest:—

NORTHERN BOUNDARY,

We regret that want of space prevents our publishing in our present issue the resolutions passed by the Provincial Council on this question, or reporting the observations made by the different speakers on the subject. The resolutions are to be transmitted to his Excellency the Governor, who we trust will give the matter that consideration which, as the representative of her Majesty, and apart altogether, from his so-called constitutional advisers, we are entitled to expect. The question of the boundary involves the rights and integrity

of fclio Province to nn immotiNO extent, and wo conloss tlmt if loft with responsible ministers to decide, wo would not give a tost Hip for the rights of this Province. In fuel; wo believe thnt their appointment of Colonel Mould as Commissioner, six months after ho had prejudged the citae, is in itself strong presumptive' proof tlmfc they have come to a foregone tonolusion. How any man who lias never seen tlio country in dispute—who him never been within hundred's of miles of it—can, sitting'in his chair at Auckland, decide upon such a question, we leave it to his Excellency to judge, lor our part wo maintain tlmt the Constitution Act clearly defines the boundary in question, and that Sir George Grey's proclamation cannot bo set aside without an infringement of that Act. As to the literal interpretation of the proclamation, we believe that oven Colonel Mould himself does not dispute it. We must say that the correspondence which has taken place from first to last between our Government and that of Canterbury on the subject, exhibits an energy and tenacity of purpose on the part of the latter, worthy of imitation, and a degree of vacillation and compromise on the part of the former which it is painful to contemplate ; in fact one cannot help feoling that if the Canterbury Superintendent had been ours, the question now raised would have been at once nipped in the bud, and effectually settled long ago upon the basis of Sir George Grey's proclamation. One very remarkable circumstance as bearing upon this matter is, that every explorer and applicant for runs in the disputed territory took it for granted that said territory is within the limits of the Province of Otago, and we know of at least one instance in which the individual got the sketch which guided Mm from the Canterbury Land Office itself. This was anterior to the date of the claim of that province to the large slice of Otago which it now sets up. We may also state upon the authority of the Surveyor-General, Mr. Ligar, by whom the boundaries of the various provinces as set forth in Sir George Grey's proclamation are defined, that the Province of Canterbury has not the shadow of a title to the country now claimed by it—that is, if there is any meaning in said proclamation—but says he, you have got plenty of country without it, and therefore you should let them have it. No mean authority, we should say, upon the subject—that of the man who is the real author of the proclamation, as far as the boundaries are concerned.

As stated already, our only trust now is the protection of her Majesty's representative, to secure us from spoliation. We are the weakest province in New Zealandj in point of representation in the General Government, and we cannot help feeling that in their hands we are in the handa of the Philistines. Altogether we have not been such obedient good boys as our neighbours in Canterbury, and unless his Excellency interposes we shall suffer for it. We wish it to be thoroughly understood that we seek nothing but our just rights, and that whether the authors of Sir George Grey's proclamation knew the country or not, it so happens that the literal reading of that proclamation defines the boundary between the two provinces which nature has pointed out as such. However eccentric its course may appear in the eyes of our neighbours, the physical conformation of the country, and other circumstances, would, we understand, commend the existing boundary as denned in the proclamation to any impartial person, were he sent now to fix a boundary after personal examination, without reference to any previous arrangement. . ME. STKODE AND THE GENEEAL GOVERNMENT. Our readers will find under the proceedings of the Provincial Council 11 a~ resolution of. that body with regard to,;the case of Mr. Strode. We allude to the subject now, inasmuch as the question elicited an amount of unanimity and loquacity combined which we have seldom if ever seen equalled in our Provincial Council. It called forth a unanimous and hearty expression of opinion on a matter of great public importance, which speaks well for the independence and sense of justice which pervades the community. We were exceedingly gratified at the. manly and unsparing castigation which was administered, not only to the General Government, but to the back-stairs influence among ourselves, which was the sole cause of the disgraceful treatment which Mr. Strode has received, and we only regret that his Honor the Superintendent and his advisers in the matter, whoever they were, were not present to listen to the well deserved censure passed upon them by .the whole province without a dissentient voice. There can be no: doubt but they were the parties". aimed at—the real culprits in the case. We sincerely trust that the result of the Council's proceedings, if not to procure redress for the party injured, will be to prevent the recurrence of any public officer being sacrificed in order to gratify private spleen. In the present case there can be little doubt but Mr. Strode is indebted to the implacable animosity of some of our local' magnates,'—an animosity which has been pent up for years, and which, whatever may have been its origin, ought never to have been" permitted to exercise an influence in such a connection.

• As to the alleged regard for the public interest, which is put forward by the General Government as their plea for acting as they have done, nobody who knows the circumstances of the. case believes a word of it. The public interest should never be promoted by personal injustice, and in the present instance there was not the slightest necessity for its being so; the whole affair, to use the language of one of the speakers in the Council, "has been from beginning to end an entirely personal matter —a pure unmitigated disgraceful job, reflecting the utmost discredit upon all concerned, and demanding the unqualified disapprobation of every rightthinking man."