CHAPTER 111. SUNRISE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2298, 17 March 1898, Page 23

CHAP TER 111. SUNRISE.

best agricultural land right across the recalcitrant district, a few miles "north of Invcrcargill, in two thousand-acre blocks, selling the same at 10s. an acre without conditions of settlement, etc.. such as prevailed in the rest of Otago. This would be killing the dog wit h its own provender. Once the land sold in large slices, and the price fobbed by the Dunedin Treasury, a long farewell to separation. A new province, stalling without a land fund, was an anomaly beyond the wildest dream of enthusiasm. "The Land Sales and Leases Ordinance. 1856," empowering the Waste Lands Board to sellfiOO.OOO acres of land outside Hundreds in blocks of not les^ than 2,000 acres at 10s., without the 40s. improvement conditions," was passed by the Provincial Council of Otago, 10th December, 1856, and absented to by the Governor in Council on the 27th .January, 1857. Mr. Macandrew was encouraged and assisted in this clever device by that very able member of the great battalion "Men of the World," the late Mr. Ligar, who had retired on a pension from the position of Surveyor-General of New Zealand, which he had held for years after the proclamation of the constitution for the Colony. He had just returned from a

Meanwhile the population of Mnrihikn— as, prior to its baptism as Southland, the district was designated — was gradually approaching the possible under the Act specially passed for its creation, together with any other little waifs similarly situated; while the ferment of discontent with its subordinate position was kept steadily in view.

By proclamation in the New Zealand Gazette of date the 25th March, 1861, the human race was credibly informed that on and after the first day of April in that year, the Province of Southland had become an entity under the " New Provinces Act, 1858," and Invercargill was constituted its capital. On oth June following it was proclaimed that the Provincial Council was to consist of eleven members, the province being divided into six electoral districts, with a total of 26!) electors all told. Mr. Francis Dart Fenton was appointed to form the electoral rolls for the new province. On the 6th June Mr. Walter Henry Pearson was appointed a Commissioner of Crown Lands and Chief Commissioner of the Waste Lands Board of Southland; Messrs. J. A. R. Menzies. John Blacklock and A. J. Elles, commissioners of the Board ; and the latter treasurer.

The first Provincial Council of Southland consisted of the following members : — Robert Stuart (speaker), Nathaniel Chalmers, William Francis Tarlton, Invercargill ; Walter Henry Pearson, John C. McKay, James Wilson, Waihopai ; James Alexander Robertson Menzies, Ma.tn.ura ; Alex. McNab (chairman of committees), Campbelltown ; Freeman It. Jackson, Matthew Scott, New River ; Henry McCulloch, Riverton.

The Provincial Council met to elect a duly qualified person to serve as superintendent of the province on Saturday, the 3rd day of August, 1861, at twelve o'clock noon, in the court-house, Invercargill. THE LAUNCH. When the Council duly met, all the members but two were present. Mr. Robert Stuart was proposed as Speaker, and, feeling that it was a new province, and that a new record should be established, without waiting for the motion to be seconded, with great dignity took the head of the table, and blandly informed the members that the Council was open for the transaction of business. Thus was the good_ship M Southland, nee Murihiku,

launched on the troubled sea of self-government. The next and most important step, the election of a .Superintendent, was then piocceded with, and the Hon. James Alexander Robertson Menzies was elected, with only one dissenter, and he was looked on with contempt — indeed, considered a "little oft." The majority alvyays despise the minority. A synopsis of tbe character and career of Dr. Menzies will not be out of place. The fate of Southland bears its stamp; its apogee and perigee were virtually condensed in his reign. James Alexander Robertson Menzies first saw the light of day amongst the Highlands of Scotland, spending his youth inhaling its invigorating ozone, and building up a more than ordinarily fine phjsique. Nearly connected with the chief of his clan, he naturally, as a boy, mentally absorbed the simple and effective creed of autocracy. If there could be any doubt as to " the divine right" of kings, there could be no scepticism in regard to that of a Hieland Chieftain; and doubtless time and occasion

was when the doctrine had its uses. Having taken his degree as a Doctor of Medicine, Dr. Menzics >ame out to New Zealand, proceeding at once to take up and stock a run, " Dun Alister," on the banks of the Y\ yndham. His influence was felt in Murihiku immediatelj on his arrival in the district, and he at once assumed the leadership in the crusade against Dunedin, which was Otago. As 1 have mentioned already. Dr. Menzies' moral nature was high-toned: lie was endowed with that "chastitj of honour which feels a stain like a wound." Xo mean action, no dishonourable thought, could have found harbour in his mental calibre: indeed, his very <-hivalr.\ of soul militated in great measure with his successful compass of the position ot Superintendent. His misfortune was that he did not understand business ; his fault, that he thought he did: while his over self-confidence, which induced him to rather contemn advice, was the superstructure on the basis of a too ner\ous and sensithe temperament. Atlas requires robustness of mind as well as bod.\ . Conceiving that the delegation of powers by the Central Government to Superintendents was a special trust, to be administered without reference to his Executive, he declined to share it, thus separating responsibility and power — a view that helped materially in destroying the confidence of the majority of the Provincial Council that had elected him as the first Superintendent of the Province, and led to his rejection as holder of the position by Councils subsequently elected. His cool, self-contained, seemingly unsympathetic manner, the result probably of an inherent nervousness, staved off intimate friendship. But whatever relations brought friend or opponent in contact with Dr. Menzies, the impression instinctively conveyed was that of holding intercourse with a gentleman sans pe-ur et suns revroche. The results of his management of public affairs in Southland were doubtless xmsatisfactory, but the kernel of failure lay in attempting too much : the common fault of each of the larger provinces in the heyday of their prosperity, the crime of the Colony since their abolition. At most he overestimated the proportion of the material to the extent of endeavour. To push into the van of New Zealand the child of his affection was a perfectly honourable, disinterested, and unselfish enthusiasm. In nobility of character, honesty of purpose, few, very few, of New Zealand's statesmen will stand on as lofty a platform in the coming Valhalla as the Honorable James Alexander Robertson Menzies. THE SAILING OF THK SHIP. The first members of the Executive Council were Messrs. Walter Pearson, Nathaniel Chalmers, Henry McCulloch and John C. McKay. Mr. Pearson as head of the Government, Mr. Chalmers as Provincial Treasurer, the only members deriving remuneration. Mr. Thos. Morrell McDonald, the very able pupil of Sir Frederick Whitaker, was appointed Provincial Solicitor and Crown Prosecutor: and Mr. Theophilus Heale, Chief Surveyor. And here it will not be inopportune to sketch the character of the latter gentleman, who during the early career of Southland played no inconsiderable part in the administration of affairs. The late Mr. Theophilus Heale was built of material superior to the. ordinary substance out of which the mass of humanity is puddled. His mind was stored with a variety of knowledge, which an abnormal memory placed at his disposal without effort ; and which early travel in many lands enabled him to codify for practical adaptation. He was the soul of honour and the embodiment of chivalry in loyalty to his friends, and adhesion in the ordinary intercourse of life to the loftiest integrity. His one fault— a singularly uncommon one, particularly in the present day, and most particularly in New Zealand— was his want of self-assertion, the result rather of an amiability of disposition that shrank from wounding the amour vropre of others, than from any intellectual weakness of his own. Thus the wise caution of his advice was frequently overruled by the dominant determination of a more assertive will, and on more than one occasion he was actually the instrument for carrying into effect what his own judgment deprecated. An early colonist, largely acquainted with Imperial affairs and colonial politics, his advent to Southland at the request of Dr. Menzies was of immense service to a Government the members of which were necessarily neophytes in the discharge of the duties that devolved on them. Appointed chief surveyor of the young state on the 26th September, lfcfjl, Mr. Heale acted also on occasion as civil engineer and general adviser. Tn June, 1865, he resigned his appointment, returning to Auckland, and finally to the Homeland, where he died ; universally respected, and sincerely regretted for his singular modesty, large knowledge and amiable disposition, by all who had had the good fortune to have known him. SHOAL WATER. It is one thing to launch a ship of state, another to negotiate the voyages with safety. Southland started with a large and valuable landed estate, settlement of a very good description was in active progress, roads were formed, and all the earlier hardships incidental to colonisation pretty well overconie ; still separation from Otago was a problem to be worked but. The intelligence of the crew was equal to the occasion, it was a question of the depth of the financial sea. That is always the trouble. From the Ist April to 31st August the total revenue, land and ordinary, amounted to £1,431 — all this in five months. Verily the mountain had given birth to a mouse ! The flesh pots of Kgypt were better than this ! The discovery of gold at Gabriel's Gully solved the question. For the next five months the total revenue, land and ordinary, rose to close on £21,000, and continued to rise till at the close of the financial year, 30th September, 1863, it reached the respectable proportions for that day of small mercies and no debentures of £103,942, exceeding the estimate by £8,410. Notwithstanding, however, this advance by leaps and bounds, the expenditure far exceeded it in rapidity of movement. It was the story of the tortoise racing the hare, only the hare never stopped to have a nap ; it generally does not under the circumstances. ROCKS AHEAD. ~" r At'the fourth session of the Provincial Council held atlnvercargill on the 21st February* 1863, the Superintendent in his opening address inter alia said: "The chief reason for your

assembling at this time is to consider the propriety of constructing a railway between this place and the Bluff." If the building of railways in a young and sparsely populated country by its Government be an undertaking of merit, Dr. Menzies is entitled to large kudos as the pioneer adventurer. Acknowledged by the Colonial Government to be a part of a colonial scheme, and with its authority and countenance. The Bluff Harbour and Invercargill Railway Bill was passed by the Provincial Council on the sth March, 1803. The money for the construction of the line was raised by debentures and advances by the General Government, and the work after many vicissitudes was satisfactorily and substantially executed.

This was well, but the Vogelian microbe would not let well alone.

Fortune again befriended Southland. The singularly rich goldfleld to the east of Lake Wakatipu and due north of Invercargill became an assured fact. It lay in Otago proper, a little distance outside the artificial boundary fixed by legislation for Southland, though nature had determined Invcrcargill, via Bluff

as its outlet on the seaboard. Thoiisands of diggers from Australia landed at the Bluff and New River on the way to the new FA Dorado. Hundreds from Otago crossed Southland's eastern boundary, cutting up her roads on the same errand. Many agents of Melbourne business firms waited at Invercargill to see whether the Southland Government would appreciate nature s otter and commercially annex a territory which physically belonged to her, by immediately appointing a gold receiver at Queenstown, and organising and despatching an escort to that locality, thus securing a medium for remitting moneys to the seaboard. Mr. Pearson, the head of the Exeeutive,supported by the other members, strenuously urged the Superintendent, Dr. Menzies, to adopt this course, citing from personal knowledge the case of the Adelaide escort tapping from the first the Victorian goldfields, and securing for South Australia the cream of that enterprise in large agricultural settlement of the best description. To no purpose. The chivalric sentiment in Dr. Menzies' nature prevailed; he insisted on first endeavouring to secure the co-operation of the Otago Government in joint action in establishing an escort, before invading their territory. In vain Mr. Pearson pointed out that from his study of human nature and personal acquaintance with the very able politician, the late Sir John Richardson (then Superin- ' tendent of Otago), that astute old soldier would not reply to his offer until the Otago escort, having forded the Mataura, was half way across Southland on its way to Queenstown, when he would inform his Honor of Southland that he of Otago could manage his own affairs, while expressing grateful thanks for the kind assistance tendered— that the days of Fontenoy were over, when each general, hat in hand, requested his opponent to fire first. Dr. Menzies "held the fort." He would write and await reply before acting. In due time Major Richardson followed the exact course predicted by Mr. Pearson. When too late a Southland Government agent or receiver was appointed at Queenstown, who received nothing, not an ounce of gold. An iron safe that in ; capacity could have held all the gold the world had ever yielded, ; was sent up at great expense, the only use for which was to j furnish the material for a ballad by the "inimitable Thatcher." entitled "The Southland Government Safe." An escort rode \ solemnly uo once, returning: with eciual solemnity without any- j

thing to escort. Thus the only chance of working out to a successful issue the problem of self government in so bit mil a domain as that legally assigned to Southland, by commercially exploiting a large and prosperous area nature with its beneficence had placed at her disposal, was irrevocably lost. The tide had not been taken at the flood, and fortune slowly but steadily receded. Meanwhile Mr. Pearson, on finding that the Superintendent declined to take his advice— backed by the other members of the Executive Council— on a matter which to him (Mr. P.) seemed of vital importance to the future welfare of the province, resigned office as head of the Executive, and, shortly after, his seat in the Provincial Council. '1 his was the first rift in the political lute, which soon widened till all harmony between the Provincial Council and his Honor the Superintendent was destroj cd.