Wellington Independent MONDAY, MAY 29, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3211, 29 May 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent MONDAY, MAY 29, 1871.

Elsewhere will be found a telegraphic abstract of the speech of the Superintendent of Otago on opening the Provincial Council. The proceedings of that body have more than usual interest attaching to them at the present time. It will be remembered that the last Council by a considerable majority voted against the im migration and public works policy of the Government; and that the Executive of which Mr Donald Reid was the head, rather than see the Clutha railway carried out under the acts of last session by the Genei al Government, actually opposed its construction, and tried to find a company who would carry it on under the Provincial Government. So infatuated were the Executive, and the party that supported them (singularly enough termed the " liberal" party) that they were on the point of concluding contracts of the most ruinous character to tbe province, when the General Government stepped in, and commenced the work themselves, in terms of the Railways Act, 1870. Mr Reid has tried hard to show that it was better for the province to pay £400,000 than £300,000, and more advantageous to pay 8 per cent than G per cent ! During the recent Superintcndental election, the Government policy, as opposed to Reids no-works policy, triumphed by a comparatively small majority —Mr Macandrew being returned on that question. In the new Council now convened, a large number of Mr Reid's henchmen have been returned, and it will be interesting to watch their proceedings. Another circumstance that gives additional interest to the present session is the fact, that the new Council numbers no fewer than sixteen members of the House of Representatives, and three members of the Legislative Council.

The first trial of strength has taken place, and the Reid party have defeated the Government candidate for the Speakership by 24 to 11. How far this is an indication of their comparative strength in the absence of anything but curt telegrahic information, it is impossible to say. The Reid Ministry having resigned during the recess, the Superintendent chose the following Executive :— E. B. Cargill, Esq., Provincial Secretary ; George Turnbull, Esq , Provincial Treasurer ; C. E. Haughton, Esq., M.H.R., Secretary for Lands and Gold Fields — three gentlemen well known iir Wellington, and a Mr M'Arthur without office, from a Southland district.

From the Superintendent's opening speech (put into his mouth by his responsible advisers) it is evident that the new Executive have very different views from their predecessors on the administration of public affairs, and it would appear from a paragraph in our local columns, that they have actually put land into the market under the hateful " Hundreds' Act." As this act is sure to be a subject of hot discussion in the Assembly it may be well here shortly to review its history, especially as it is a very instructive one to our settlers in presont circumstances. It will be necessary to go as far back as the Land Act of 1800, which was passed in the Assembly as a sort of compromise between the two interests — the agricultural and the pastoral. Two members only foresaw the evils that would arise from it, and voted against it, viz., James Ma-

candrew and Julius Yogel. Strangely euough, these two gentlemen were called to administer it — the former as Super-

intendent ; the latter as Provincial Treasurer. During their administration they sold, in terms of the act, land that bad been proclaimed into Hundreds for seven years at lOs per acre. Mr Thompson (now member for the Clutha), who had himself, in the Provincial Council, moved that such land should be sold at 5s an acre, raised a great agitation against this ad minis tra-

tion of the Land Act, and got a petition signed by seventy-eight settiers, who did not like to see the pasturage for whicli they had been paying nothing sold to any one, and no longer available for their own sheep and cattle. This petition was presented by Mr Donald Reid to the General Assembly, and referred in tlie usual way to the Waste Lands Committee. The Committee proceeded to take evidence on the subject, but the evidence of Messrs Macandrew and Yogel was so contradicted by that of Mr Reid that they found it impossible to come to any conclusion. Mr Reid, a strong supporter of the centralist party then in office, succeeded (very much against the wishes of the majority of the Otago members) in getting a commission appointed to take evidence in Otago, and report to the next session of Assembly. Their report was laid before the Waste Lands Committee, and certain resolutions founded thereon were passed in that committee, and the draft of a bill embracing them was submitted to the Otago members. After several caucuses, the latter agreed to support the bill (the famous Hundreds Act) which was passed accordingly.

No sooner was it passed than Mr Roid, of all men (then the heaCl of the Provincial Executive) opposed it vi et arm-is. Indignation meetings were held throughout the province, at which resolutions were passed condemnatory of the bill, and the Provincial Executive positively refused to carry it into effect. The Superintendent, disagreeing with his Executive on this point, and on account of their opposition to railways, called a special meeting of tho Provincial Council together, when an amended Hundreds Act was passed by a very small majority, differing very little from the former. This

Act, the Superintendent was oharged with last session, and requested by the Reid Executive to use his best endeavors to pass through the Assembly. Mr Brown, a keen partizan of Mr Reid's, as we oxplained at the time, on whose own resolution this amended Act was passed in the Provincial Council, actually tried to oppose the very measure accepted by Mr Reid, and placed by hira in the Superintendent's hands for passing through the House, by bringing in a bill totally repealing the original Act. He was unsuccessful, and the amended Hundreds Act was passed. The dangerous precedent of the Supreme Legislature amending a bill (that had never been brought into operation, and had been openly resisted by a Provincial Executive) at the request, almost amounting to dictation, of a majority of one of a Provincial Council , we commented on at the time, aud we hope that no Assembly will so stultify itself again. Mr Reid, the quondam stickler for the supremacy of the colonial legislature, has in this matter acted with a perversity and a selfishness happily rare in New Zealand politics, and the consequences of his action aye thus very mildly put by the Superintendent in his opening address : " The long delay in placing additional land in the market had seriously diminished the sum total of the revenue during the past year."

It may naturally be asked, "What is the moral of all this dreary narrative of the Otago Land Bills? We answer that (without going into the merits of the question) had it not been for taking the matter out of the hands of the Provincial Council all this agitation, stagnation, and consequent commercial depression in Otago would never have been known. Had the Clutha settlers not appealed unto Csesar through Mr Reid, Mr Reid would not to-day be found exciting the Clutha settlers to revolt against Csesar. Tf in Wellington in the same way the small farmers do not succeed in the coming Provincial Council in getting measures passed to protect their interest, let them expect a similar fate, if they surrender the privileges given them by the constitution into the hands of an Assembly, the re suit of whose legislation on subjects, peculiarly the province of local legislatures, is discontentment and strife, if not (us is so loudly asserted in Otago) oppression and injustice. Above all, this fierce Otago struggle teaches us that the good of the province and the colony should override all party considerations, and be considered of more importance than the assertion of political opinions Mr Reid, a strong centralist, thought he would carry his object and coerce his opponents, who were strong provincialists, by invoking the aid of a parliament in which be knew the very interest he represents, and by which he lives, meets with but scant justice ; yet, in his political furor he agreed to present in Wellington the litcras Better opliont is ~t\\Q Clutha Petition, Mr Keid, as an opponent of Mr Yogel, was so anxious to thwart him and his ministry that he was prepared, as we have seen, to gratify his grudge at an enormous loss to the province, and at the sacrifice of all the political opinions, which, as an anti-separationist and a supporter of Mr Stafford, he had so emphatically expressed in the local and general legislatures. The political conduct of Mr Macandrew forms a pleasing contrast. Ultra-provincialist as he is, he was sorry to see the foolish action of the Reid Ministry in resisting measures that had been passed by the votes of the Otago representatives. In his concern for his province, he beheld with sorrow trade languish from the sudden stoppage of all colonising operations ; and when the General Government stepped iv and began works which, according to his own cherished opinions, should have been carried on by the Provincial Government, his desire for the public interest rose superior to every consideration, and he exclaimed " Perish provincialism, if it interfere with the work of colonisation." In Mr Fitzherbert we have a still better illustration of this magnanimity and patriotism. Ousted by a ministry who propounded a policy which he recognised as in many respects capable of meeting the wants of the colony, he at once gave it an appreciative support, and assisted his predecessors to carry it into law. Elected to the Superintendency of a province which through many untoward circumstances had been brought to the most critical pass, he began, without any recriminations on tho past, to devise the best means for its extrication from financial and other difficulties. Perfectly regardless of any political or party feeling, he ond bis executive aim only at the good of the province, by opening up its lands for settlement, by increasing its means of internal communication, and by pro viding it with proper educational appliances. In their concern for the future of the province, all party ties and cries are ignored ; believing, as they do, that centralism and provincialism are, after all, but minor questions which should not be allowed to interfere with the faithful carrying out of a policy which contains their solution in gremio. Around them, therefore, all the settlers in the province should rally, and we trust the representatives in the Provincial Council will sink all past differences in the discussion ofthe measures shortly to be brought before them. Whenever the public interest is regarded as the supreme consideration, good and useful legislation may be expected— the minds of legislators not being distracted by the din of faction, nor disturbed by the intrusion of selfish or party considerations Our Council has a great problem to solve, a problem whose solution will mainly depend on the amount of patriotism, and the freedom from party prejudices, with which it is approached. Let us have no more cries ofthe country against Wellington ; centralism against provincialism ; for such cries are now meaningless and mischievous when raised against the diffusive policy vow before the Council and the country.