Chapter XXIV.

The easy if irregular tenor of the Provincial Council was twice sadly disturbed at its sixth session in October, 1857. A fortnight before its sittings, Mr. Peter Proudfoot, Chief Commissioner of Lands, died, and the Superintendent appointed his own son-in-law, Mr. Cutten, to the vacant post, which was in the gift of the Executive and should have been filled by them. In his opening speech to the Council he justified this action, or rather rode roughshod over any objections to it. "Now," he said, "I would have Mr. Cutten and all others to know that I am in no degree to be swayed from doing what I have a right to do—to put the right man into the right place—whether that man happens to be my son-in-law or any one else" — a mode of speech now known amongst politicians as "putting on hobnailed boots." A still further infraction against constitutional law lay in the fact that this speech was composed and delivered by the Superintendent himself without the knowledge and advice of his Executive. It preceded the orthodox one, which he introduced by saying, "I shall now read the Address as advised and regularly prepared for you by the Executive." This procedure tried the Council much, and one of its members moved "that this Council strongly disapproves of His Honour the Superintendent delivering an Address to the Council without the concurrence of his Executive"—a motion which was carried with but one dissentient. The appointment itself was severely traversed, but there was no doubt of its excellence and page 182suitability, and so the matter was allowed to drop and Mr. Cutten to retain his new office.

The second incident was much more startling, and affords an instance of the loose way, to say the least, in which public business was occasionally conducted. Upon the death of Mr. Proudfoot, and until other arrangements were made, Mr. McGlashan accepted interim charge of the Department. With singular oversight he neglected to examine the contents of the safe and tally them with the cash-book. It is true that his other duties were multifarious enough, that he had no suspicion of default, that the daily payments of the office could be met out of the daily receipts, and that he desired to hand over the safe and its contents untouched to the new appointee. Three weeks after, when it became necessary to open the safe, the key was missing, and application was made for it to the widow, who referred to Mr. Macandrew, her husband's executor. That gentleman refused to give it up on various grounds. He stated that the safe did not contain more than £800, that after Mr. Proudfoot's death he had found in his house more than £1,000 in a cash-box, from which, if there proved to be any deficit in the accounts, the amount would be made good, and that he did not feel justified in handing over this sum until he had seen how his friend's estate stood. It was at this juncture that a pressing message was introduced from the Superintendent to the House requesting the appointment of a special committee to investigate the state of the Land Office since the death of Mr. Proudfoot. In the presence of the committee the safe was opened and a deficiency of more than £1,200 was discovered, an assumption being that, owing to his failing health, Mr. Proudfoot had not been able to deposit the amount, brought up to his house by a clerk, in the safe. Much evidence was taken which did not strengthen the position assumed by Mr. Macandrew. The report, which was strongly averse to him, was hotly debated and carried by nine to seven, the minority asserting that it was the outcome of political rancour and that he could have taken no other course as a faithful executor. Four months later £1,000 of the deficient money was repaid to the Treasury. The evidence showed considerable laxity all round, and, but for the honest, God-fearing character of the community, a stronger term might be used. It seemed probable that the money-chest was a convenient receptacle from which several had an opportunity of withdrawing a little money page 183as occasion arose, to be honestly replaced of course. Any fault lay in detection.

The important question of steam communication had often been discussed from the first session of the Council, and whilst resolutions had affirmed its desirability, nay necessity, the scanty revenue of the Province pointed to the fruitlessness of the discussion. The fact that there was a steam service between the other Provinces, whilst Otago was left in the cold, was irritating and kept the question alive. Nelson had the honour, in September, 1853, of subsidising, for £6,000 per annum, the first mercantile steamer to trade between the various ports of New Zealand, the terminal points being Auckland and Lyttelton. A few months afterwards the General Government took over this contract, still, however, not including Port Chalmers as a port of call. Mr. Macandrew therefore exhibited considerable enterprise when he proceeded to Melbourne towards the close of 1858 and negotiated for the purchase of a steamer. This was the Queen, an auxiliary screw of 78 horse-power and 132 tons burthen. She had accommodation for thirty saloon and fifty steerage passengers, and was able to steam, so it was said, 11 knots. The vessel came from Melbourne viâ Wellington, where she was offered for a service between that and other New Zealand ports and Melbourne. As the Wellington people did not consider her suitable, she was brought on to Otago, and on the 27th of August dropped anchor within half-a-mile of the Dunedin Jetty, to the delight of the inhabitants. She was welcomed with a salute of twenty guns, fired from the old cannon on Church Hill, a welcome which she acknowledged by a display of fireworks in the evening. Mr. Macandrew intended her to run between Lyttelton and the Bluff, and thence to Melbourne, but it was soon found that she was too small for this comparatively extensive service, and with fresh enterprise he secured the Pirate for the intercolonial service, whilst the Queen travelled up and down the coast as far as Wellington, doing duty as a feeder and distributor of the cargo carried by the larger vessel. The Pirate was of 285 tons burthen, and her commander, Thomas, or Tom Robertson, was afterwards a well-known marine painter, and finally settled at Port Chalmers as harbour-master. She arrived on her first trip from Melbourne on the 25th of January, 1859, with a cargo of sheep, horses, timber, and other goods. She anchored a little below the town and, as before, gala day was page 184observed, when a salute was fired and the bell set a ringing. Thus were laid the foundations of an extensive trade with Melbourne, which marked an era in the history of the Province, and to Mr. Macandrew's foresight and energy the praise is due. A ready outlet was found for wool, wheat, and oats, and again was there fresh life and activity. Steam now seemed to be the order of the day, for almost immediately after the arrival of the Pirate, Mr. John Jones brought down the Geelong, of 100 tons, from Melbourne, to run upon the coast, entering also the boat harbours.

Recognising the value of these services, the Provincial Council contracted with Mr. Macandrew for a monthly service to Melbourne at the rate of £4,000 per annum, and with Mr. Jones for a similar contract service for £975. Fares were fixed, for cabin and steerage passages, at 16 and 10 guineas to Melbourne; Invercargill, 5 guineas, and £3 10s.; the Molyneux, £3 10s. and £2; the Taieri, 30s. and 15s.; Waikouaiti, £2 and £1; Moeraki, £3 and £2; and Oamaru, £3 10s. and £2. In December, 1858, the Royal Mail Company, under contract with the General Government, commenced its running from Otago to connect, viâ northern ports, with the mail steamer at Sydney. Many will still remember the names of these steamers, the Prince Alfred, Lord Worsley, Lord Ashley, and Airedale. This great revolution demanded better communication between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, and this was soon supplied by Mr. Jones's little harbour steamer Pride of the Yarra, or New Era, as it was re-christened.

As indicating the stimulus given to correspondence by such increased facilities, it may be stated that whilst in 1855 the number of letters passed through the post-office at Dunedin was 8,600, and of newspapers 12,600, in 1858 they were respectively 42,000 and 52,000. To provide for the increased work thus entailed, Mr. Archibald Barr was in 1857 appointed special clerk under Mr. Charles Logie, who had been for some years chief of both Customs, and Postal Departments. The Custom House was a small galvanized iron building, situated at the junction of Princes and Jetty Streets, on the present site of Messrs. Briscoe and Co.'s ironmongery shop. A small room in this building was now devoted specially to the postal service, and, with the exception of an additional room afterwards erected at the back, formed the sole accommodation until the Department was detached from the Customs and removed to the present commodious build-page 185ings. In 1861 Mr. Barr was gazetted Chief Postmaster, and so remained until his retirement in 1888.

The close of the year 1858—the settlement's first decade—was marked by evidence of great progress, and the pioneer must have marvelled at the change in his position and prospects when contrasted with that of ten years before. From the meagre sum of £900 the revenue had sprung to £46,000, the whole of which and more had been expended on the local interests of education, emigration, steam, roads, and public works. The year was especially one of road-making and public works, to which more than £30,000 had been devoted. Over both Departments Mr. Thomson had control, and to Mr. Thomas Oliver, who still lives a respected citizen at Brockville, was deputed the inspection of roads—a duty which involved incessant horseback travelling the year round—for the small salary of £225. Roads of some sort—metalled horse or dray tracks, and what by a pleasant conceit were termed "pastoral roads"—extended from the Waitaki to Riverton, with branches to Portobello, Port Chalmers, and Manuherikia. The old Court-House, which was built for a Council Hall, and the gaol, both of which buildings have but recently been removed, had just been commenced. The Town Board, no longer dismayed by tussac, swamp, or hill, had expended £2,000 on the main streets, and had cut a road twenty feet in width through that part of Church Hill which barred Princes Street from the Octagon. For years after this was known as the "Cutting," and the site is now occupied by the shops lying between Dowling Street and Moray Place. It was proposed also to light Princes Street with candles in lanterns suspended from poles. The versatile Mr. Thomson also devised a water-supply system by conducting the waters of the Maclaggan and London Streets and Regent Road streamlets into the town through pipes. The scheme was not, however, carried out, and until 1867, when the Dunedin water-works were opened, the inhabitants continued to use the bountiful supply provided for them everywhere by Nature. Mr. Thomson refers to that distant time when future engineers might have to devise other methods for the supply of 10,000 people! In a short six years that time arrived.

The population too had advanced from 750 to nearly ten times that number, of whom less than half belonged to the Free Church—a curious reversal indeed. In Dunedin there were 1,700 people. Every one was page 186occupied; even labourers got 7s, to 8s. a day; mechanics, 10s. to 12s.; farm servants, £40 to £50 with rations. The Town Board offered by auction the lease of some sections near the corner of Princes and High Streets, for a term of fourteen years, at an upset price of 12s. a foot frontage; they brought from 25s. to 40s. yearly rental, a very practical indication of the growth of trade. At a sale of town lands—not of course any portion of the municipal estate—eighty quarter-acre sections realised an average of £17 each, the upset price being £12 10s., and these were by no means central, but quite at the north end of the town. Great inconvenience was felt from an apparently trivial cause—ignorance of daily time. For a year or two a gun was fired daily at noon, then this was superseded by ringing the bell at eight, twelve, and five, then this ceased altogether, and people depended upon a comparison of watches, which led of course to much loss of time and unpunctuality. To cure this, instructions were given that the bell should be rung on Saturdays at noon, so that once a week at least the inhabitants might know the correct time. It was not until late in 1860 that Mr. Arthur Beverly, the watchmaker and jeweller, placed a large clock with a dial-plate of two feet in diameter over his shop in Princes Street. So early as the beginning of 1855 photography was practised by Mr. G. B. Shaw, whose View of Dunedin appears in this volume. He advertised to take daguerreotype portraits; it is not probable that any of these views of the town are now extant. He was followed by Mr. James Wilson in April, 1858, who photographed by the "new collodion process;" a few of his productions are still to be found. In 1860 followed Mr. Melhuish, who did great historic service in delineating in a most exhaustive way all parts of Dunedin whilst still little more than a scattered village, and also during the time it was undergoing the rapid growth enforced by the sudden influx of population in 1861 and onwards. The Mechanics' Institute had now been in existence for more than six years, but had proved an entire failure so far as the great objects of such an association were concerned. It had few members, no books, and no classes for instruction; yet it showed a goodly balance in hand of £80, derived from the proceeds of letting for various purposes. Efforts were now made to remove this discreditable state, and a meeting of a dozen principal citizens was held to start the Institution anew on a fresh basis. Mr. Macandrew took a warm interest in this as in the page 187previous venture, and he proposed an amalgamation of the new committee with the proprietors of the original Institute, that the old building should be no longer used, and that a new site should be obtained at the corner of Manse and High Streets. This was eventually carried, and upon this spot the Athenæum and Mechanics' Institute was erected, and there remained until the institution was removed to its present site in the Octagon.

The full and excellent account of the history of the Presbyterian Church prepared by the Rev. James Ghisholm, of Tokomairiro, for the jubilee of the Province, considerably relieves the author from entering into any special detail on the subject. In 1856 the want of more ministers had become very pressing. Besides the churches at Dunedin, the Taieri, and Warepa, which were supplied by their own ministers, there were several preaching stations visited occasionally and irregularly, Port Chalmers and Inch Clutha being the chief. The sustentation fund amounted to £245, which gave a dividend to the three ministers of £81 each. In the following year, under the moderatorship of the Rev. W. Will, the Presbytery determined to send for three additional ministers. With this view, a few generous individuals subscribed £360 towards a fund for supplementing the sustentation, Mr. Macandrew, with his usual liberality, giving £100 of the sum; and it was determined that each of the newcomers should receive at least £150 each. It was curious that both offertories and seat rents suffered for some time an unusual diminution, which was attributed to the considerable purchase of land made on all sides. Further self-denial and generosity were shown in the agreement that the stipends of the present ministers should be reduced from £300 to £200. And again the need of subscribing liberally to the sustentation fund was enjoined upon the congregations as a sacred duty. Despite the angusta res, a sum of from £50 to £60 was yearly allocated from the revenue to mission and other outside purposes. A new and more suitable church had long been a standing necessity, and the subject was constantly discussed; but it continued to be viewed rather as a luxury than a need. Accordingly, in 1858, the new ministers arrived, the Revs. John McNicol, who was appointed to Waihola, William Johnstone to Port Chalmers, and the Rev. A. B. Todd (afterwards of Oamaru) to Tokomairiro. Though full of vigour and activity Mr. Burns required help, for his charge was more than a much younger man could compass. It page 188included the outlying districts of Green Island, the Half-Way Bush, Anderson's Bay, and the Lower Harbour. Application was therefore made for another minister, who was guaranteed a manse and £300 a year, with the result that in January, 1860, the Rev. D. M. Stuart took charge of the new church which had been built in anticipation of his arrival. It cost £2,000, and was named "Knox Church" by Mr. John Hyde Harris, who generously presented the three-quarters of an acre upon which it stood. Dr. Stuart died in 1895, after thirty-six years of acceptable labour, but he yet lingers in the memory and affection of all who knew him.

Considerable attention was given in the earlier Presbyteries to the welfare of the Maoris, who were then fairly numerous and frequently visited the town. It was proposed to devise some industrial school for adults as well as children, who might so gain a knowledge of various practical trades and rural occupations. Some evidence was taken by a committee, and the whole matter was then remitted, with recommendations, to the Provincial Council during its sixth session; the whole making an interesting contribution. This bore some fruit in 1859, when upon the motion of Mr. Thomas Dick, who on this occasion made his first appearance in public life as member for Dunedin, a sum of £200 towards building a school and schoolmaster's house at the Heads was placed on the estimates. Mr. and Mrs. Baker were afterwards appointed to the charge of this institution. Mr. Strode, who had, from his previous residence in the North Island, considerable knowledge of native manners and customs, was appointed by the Governor Assistant Native Secretary for Otago. A Maori Society was also formed, which, whilst displaying great interest and zeal in the objects of its mission, lacked funds, and died out after an existence of three or four years. Mr. Baker was the son of an old North Island missionary, and was competent for his charge. His remuneration, however, was small, and as an application for increase was not granted he returned to the north, where similar but more extensive work awaited him. In 1862 the Rev. J. F. Riemenschneider, an old Taranaki missionary, accepted the vacant services at a salary of £200 a year. This gentleman was under the wing of the North German Mission, and came out to Nelson in 1843, in the St. Pauli, with his fellow and friend Wöhlers, who straightway went to Ruapuke. His labours amongst the Maoris and affection for them page 189were very thorough, but the necessity for both grew less and less with the rapidly diminishing numbers of his charge. Of a native population at the Heads in 1848 numbering 110, probably twenty would now complete the count. The little mission-house, never picturesque, is still to be seen at the Kaik, surrounded by drifting sand and marking almost the last effort to preserve and elevate the remnant of the native race in that locality.

In October, 1859, the Provincial Council met for its eighth session, being the last of the second Council, and the last with Captain Cargill as Superintendent. That gentleman was now feeling the advance of years and the encroachment of severe illness; his opening and closing addresses were therefore delivered by proxy, and he indicated that he should not again seek office under the forthcoming elections for the new Council. On this occasion the Council sat in the old church and school-house, the Mechanics' Institute being no longer available owing to its amalgamation with the Athenæum. There was little important business for the members to transact beyond passing the Appropriation Bills, which this year amounted to £110,000, a vast difference from the modest sum of £1,995 voted at the first session in 1854. Still, there were one or two matters of interest. The rapid progress itself required that there should be enlarged representation of the districts, and a Council's Enlargement Bill was therefore introduced, increasing the members to twenty-five, and adding the fresh districts of Invercargill, Oreti, East and West, and Maniatoto. Throughout the Province there were not 1,100 electors.

Efforts had been made to develop the Clutha Coalfields, and already a report had been presented by Mr. J. G. Lewis upon the nature of the fields and the best mode of working them. He proposed that a light wooden railway, iron banded, running to the bank of the river, should be substituted for bullock draught as previously used, and by this means the coal carried to small vessels of light draught. It was finally resolved that the Coal Reserve, amounting to 7,000 acres, should be purchased by the Government, and that a sum of £3,000 should be devoted towards effectually working the field. This done, a lease of 100 acres was to be granted to Mr. Lewis. The price of the coal in Dunedin, for cash, was 43s. per ton.

The northern boundary of the Province had long been a vexed question between Canterbury and Otago, and was page 190caused by the somewhat indefinite line of boundary proclaimed in February, 1853, by Sir George Grey—"the river Waitangi to its source, thence by a right line running to the source of the Awarua, thence by the river Awarua to its mouth." But the Waitangi owned more than one source, one running in a northerly direction and draining in succession the Tekapo, Pukaki, and Ohau Lakes. Notwithstanding that it thus provokingly penetrated into what was evidently a neighbour's country, Otago clung to the letter of the law, and it was not until 1861 that the General Assembly finally decided the question by fixing the southern outlet of Lake Ohau as a fresh starting-point.

Just as the session closed, Governor Browne paid Otago his second visit, remaining about a week. On this occasion his headquarters were at Park House, a boarding establishment kept by Mr. George Smith. There were the usual addresses, levee, déjeuner, and dance, and the Governor truly expressed his astonishment at the change that four years had worked in the progress of the town. Old Park House still stands, and is of some historic interest. With recent additions, it forms the private residence of the Rector of the Boys' High School, and adjoins that school. Old George Smith was one of Wellington's earliest dwellers, and was one of the founders, on November 30th, 1842, of the New Zealand Pacific Lodge, being the earliest Masonic lodge in the Colony. He came to Dunedin in 1852, where he became the generous and most good-natured host of the old Royal Hotel. Quitting this, he built Park House, for years the quiet select home of those who resorted to it from up-country. George Smith was never so happy as when, pipe in mouth, he could tell his after-dinner stories of the "old days" to a group of his boarders, who were all his friends and were ever ready to listen to his pleasant prate. As such men too often do, he died poor, and his wife died at Anderson's Bay, in 1895, forgotten, save by a few friends, and in absolute poverty.

Murihiku—

• A. McNab.
• W. F. Tarleton.

Northern District—

• F. Fenwick.
• W. H. Teschemaker.

To these were afterwards added—

• John Hardy, of Tokomairiro, vice James Smith.
• A. F. Oswin, Warepa, vice Major Richardson.
• A. McMaster, vice W. H. Teschemaker.

The unsuccess candidates are placed in italics.

To enable him to give undivided attention to his duties as Superintendent, Mr. Macandrew relinquished his general mercantile business to Messrs. James Paterson & Co., retaining, however, his wool-buying business. On all sides he was congratulated, and his visit to Tokomairiro was quite a triumphal march. A cavalcade of horsemen met his buggy when within ten miles of the township, forming an escort for the remainder of the way.

Though emigration was proceeding apace it yet failed to supply the demand, and Mr. Adam's accomplished services were again put into requisition with excellent, though, as regards one incident, somewhat curious result. Reports were prevalent, and apparently well founded, that there was great distress and want of work amongst the emigrants and labouring classes of Auckland. Captain Cargill therefore, under the advice of his Executive, despatched Mr. Adam to Auckland, accredited with a letter to the Superintendent asking permission for him to exercise his mission if the reports were true. If they were not, Mr. Adam had instructions to pursue at once his journey to Melbourne. The reply was ambiguous, and calculated to put the emissary on his mettle; it was in effect that the reports had been circulated for party purposes and had no other foundation, as Mr. Adam would speedily discover for himself; he was, however, quite at liberty to fulfil his mission so far as Auckland was concerned, and any success he might gain would be amongst those whom it was not desirable to retain. With this not-over cordial permission Mr. Adam started work, and soon secured more than a hundred suitable persons whom he sent down to Otago. The papers, learning the circumstances, attacked him violently for this "Otago Raid;" "decoy" and "crimp" were the mildest terms applied, but he was quite able to give a Roland for an Oliver. The transaction was not creditable, and the Superintendent of Auckland was severely blamed for his, perhaps unwitting, share. The incident shows, however, the great absorbent power of labour possessed by the Province at the time when, in addition to Great Britain and Australia, the Colony itself was put under contribution. During the year ending November, 1860, the number of emigrants approached 3,000.

A piece of valuable exploration was accomplished by Mr. W. G. Rees and his friend von Tunzelmann in February, 1860, when searching for new sheep country in the interior. For twenty years the existence of Lake page 193Wakatipu had been known from Maori information, and within that period it had been descried from mountain elevation, and placed indefinitely on the map as of circular contour and of twenty miles diameter. These gentlemen were the first to discover it, trust themselves upon its treacherous waters, and map its size, shape, and position. With a month's provisions they proceeded from Wilkin's station, then the last outpost of human habitation, and situated on the Molyneux where that river drains the Hawea and Wanaka Lakes. After immense difficulty they struck the lake at the Kawarau Falls, and then travelled some miles along its margin until intercepted by some mountain—perhaps Ben Lomond—which they ascended. Unable to go further on foot they hobbled the horses, constructed a mokihi of drift-wood lashed with flax, and, on this frail conveyance, immersed to the hips, pushed up the lake for five or six days at the rate of three-quarters of a mile an hour. As the provisions were running short they returned, completing their perilous journey within a month, afterwards taking up the country which they so well deserved and which had been won by so much courage.

A little name-giving is here interesting. Frankton was called after Mrs. Rees' Christian name, Frances; the Rees River after the name-giver; the Arrow and Dart from their swiftness; the Shotover from Shotover Park, where Mr. Rees' partner, Mr. Gammie, formerly resided; Simpson's Creek from the station cook; Bob's Cove from the station boatman, who resorted to this favourite nook when caught in a gale of wind; Diamond Lake from its clear sparkle; the Von Mountains after the co-explorer; and Moke Creek after old Donald, the first horse which fed upon its grassy banks. The Morven Hills and Ben Lomond were named by Mr. Duncan, one of Mr. Rees' cadets, after mountains in his Scotch home. Kingston was originally called St. John's, after St. John Branigan, the Commissioner of Police, who was closely connected with the local diggings in 1863. As, however, the diggers were mostly of the Irish contingent, the more appropriate names of Queenstown and Kingston were given. Like so many others whose health, strength and means have been spent in the arduous labour of pioneering, Mr. Rees was obliged to yield the unequal fight, and to accept a modest post in no way proportionate to his deserts.

The new Provincial Council met for the ninth session on the 11th of April, 1860, and for the first time in the page 194new Council Hall, which had just been completed. This building had been designed for the further purpose of a court-house, and to this it was two or three years later entirely devoted, until superseded by the present Supreme Court. The remains of this building were pulled down four years ago, and the site is now occupied by the recently-erected gaol. The distinguished member of the Council was Major Richardson, who now for the first time commenced his political career. He was chosen unanimously Speaker, a dignity for which he was well fitted by reason of his firmness, impartiality, and courtesy. During the year, there were no less than three meetings of the Council —in April, July, and December. On the first occasion the business was not specially important; where revenue was plentiful and prosperity so general the policy was progressive, and one to develop those resources of which the Province had so many. Indeed this had been the characteristic policy of the earlier Councils, in which both sides faithfully joined; hence the Government and the Opposition parties existed in little else than name. The differences regarded matters of detail rather than main issues, and the most violent conflicts were usually mere personal quarrels. The opening address of the Superintendent was broad, sensible, and moderate, and by no means foreshadowed the brilliant proposals he made a few months later. He suggested that the Molyneux, Taieri, Waihola, and Waipori Lakes should be equipped with steam, and that Port Chalmers and Dunedin should be connected by telegraph. In the Council perhaps the most important matter discussed was that of the price of land and the best mode of its sale. All agreed that the former price of 10s. an acre, either with or without the restrictive clause, was too low for an asset so valuable and in such increasing demand. Some thought 15s. enough, others 30s. Major Richardson thought the latter was within the compass of any bonâ fide purchaser, was fair to the exchequer, and would ward off the speculator. He was opposed to auction, which by competition might place the land wholly beyond the reach of the poor man. But the public, who took a great interest in the discussion, presented two petitions, and eventually it was resolved that sales should be conducted by auction, with an upset price of £1 an acre. Due to an informality, it was necessary to ratify this resolution by a special meeting of the Council, Which consequently sat for one day in July.

But the meeting in December was the remarkable one. page 195If the candidate's speech on the hustings had silenced all questioners by its wealth of promise, the Superintendent's speech now must have dazed the listeners by its brilliant suggestions, schemes, and dreams. It would almost seem as though some prevision or prophetic insight had been vouchsafed the speaker of that golden shower which six months later began to descend, apparently to justify the expenditure involved in his proposals. The harbour was to be dredged, allowing large vessels to lie alongside the wharf; the Panama route was to be established, with Dunedin as its headquarters, for which three steamers would be built of the most approved construction; metalled main roads, with arteries penetrating throughout the Province in every direction, were to be constructed, and the whole, and much more, was to be done without borrowing and without a sixpence of taxation. Indeed, the scheme was to be self-supporting, and would, moreover, bring tens of thousands of revenue. "Say the word," said Mr. Macandrew, "and I am prepared to undertake that the vessels shall be built and on the berth within nine months from this date." How various is the estimate of such men! Whilst some would range them and their dreams with Alnaschar and his, others applaud and are prepared to follow such invention, boldness and dash, whether leading to safety or over a precipice. The closing sentences of this address one cannot read but with regret, when he discloses the necessity of his speedy withdrawal from public affairs in order to attend to his own disarranged personal business. The fact was that he was heavily involved through a long course of speculation, and, according to his own statement afterwards, had lost £40,000. The advantages which the Province had derived from the steam service introduced by him, and from which he expected too to derive so much profit, had landed him in heavy loss, and thus it was with other ventures. But this was not all, and whilst the subject cannot be avoided, it need not be referred to here with much detail. When the public accounts were audited, it was found that considerable sums were deficient for which Mr. Macandrew was responsible; these were chiefly connected with emigration funds and those appropriated to the development of the Clutha coal-fields. The result was his final dismissal by the Governor from the Superintendency, after a Commission had been held into the circumstances. Further misfortune followed, for at the suit of a private creditor he was arrested for debt. It was page 196on this occasion that he, as Superintendent, proclaimed his private residence a gaol; but this refuge did not long avail him, as a further warrant from the Governor disallowed the ingenious device. In his new and more secure abode he remained for many months, issuing to his numerous friends and sympathisers various addresses, giving another version of matters, and explaining that his sad misfortunes had resulted from the self-sacrifice he had ever displayed in his love and efforts for the advancement of the Province. In his suspiria de profundis he offered himself as Superintendent at the next election, which was to take place in May, boldly informing the people that if they chose to elect him their sovereign will was paramount, and no one dare dispute it, and that with him, more than with any other man, lay the best interests of the Province in the future, to the development of which he would devote himself. Mr. Macandrew had troops of friends; he was genial, generous, impulsive, ready to assist any one in distress, contributed always and liberally to any object, and took an active and principal part in public affairs. To the end of his life he was conspicuous as a politician. He was four times Superintendent of the Province, represented Port Chalmers continuously in the House of Representatives, and in 1877 held the officer of Minister of Lands, and subsequently of Public Works, in Sir George Grey's Government. At the time of his death, on the 24th of February, 1887, he was a member of the Otago University Council. To him the Province, and afterwards the Colony, was indebted for the services of Dr., afterwards Sir James, Hector, who arrived towards the close of 1861 to conduct the scientific explorations of the unknown West Coast, and to commence the geological and natural history study of Otago.