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Otago Witness, Issue 155, 6 May 1854, Page 7

Duxedi.v, Saturday, May 6, 1854.

From an advertisement to the electors which will he found in another part of our columns, it will be seen that Mr. Gillies has resigned his seat as a Member of the Provincial Council, and that he intends again to solicit the suffrages of the electors. Without entering into Mr. Gillies's reasons for resigning, and the circumstances under which he felt induced thus abruptly to tender his resignation to his Honor the Superintendent, we cannot but express our regret that, under the transient s>tate of affairs, he had not saved the electors the unnecessary trouble of re-electing him. We say transient, because of our firm conviction that, so soon aS the General Assembly shnll have met provision will be made for increa^iug the number of members of Provincial Councils, by dividing the Provinces into districts, and giving to each district the privilege of returning its own members. Our convictions to th's effect are grounded upon the fact of the other Pre»« vinces having expressed themseWe* in favour of extended representation, and of the Otago Council having requested the representatives of

the Province to the General Assembly to support these views ; and further, to secure to Superintendents the power of dissolving Councils in cases of equalities of votes, so as to give to the electors the power of deciding in such, cases "by means of their new elections." Under these circumstances, we think that Mr. Gillies ought to have retained his seat in the Council until such time as this important question had been finally settled by the General Assembly. As, however, he has taken a different course, we would suggest that the electors should put themselves to no trouble about the election, but leave Mr. Gillies tjuietiy to walk the course, — confident of this, that elections must soon follow which will be decisive on the question at issue, namely, whether there is to be a Provincial Government in the sense of the Constitution Act, or a mere Municipal Board, as contended for by Mr. Gillies and his friends in terms of his report to the Council on the Ferries Ordinance, as also by the amendment on section 21 of the Scab Ordinance.

We deprecate entirely this pet-taking system introduced hy Mr. Gillies into the Council, seeing that, if persisted in, it would entail, by endlessly-repeated elections, great inconvenience on the electors, and tend to bring the Constitution Act into disrepute.

We have put ourselves to some little inconvenience this week by publishing at full. length the speech of his Honor the Superintendent, the documents therein referred to, as also the Remarks of the Provincial Solicitor. "We refrain from offering any comment, confident that a decerning Public, on perusing these documents, will arrive at a light conclusion on the important question at issue.