THE Otago Witness. Dunedin, Saturday, January 5, 1861.

Otago Witness, Issue 475, 5 January 1861, Page 4

THE Otago Witness. Dunedin, Saturday, January 5, 1861.

The Provincial Council has closed its labours for a time, after a session of- 23 days. The unusual nature of its business in the early part of the session in having to institute, an enquiry as to the state of the public accounts, has precluded it from attempting any legislation. The whole of the business of this kind having been postponed on the assumption that there will be another -session in the course of a few months. Although nothing has been attempted beyond the Committee of Enquiry and the Appropriation, the session has been for us an unusually long one. The total sum appropriated for six months is £126,293 of which £42,933 are to be expended on roads and bridges, .and £23,089 on public works and buildings. A very .considerable addition has been made to the expenses of the Engineering Department, which it is to be hoped will put it in good working order, and save the expense which has so constantly been incurred by changing the direction of roads and leaving partly finished works as a monument of our engineering errors. A sum of £20,000 has been appropriated for immigration, but as this must be effected with borrowed money, nothing definite can be arranged as to its expenditure until an Ordinance, authorising the raising this sum by , debentures, has been passed. Our Steam votes are as usual, although it is hoped that a saving may be effected on the contract for communication with Melbourne, or that ths service may be ren* dered much more efficient. If this latter position is taken, it will be done in conjunction with the Province of Canterbury, with whom there is a proposition afloat to subsidize the Coleman company, who will put on to the line two of their most powerful steamers, the j? f Victory" and "Prince Alfred," which will have the effect of giving us a bi-monthly communication with Melbourne ; and as the steamers will make Otago an intermediate port of call, we shall have the opportunity of three days between the receipt and dispatch of mails to reply to our letters. We have observed that the session has been a longer one than ordinary, though the business has not been so extensive as usual, — this arises from the fact of members indulging in an amount of loquacity quite unnecessary. This appears to be the crying evil of all representative institutions, from the British Parliament downI wards. In coming to a new country we were supposed to be escaping from taxation, but the tax upon the time of the community in attending to political matters, is something serious. With all people in New Zealand time is money ;

and the amount of time wasted in speechmaking in the General Assembly and in the local Councils, is a tax of no mean importance, and calls for a stringent remedy. We would recommend the electors at the next election to put the question to a candidate how many unnecessary remarks he had made in the last session of a legislature of which he had been a member. We do not entirely approve of the silent members, who never speak a word, of which we have one or two notable specimens in Otago ; but we prefer them to the honourable gentleman who can never let an item in an appropriation ordinance pass without expressing his opinion, which being often a very absurd one, induces some other honourable member to comment on the remarks of the previous speakerand a debate is gotupiipon themost trivial or necessary item, — tending to the waste of time, and the distraction of attention from matters of real importance. A gentleman who cannot allow an item of five pounds for* coals and candles to pass without an explanation from the Executive, and on being informed that they are to be burnt, expresses his-satis-faction with the lucid explanation,— regrets' that the government did not afford the information before, instead of allowing the Council to grope about in the dark, and then grows eloquent upon the item, informing Mr. Chairman that in his opinion coals and candles are necessary, and that he shall give the Government his entire support on the motion. Westrongly.recommendtheExeeutiveatthe next session to put an item on the Estimates of threepence for a bung for the use of an honourable member, and we have not the slightest doubt the first gentleman to make a speech on the occasion will be the one to whom it would be most useful.

One item of an unusual character in the appropriation is for the relief of destitute persons. The amount is small, but it opens a wide field for reflection. It was objected by one member that there was no proper officer to expend the amount, or to judge of the necessity of cases arising, and that it was not a duty which ought to be imposed on the Executive. We cjuite agree with this latter observation ; and as the population of the Province increases, the demands of this character will also increase. It is a matter that must be attended to, and unless the various churches organize some system — which, we think they ought to do — the duty will fall on the Government. We shall notice this subject at a future period.

During the whole of the session it. must have been obvious to the, members gf the Council ihat the present system of an unpaid Executive coming to the Council without any personal knowledge of the details of the working of the Government, but just crammed for the occasion, will not do, and that with our present Executive Ordinance there is really no responsibility to the Council. Under the peculiar circumstances of the case, it was perhaps as well that the matter was not discussed during the session ; . but we trust that before the Council again meets, the gentlemen who take a lead in our local politics will meet and come to some understanding how matters are in future to be carried on, and that such resolutions will be proposed next session as will settle the foundation upon which a satisfactory and effective Ordinance may be passed.