Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1871

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 662, 19 July 1871, Page 2

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 19, 1871

The last days of Provincialism, so far as Otago ie concerned, have closed with a piece of business that deserves all the withering remarks heaped upon it by our contemporary the Dunedin Daily Times of the 14th instant. We asserted that x come what might, the present session of the Provincial Council would be more expensive than any of its predecessors. We had heard from correct sources that it was an infra dig. movement to reduce the fee of Honorable Councillors from £1 to 15s per diem—a sum less than merchants receive for a short attendance at Court—that it was decided the earlier resolution should be in proper time revoked. As believers in the system of payment of members, we do not object to the sum of £1 per diem. What we object to is that members never properly recognise their position. Hence the mistake ALL the Provincial Councils of New Zealand maka No man can serve two masters. What else have all our Provincial Councils been doing, except to illustrate that a house divided in itself cannot stand 1 To make this more potent they have in the recent meeting of the Otago Council acted one way one day, and another the next. They met with a flourish of trumpets; they went in as a lion. The session closes without beneficial results, and is full of recantations. No principles seem to have been involved except these three useful ones: First—Take care of yourselves; Second—Attempt more than you can do; Third—Deceive the country by vain propositions. The way these affairs are arranged is so shabby, and mean that they command no respect There is no directness of purpose. No straightforward pursuing to the end. The policy is crooked, and the path difficult to find. It has been the same with Marlborough, Nelson, Picton. Auckland, Wellington, &c. Each and all have managed their affairs badly, and have in their time tried more or less to bully or coax the Colonial Government into some unfair concession or another. The Colonial Government represents the colonists at large—is their Trustee, in fact The Provincial Government, as the harpies and myrmidons, have acted their parts well The disgraceful state of affairs represented by Marlhorough's Bankruptcy, Nelson's doleful cry, Wellington's bounce, Canterbury's haughty demands, and Otago's assurance cannot fail forcibly to show how ill-governed we are. The last blow of the axe, we venture to predict, has been struck at the root of Provincialism by the conduct of the leading Provincial Council of New Zealand, ie., Otago, We are not going to criticise its conduct further. The only interest the people here feel is in the matter of the expenditure of the votes. All the bunkum talked about proceedings is forgotten ere the sun rises again. But actions are not forgotten, and especially will not be forgotten the interested conduct of the Provincial Council of Otago in its last throes of existence, when it resolved that as a moribund Council it would itself take the last loaf of bread no matter what might be the consequences. Yes, about the first act of the members when passing the Estimates was to reduce their honorarium to 15s per day; and now, about their last Act has been the reversal of their decision by resolving—in a Council of 28 out of 48 members—and by a majority of 17 to 11, to increase that honorarium to £1 per day for country members, and 10s per day for town members. Mr Reid, the head of the Ministry, was absent on the division, as was Mr Haughton, and two or three other leading men—possibly with an object not creditable. But, however men, —after crying out for retrenchment, and bickering and fighting over paltry reductions, in salaries of Goldfields Officers, and even wages of nurses to Hospitals—can so bemean themselves is past the comprehension of every honest-minded man.

"Such weather" is the cry on all hands, and certainly such a thunder storm as that continuing the whole of yesterday has never before been experienced here. The river rose sft. yesterday afternoon. The water races are broken away by the Budden change from frost to rain: the river workings are swamped ; the dredges are as bad as they were before; the only mining venture that pays is tunnelling, and those claims are few in number. Neither the farmer, the dairyman, or the packer have anything to rejoice at. In fact, they find great fault with the weather. The roads, which were bad enough before, (are, of course, now only roads in name. The only time when the weather tables would have been useful they are not available, owing, we understand, to the lines being broken down. We shall no doubt hear from Dr Hector, and from some of the Bavaria where the provinces maintain an account of the recent thunder storm, which lasted over six and thirty hours. Our readers are reminded that Saturday is the day fixed for the nomination of Councillors for the Municipal Council; and Wednesday, at noon, for the nomination of Wardens for the Depasturing Board.