THE Marlborough Express SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1869.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 157, 13 February 1869, Page 3

THE Marlborough Express

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 1869.

“ GIVK me the liberty to know, to utter, and to ergue freely according' to conscience, above all other liberties.’ —Milton.

The long-expected, and long-deferred meeting of Mr. Eyes with his constituents has now become a matter of History, and may very fairly come under our consideration. Everyone can now see the rationale of the whole business ; both why it was not called for months after Mr. Eyes’ return from the Assembly, and then deferred as nearly as* possible to the eve of the next session. It cannot be pretended by his most ardent supporter, that that gentleman was not aware of the existence of discontent as to his proceedings with reference to a number of measures and transactions, voting for unpopular, and against others that weie popular, but more especially with respect to his invariably voting with the Stafford ■ t . Ministry, our inveterate —we might almost add, our hereditary foes, who, acknowledgin'* the injustice under which our Province has labored for years, cut away our last hope of redress, after refusing to listen to our prayer for adjustmentand proposed not only to perpetuate the wrong, but to increase it, by leaving Marlborough out of the reckoning. On the other hand, those Provinces which had been running headlong into debt, whilst receiving our revenue, were to be “ compensated” to the extent of hundreds of thousands of pounds. This was the great point of the meeting, the sole object of interest, and as we now see, one that Mr. Eyes was unable to explain away. This was the reason why our member turned his back on his friends, and

allowed the “ red herring” of his position as Superintendent to be trailed over the course, “ with emotion,” so as to divert the attention of his hearers from the main point at issue. Setting aside all that he could tell us about the open proceedings of the session, of which we were perfectly cognisant from Hansard , we find from his speech that at the period when he should have enlightened us upon matters which had cast a shadow over his name in the eyes of his friends, he wandered off into a complaint that Mr. Ward had endeavored to oust him as Superintendent, and thereupon attacked him, and all those who had worked with him, and fought by his side in former times, in the cause of Justice to Marlborough ! Such explanation as he did offer was most lame. Private meetings were held, and ha received “ almost a promise” that a certain sum of money should be paid to this Province; other meetings were held, but no scheme of adjustment could be agreed upon. The extraordinary plea is then raised that “ even if Marlborough had not got half she would be in a better position that day six months than if they had accepted the proposal of Mr. Pox.” By “ half,” we presume Mr. Eyes/ meant half of the 7s. per head proposed to\ by Mr. Stafford to be given, after assuming the combined debts of all the Provinces, /Marlborough £15,000, and Canterbury £830,000 for example !) Taking the population of this Province as at last census, 4371, would give £765 as our share of Ordinary Revenue to pay official salaries, &c. ! What on the other hand was Mr. "Pox’s proposal 1 To take the same sum proposed to be dealt with by Mr. Stafford, namely £300,000, and hand over to every Province a sum, at the rate of 30s. per head, leaving it to pay its own debts. By this plan we should have reaped the benefit of our small indebtedness, while that Province owing £830,000, besides having its landed estate mortgaged to the tune of £2,500,000, would have realised the consequences of debt. Mr. Eyes’ explanation why he did not support this just and equitable apportionment was that there was no finality in if— no certainty that it would be continued. It might be urged that there was not only no finality in the Min-

isterial scheme for which he voted, but little probability. What scheme could be final 1 All these plans are subject to revision from session to session, and ought to be so to the end of time. The other portions of Mr. Fox’s policy were dragged in to cover the paucity of reason for opposing him, and the apology for the Ministry was quite out of place, as was the indecent attempt to throw the blame of the Poverty Bay Massacre upon Mr. McLean and Major Biggs. From an ultra-Provincialst, Mr. Eyes is now a confessed Centralist, and appeared to glory in the speedy downfall ot Provincial institutions, an expression of opinion which received especial applause from his Picton friends. He alluded to his own position as Superintendent in the most derogatory terms, being “ paid to do something, but so very little, that he actually slid into more expense to kill time than his salary amounted to.” He hoped to have the support of his Council to reductions which he would propose, to the amount of £IOOO a year in Provincial expenditure, and, like his model, Mr. Stafford, he announced that, notwithstanding he had done so much in the way of reduction of expenditure, he saw his way to further reductions to the tune of about £2500 a year less than now, but he did not tell us how it was to be done. It seems to us that his project comes rather late in the day, seeing that since the Assembly, in which he was our representative, has neglected and refused to give us our rights, it is inevitable that all the expenditure, including not only officials, the support of the sick and destitute, and many other expenses, will have to be paid out of Colonial Funds, since there are no Provincial Funds left.

Our Representatives did not obtain, nor so far as we have evidence, did they even seek for Justice to Marlborough—did not advocate our interests, or even our rights in the Assembly ; but they did pledge our Land Fund for a paltry loan of £3OOO to pay officials; and Mr. Eyes—as once before he was the turning-point of a Fox Ministry —now tells us that “ the Stafford Ministry remained in by his vote instead of Fox getting in.” He now proposes, too late to be beneficial, when the General Government, or the Colony, has taken possession of our estate, to reduce the expenditure to starvation point; and lastly, he has made use of his public position to redress his private grievances by the vain attempt to control a Free Press !