One Governmant for the Middle Island

Cromwell Argus, Volume II, Issue 101, 17 October 1871, Page 7

One Governmant for the Middle Island

Prom Mr Macandrew's speech delivered in the Him.se of Representatives on moving his resolutions regarding proposed c jnsttii io'ia! changes,

we copy the following extracts. Lt will bo seen that Mr Macandrew's idea is to merge into :v single governing body she four Provincial Legislatures a* id the County Council of Westland, whereby the cost of administration in the Middle Island would be reduced by about £22,00U per annum. The sum thus saved—in the event of his scheme being carried out—he proposes to devote to the payment of interest at five per cent, on a loan of £440,000, the principal to be

spent in opening up a line of rail and water comnmnicatun through the interior of the Lland, from Kingston, tho southern extremity of Lake Wakatip, to Cobdeu, in the Province of Nelson. From a Wellington telegram dated 12th inst., and published in a contemporary, we learn that Mr Macandrew's resolutions were negatived, on a division, by 41 to 22. All the Ofcago representatives, with the exception of Messrs Taylor, M'Glashan, and M'Gillivray, supported them. Messrs Iteid and Brown declined to vote. The extracts above referred are taken from the Hansard report :

"... Ido not propose to interfere with the institutions of the Northern Island, or the Provincial Governments there, and this for various reasons. One is that I am led to believe that the Northern Island is not ripe for provincial fusion, if f may be allowed to use the expression. Another reason is, that as a Southern member, I do not profess to know what are the peculiar wants and requirements of the North Island. ... I shall, therefore, confine my

proposals to the Provinces of the Middle Island. What [ now propose is, that the time his arrived when, instead of live Provincial Legislatures in the Middle Island, we can manr.gj very well with one. In other wards, I thins the forty-five members who represent the Middle Island constituencies in this House, together with one Executive officer, can perform the whole duties which now appertain to the Superintendent and Council of Otago, the Superintendent and Council of Canterbury, the Superintendent and Council of Nelson, the Superintendent and Council of Marlborough, and the Chairman and County Council of Westland. I maintain that the duties which are now performed by five administrative and 133 legislative functionaries in the Middle Island can be as well, if not better, performed by one administrative and 45 legislative functionaries ; while the pecuniary saving effected will be very considerable The County Council of Wes'.land casts .£3072 annually ; the Provincial Legislature of Nelson, £3316 ; the Province of Marlborough, the very modest sum of £912 ; the Provincial Legislature of Canterbury, £4155 ; and the Provincial Legislature of Otago, £10,019; making a total expenditure of £22,374. Those figures represent merely the cost of the legislative and executive bodies in the Middle Island, which, by the resolution before the House, I propose to consolidate and merge into one single Legislature I feel sure that by the proposals I am now about to submit for adoption, the legislative and executive functions of the Provincial Legislature of the Middle Island can be perfo-med for from £3OOO to £4OOO a

year. . . I take it that that sum would he amply covered by the sum which will accrue in the different departments nf the Government from their being brought under one head, instead of being, as at present, under live different legislatures. In the Waste Lands and other departments, considerable saving might be effected,—savings quite equal to the cos: incurred ia maintaining the Executive and Provincial Council upon the scale which these lesolutions indicate. Assuming this to be the case, we shall have a clear saving, with respect to the political machinery of the Government alone, ia the Middle Island, of upward-? of £22,(100 a year, which of course honou aide members will at once see is equal to a capital sum of nearly half a million sterling, being absolutely £4.40,000 at five per cent. T shall now tell you what T propose to do with this £22,000 a year. . I would propose to construct a:i i.darid water and railway communication from Lake Wakntip. in the Province of Otago, to Cobden, in the Province of Nelson. The length of this line of communication, from one point to the other, would he some 3v);J miles, of which So miles would ho water communication. . . . A.psumini tli.it the measures of this session will result in the construction of the Is'slsou and Cobden line, and the line from 'Vinton to Kingston, we sh ill have Kingston as the starling point. Prom Kingston to Frank ton by wtor is twenty-five miles ; from Frank ton, on Lake Wp.katip, to Pembroke, on lake Wanaka, the distance by land will he sixty miles via Cromwell, —taking the distance, not as the crow Hies, but as the "railway would go ; then from Pembroke to Makarora, thirty miles by wate - ; from Makarora to ITokitika there will be Kit) miles of land communication. Tint distance might be, I think, 1. ssoned, hut I shall say that-it is about ]fio miles. From Ffokitika to Cobden the distance is twenty-live miles, which would compVe the entire line of c •mimuiiciition. I put it, therefore, to anv n-.nn of common sense, given, on the one ban I, live Provincia l Eveeu'ivcs and five Provincial talking slums, ami, on the other, an unbroken inland water an 1 railway communion tioe from Foveanx Strait to Blind Pay, which would be most hj >• the interest of the Colony—which would ho prefer? 'L ok on thid .'picture, and on that.' and von will agree with me that there cannot ho the slightest comparison. lam wrfect'v satislied that this 30.1 miles -Hi t. is, about 215 miles of railway and 55 miles of \vn>er communication—can wdh O'li- new id as of thj cost of railway construction, be c"i~tructod fo- h.-rf ;i mil ion sterling from one point to the other "