THE OTAGO WITNESS.

Otago Witness, Issue 291, 27 June 1857, Page 4

THE OTAGO WITNESS.

Dunedin, Saturdat, June 27, 1857.

Our communications with Auckland, the seat of the General Government, are so few and far between that we may be said to be in almost total ignorance of the proceedings of the General Government Executive. We, however, observe from the Australian papers that Mr. Bell was in Sydney, as the Agent of the New Zealand Government, and was carrying on some negociations for the purpose of establishing an effective steam communication with the Australian colonies and the home country. Beyond the fact that the Government were so employed, we have little information of their proceedings in matters concerning the whole of New Zealand. We, however, as far as the Province is concerned, are progressing satisfactorily without the assistance or interference of the General Government, and on the whole the financial position of affairs as arranged by the Ministry, is satisfactory enough. By that arrangement we have had during this year, three-eighths of the gross Customs' revenue and the whole of the land funds placed at our disposal, giving us an amount of revenue which far exceeds anything we have ever be-, fore obtained ; but as the period for the meeting of the General Assembly is fast. approaching, we are naturally anxious to ascertain how far the existing state of things is likely to remain

unchanged. We have 'taken but little notice "of the 'proceedings of ''the'' last session, of the Assembly,, and -have sel-. dom- commented upon . what, .then .took - place $ indeed the struggle for. the possession of thereins'of Govenment presented' but few, ! points of interest to the settlers of Otago. The great 'mat-' ter' appeared, to ben— whether Mr. Fox or Mr. Stafford was to be the Minister — arquestion, upon, which we believe the majority of the people of Otago did not care one straw. Besides the mere personal struggles between the gentlemen, there was also involved a provincial jealousy, Mr.-- Fox being a Wellingtonian and Mr. Stafford being aresident at Nelson ; and we may say that the jealousy which exists between Nelson and Wellington is second only to the rivalry between Wellington and, Auckland. With these extremely provincial feelings we have no sympathy and no interest, excepting in so far as they sometimes prevent the members representing' the different Provinces from drawing together for one common interest. Whether therefore Mr. Fox or Mr. Stafford was the best man personally for the position, we shall not take the trouble to enquire ; neither is it of any moment to us whether the Prime Minister be a Wellington or a Nelson representative. Upon these matters, however, a very large portion of the comments upon the General Government proceedings by the press in the Northern Settlements bear indirectly, and but little that is worthy of notice is said upon' the policy of the opposing parties. The terms "centralization " and "ultra-provincialism," have been thrown at one another, but those words do not appear to have any very distinct meaning in the mouths of those who use them, when taken into consideration in connection with the acts of the parties. The Stafford and Sewell party are accused of being centralists by Mr. Fox and his party, who assume to be extremely provincial ; but we observe that whilst Mr. Fox at the Assembly is supposed to hold ultra-provincial views, in the Province of Wellington, where he holds an office and is a member of the Executive, he is charged with centralizing power to an extent extremely injurious to the interests of the outlying portion of the Province. The mere terms Centralization and Ultra-Provincialism may, therefore, in themselves, be said to have no meaning. But in the case of the Province of Otago, although we do not desire to see the Province entirely independent of the General Assembly, connected with the rest of New Zealand only by a federation such as exists in the United States of America, we yet wish to see our financial affairs placed upon such a footing that' we may carry on our local Government without being liable, as we have hitherto been until the last year, to have the revenue which we calculate upon receiving for Provincial use taken for General Government purposes. For this reason we much prefer the policy of the present Ministry to that propounded b,y Mr. Fox, by which he proposed to take 2s. 6d. per acre' of our land funds. In the Assembly, it was assumed by Mr. Fox that no further sum would be ,;taken from those funds ; but we observe that Dr. Featherston (who supported Mr. Fox's views in the Assembly) in speaking at Wellington in favour of the arrangement- by which 2s. 6d. per acre was to be taken from the land funds, praised it particularly, because, should there be any derangement of the General, Government finances, it would be so simple a process to increase the' contribution from those funds. This facility of taking our land funds is just the strongest objection we have to Mr. Fox's policy ; and it appears to us to be the bounden duty of our representatives to resist every attempt to take any portion, however .small, of funds derived from the sale of land to be;spent for General Government pur-: poses. > The principle that such funds, are not taxes, but are' trust funds raised for the purpose of being spent upon Roads Immigration, ought to be maintained by us at all hazards. We may therefore very naturally ask, What

do our representatives propose to do. at the next meeting of the General) Assembly ? ? In the first place,' Do", they intend to proceed to Auckland at all? If so, what course do they propose to follow ? Do they mean to attempt to overturn the existing financial arrangements ? We think that the. public have a right to. expect some [explanation of their intentions, especially. ( as we have had no satisfactory .explain-, ation exen of their doings at the last, session. . The course we are now suggesting may be, a rather unusual one';" but where; as is the case with us, it is*.. impossible to know what is going on at' r Auckland in time to express any opinion, we think' it would not only be a just policy, but a wise one, for our re- - presentatives to consult their constituents, and to call a meeting for' that purpose.

That unlucky body the Town Board -has "• again afforded a subject for our contemporary, and for a host, of qorrespondents. We cannot find space or time to notice the. comments of all, and to some extent it is unnecessary, inasmuch as a • great portion of the contributions of correspondents is. only a repetition of the' arguments of our contemporary in another form. We asked for a practical suggestion . from our' contemporary, and the only.one we have obtained is a hint to the public which amounts to somethiug like advising them not to pay the tax, or at least tends to excite discontent. We must say we think., it rather unreasonable to ask for something ".tangible for our money" before the money is expended. The Board seems to be expected to perform the feat of making a rope of sand. The reason of the Board's not having assessed the town property at a previous date was, because the sum which would have been collected would have been so small, and the unavoidable expenses of management would have been so heavy, that it was thought better to do nothing than to tax the publicwituout any benefit accruing. Even now, notwithstanding the extensive sale of land during the past year, the tax is a mere trifle. It is less than sum derived from the tolls at the jetty ; and were the whole sum expended in labour, it would buy the services of a less number of hands than could he furnished by the hard labour men. It will be seen from this comparison that it is absurd to expect much from the Town Board with such inadequate means ;- but if the municipal properties and the reserves were placed at the disposal of the Board, such a sum would be derived from rents that something practical might be done ; but no. Were the Town Board assisted, and placed in a position to carry out its designs, it would present too strong a contrast to others to be agreeable. It is -a positive untruth to say that the £1000 voted by the Council has been placed at the disposal of the Board for nine months. It was only in February last that the Government intimated that the money was at the disposal of the Town Board. We never heard of any one of thejnembers complaining of the Press canvassing the,, conduct of public men. Mr. Young's complaint was " that the truth had not been stated ;" and as the statements ' bore internal evidence that they' must' have been -written by, a member of the .Board, a. report of- the proceedings of the Board' was not an- unrea-i sonable method- of correcting, the. mis-state-ment.' Even the member who . was . supposed to have published' the statements 1 seconded the motion without objecting to the names of the gentlemen 1 placed upon the Committee. Everybody " ( in Otago knows who manages the " Colonist," and? the value of testimony and weight • due tothe remarks of that journal are estimatedaccordingly. The remarks we made last week, except in some immaterial points, remain un contradicted, and they -will remain uncontradicted, for no positive denial can be given to them. The . application was made to the r Committeee of the General Board of Road Trustees. The Road Engineer , prepared the specification for the Swamp Road, and ' r had" commenced taking the levels of the "Rattray Street line, when his services were withdrawn. We made another, slight, 'mistake in saying -Mr. Macandrew resigned .his office as " Chairman^ ;" we , should 1 liava j said " Secretary." It will not do : to say'} statements are untrue, unless thVreal ve*«l sion of -the affair- be given. 1 Such denials* are of no value. " No * doubt the Town Board has had many sittings without effect, but the reason of that .is' plain' enough-to those who know anything about its' affairs. TJie letter-book -'of; th'e~Board is filled with

applications to first one and, then another department for maps, plans,' and; information, or for the services ; of Government officers ; andthe delays which have consequently arisen are quite vexatious. A map of the_town, which is absolutely necessary, has been promised to the Board for nearly two years, and we believe it has not been | obtained yet. -„ '