MR. CUTTEN'S CANDIDATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 960, 23 April 1870, Page 1

MR. CUTTEN'S CANDIDATURE.

The result of the Caversham election is not likely to prove otherwise than favourable to the political interests of the province. There are very few gentlemen among us whose claims to the consideration of the electors could, on any ground, be supposed to stand higher than Mr Cutten's. His experience of public life ranks him among the veteran politicians of the colony; and consequently his re-appearance in the Assembly would enable him to exercise a larger share of influence than usually falls to the lot ot a representative. At the present period of our history, this is the highest recommendation that any candidate can possess. It is above all things desirable that the men we return to the Assembly should be qualified 'to do something more than record their votes — that they should be j able to increase the political influence of the province by their own personal weight. Hitherto it ha 3 been the misfortune of Otago that its members have been powerful merely in point of number ; the result being that it has exercised comparatively little influence over the administration of affairs. The signs of the times clearly [point to the necessity of sending men to Wellington who are qualified to take part in the government of the country. Until we can get a Ministry with Southern mem- j bers in it, we must expect to see the revenue frittered away over a Native difficulty, while public works and every other element of progress are left in abeyance. There is an old French saying to the effect that a country is governed just as well as it deserves. Some such reflection as this must be our consolation, in reviewing the chronic mismanagement of public business with which the colony is afflicted.

Intimately idftntified as Mr Cutten is with the progress of the province, there can be no room for doubt as to the sincerity of his devotion to its interests. Fatal mistakes have been made on former occasions, when men of adventurous habits -of life have been entrusted with political power as representatives of Otago. A glance at the present catalogue of our members is enough to show how much the public interests have already been jeopardised in this way. Perhaps the greatest mistake that can be committed is to return men who may at any moment find it to their advantage to settle in Auckland or in any other province. Such a change involves a double loss to us ; for we not only lose a vote in the House but we give one to the enemy. It is by no means improbable, for instance, that when the contract for the San Francisco mail service comes under discussion, those members for Otago who are now resident in Auckland will be found voting with the Auckland members. Tt is enough to say that the terms of the contract were settled by an Otago member. We have been told that politicians are not likely to change their views when they change their domiciles — that a Southern member resident in Auckland is not necessarily tinged by Northern views. We have no faith in this assertion j the most ordinary experience of life is enough to show its absurdity. Whatever the probabilities may be in individual instances, it is not safe to run any risk ; and it may be said that the electors whose representative has thought fit to remove from the province should insist on his resignation-

One of the commonest artifices of political warfare in Otago is to impute a leaning to Mr Stafford's policy. The name of the ex-Premier is a bogie in our political nursei'ies. It is supposed to be identical with reckless Defence expenditure and insidious attacks on Provincialism. Although fcfcew is no reason whatever for yegard-

ing Mr Cutten as one of that faith, it is not surprising that attempts should have been made to identify his political principles with those of Mr Stafford. There is nothing, however, in Mr Cutten's utterances to the electors that can be pointed out in support of these insinuations. His views indeed appear to tend in quite the opposite direction. He has never been accused with reason of centralising tendencies ; and it would not be less just to argue that he is an advocate o war loans and income taxes than to argue that he is an enemy of provincial institutions. It is no doubt owing 1 to the strength of his provincial prejudices that the Hundreds Act has met with opposition at his hands. Certainly he could not have offered stronger evidence of his provincial tendencies than his argument on the proposal to place the business of immigration and education under the control of the General Government. ' I should have no objection to the central Government legislating on these subjects up to this point, — that you must spend so much out of your revenue on these objects, but for the General Government to interfere in details as to how the money should be spent, I hold to be very mischievous. ... I therefore hold that it is far better to go on with our provincial policy, as we have done from the beginning.' Seeing that the conviction is now spreading on all sides that justice cannot be done to the colony in these matters under the present system, it is matter for surprise that Mr Cutten should still manifest so much faith in provincialism. If a great deal has been done in Otago to educate the children of its settlers and to increase its population from without, verylittle has been done in other provinces. Such a system obviously calls for reform; and reform must come in some way or other. In the absence of any proof that provincial action is equal to the emergency, there is no alternative but to hand the business over to the General Government. Nor is there any reason to fear that the interests of Otago would be seriously prejudiced by the change. Our educational system could not be taken from us, and it is not at all probable that our educational reserves would be seized, while in the matter of immigration we should inevitably gain, inasmuch as Otago is beyond a doubt the finest field for labour in New Zealand.