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Otago Witness, Issue 177, 23 December 1854, Page 2

Superintendent's Office, Dunedin, 19th December 1854. npHE following Document is published for -*- general information. W. Cargill, Superintendent. Message No. 6. To the Provincial Council of Otago. Gentlemen, — I have considered your adoption of the Report made to you by Mr. Cutten, and regret to find, notwithstanding the late change in the Executive Council, that, by a majority, you are still dissatisfied. It is therefore necessary that the grounds of that dissatisfaction should be clearly stated and made comprehensible to 'the public, and to which end I must again revert to the fact of my having sent for Mr. Gillies as the mover of those Resolutions which caused the resignation of the Executive Council — of his having agreed, after a lengthened, and to me at least, satisfactory conversation, to take office himself, and ask Mr.. Anderson to unite wjth him. The matter being thus far arranged, and fully assented to on both sides, he retired for an hour or two- for. final consideration,, , and returned again to state his adhesion, adding, that he was then on his way to call upon Mr. Anderson (some distance from town), and would be at my office again the following morning. So far I had stated in my communication to you of 21st November; nor did I intend or think it necessary to go farther. But the position of your House, backed by the editorials of the late Scecretary, make it a duty to the public, however painful to myself, to be yet more explicit. It will be remembered, that on Mr. Gillies's assurance that upon the withdrawment of one member from the Executive the House would go on with the measures assented to at the opening of the Session, and pass them, he believed, without a dissenting voice; and hence the proposal that he should ask the Speaker of the House, Mr. Anderson, to unite with himself as a new Executive, which he assented to. On retiring for final consideration before he should absolutely take an office upon him which involved so much sacrifice of time, it is to be presumed that he consulted his fiiends; and most certain, whether he did so or no, that he held himself pledged, if he took the office at all, to make his proposal to the Speaker, and must be supposed to have said so to his friends ere he returned to tell me he had fully made up his mind, and was then on his way to ask the Speaker's consent. And it is at this point the necessity arises, as now forced upon me, of saying more than in my communication of 21st November ; but in doing so, I shall not by a single 1 iota go beyond the boundaries of what should be deemed confidential, as the public will judge, and my own character as an old officer will vouch for. In frankly discussing matters with Mr. Gillies, I had alluded to the anomaly of the first Session, in contrast with the Election? that preceded it, as having presented a House exactly divided, four against four, and the business having therefore been ruled by the casting vote of the Speaker ; that this proportion was now changed by a member having gone over from one of these four to the other four ; but happily under the opinions now stated by Mr. Gillies, that this could make no difference, in so much as the House, with hardly an exception, was agreed upon the measures propounded and assented to at the opening of the Session — that in fact there was nothing in the case as it stood to necessitate the confusion of a divided Executive — of a Superintendent having one view of the Constitution and his responsibility to the Electors, and his Council being of a totally opposite view. And here we differed for a moment, but only theoretically, — he holding that a Superintendent in every case must bow himself to the volition of any Councillors that might be put upon him ; and I, that there might, and ought to be, a limit in favour of a Superintendent who should hold fast by the people — by the piinciples on which they had elected liira, and should take his stand for a dissolution, in order that the people might judge and act for themselves. But this difference was only theoretical, and under the views of Mr. Gillies as to the state of the Council, there proved to be no difficulty. We were in fact not practically tied to either one of the fours, notwithstanding the ranks of one of them having been augmented by a seceder from the other; and we therefore proceeded on the principle that the one member, alleged to be obnoxious, having been withdrawn, the remainder of the Council might T>e freely drawn upon. Mr. Gillies btated there was one of them he could not act with. He gave no reasons, and I asked none ; but on my side 1 stated, that without a shadow of anything personal, there were two that I also must object to, and I gave ray reasons for that objection (documentary and otherwise), and then put it to him, whether, if in my situation, he could have the face to gazette either of them at the present time as Executive Councillors. It was after all this that Mr. Gillies took up his staff and proceeded to Mr. Anderson. He returned to me, as he had said, on the following morning, ami not only announced that Mr. Anderson had refused, but very coolly also, that unless ; he should have one or both of the very two gentlemen I had objected to, he would not take office. Whether he had seen either or both of these gentlemen before going to Mr. Anderson I know not ; but on seeing Mr. Anderson myself, I found that he had been -so asked as to court a refusal. Not a ■word had been said to him on the stoppage of ; public, business, which it was the object to put an end to, but only a bald proposition that he should come into the Executive, and an instant nailing of him to the first word of hesitation by saying, " I thought as much, I thought it would not suit you.'' Now whether this and the proposition which followed it with respect to his two friends be after the wisdom that is first pure, I know not; but of this I feel assured that Mr. Gillies must have thought so, or he would not have done it. The whole thing, then, is a manifest contrivance to force. two gentlemen into the Executive, against whom, in their public capacity, there > are reasons which I gave to Mr. Gillies, and am equally ready, if so requested, to state to your House. And here then, gentlemen, I take my stand for a dissolution, and an appeal to the Electors, whose rights I feel bound to maintain ; and let me assure you that that stand is immovable. The Electors of the Province, spite of all oratorical flourishes about Responsible Government, shall certainly have the substance of Responsible Governmont— the right to judge and decide for themselves on all matters of policy, or affecting their property, not contemplated at "the time of the elections; and whatever that judgment may be shall have ray unflinching support. I have stood between the Otago settlers and a despotism, knowing, and making it felt, that what I did must come under the revision of British statesmen, and the despotism was paralysed ; and I now stand between the same people and a headlong majority, knowing, and desiring it to be felt, that both that majority