DUNEDIN.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 154, 19 January 1871, Page 6

DUNEDIN.

(From our own Correspondent.) Politics is the principal matter which occupies the minds of the people of Dunedin at the present moment. The orthodox and every day salute at ordinary times has given way to the constant enquiry of "what's new V " Who is going to get in for Superintendency, Reid or Macandrew?" Tf the opinion emanates from a contractor, one who has nothing to lose, nut even honour, or from one who lias made up his mind to leave New Zealand so soon as he has made sufficient money to carry him away, it is, Macandrew is my man — he is the man for my money. But if it happen to be a man with, a family, who has made New Zealand his home, and v/ho sees in the future Otago a prosperous province, with valleys tilled with, people instead of sheep, no land monopoly, and consequently a more equal distribution of power, the opinion is, Reid is sure to win. I, a neutral, can listen with pleasure to the various reasons advanced why Macandrew should, and Keid should, be our Superintendent ; and why Macandrew should not, and Reid should not, be. Those who have been in the colony sometime, and know Mr. Macandrew, are more fitted to judge of his fitness for the high office which he aspires to, for another four years, than I am. His supporters say, that he is a progressive man, and that everything that lie undertakes prospers. He is thoroughly reliable as a politician, and was never known to break :i hustings pledge, hi prouf of this, it.is said, that so ashamed are his opponents of four years ajo of their conduct thab they are all now supporting him, and that the most wealthy and intelligent class in the province, viz., the squatters, are amongst the number. It is also said that when Macandrew came into office four years ago^ that every tradesman^-— merchant, anffHarmjer were hopeiessly bankrupt; but that now all trades are flouiishing, very few aro complaining, and that labourers' wages have risen afc least 20 per cent. These are the principal reasons advanced by Mr. Macandrew's supporters for tho continuance in office of that gentleman for another four years. Give him, they say, but another four years of office, and. every man, woman, and child in the province will be made happy and contented. On tho other hand, his opponents accuse him of inal-adininustratum of the Waste Lauds Act, 1886, and Goldiields Act of 186G— mal-adminisbration of the Waste Lands Act, by giving to the pastoral tenant a lease in exchange for a license, without any reserve, thus locking up the lands from agricultural settlement for a number of years, save at a cost by compensation ruinous to the country — of selling lands at 10s per acre within Hundreds under the period of seven years, in accordance with the Act, thus depiiving the farmer of those rights and privileges which had made so many prosperous homesteads — mal- administration of the Goldfields Act by attempting to force into the market the Wakatip grazing reserves, and thus deprive that flourishing district of its mainstay to prosperity —of operating under the 33rd and 34th clause of the Act for agricultural settlement on the goldfields, which gave them no grazing rights, instead of the 16fch clause, which gives them grazing rights. In addition to mal-administration, liis opponents say, that he is thoroughly incapable of dealing with the matter of the disposal of the public estate, and of settlement of the people on the soil in a new country. His only principles are, sell the land and get the money and spend it, and introduce emigrants in order to reduce wages for the benefit of a few factory capitalists. The friends of Mr. Reid recommend him as an honest man. They say that he is a progressionist in the full sense of the word, became lie id in favour of settlement of the people on the lands. Jn opposition to Mr. Macandrew, he says that no country is safe "where the bulk of the people are depending solely on wages, and thai; the institutions of the country will improve in proportion to the increase of settlement. Having this in view, he is in favour of the Hundreds system as of the pa3t ; and on the goldfields he ia in favour of agricultural settlement under clause 16 of the Goldfields Act, 1866, with rights of grazing similar to the Hundreds system outside of the goldfields. Mr. Keid is in favour of railways aud water works on the Goldfields ; but he wishes an expression of public opinion as to whether the province is prepared to pay a large premium to the North Island for the construction of public works in the Middle Island. The only disqualification worth mentioning, that I have heard of Mr. Reid, is that he is not progressive enough— that there is not sufficient go in him — that he ought at once to accept of the colonial scheme of public works, although by doing so he paid the North Island a large consideration for the concession on their part. Mr. Reid's friends are very sanguine, and, if I am not very much out of my calculations/^ will beat Mr. Macandre-wr by a good maiority.

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