The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1882.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3552, 27 November 1882, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph MONDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 1882.

In the course of bis recent post sessional address to his constituents at Port Chalmers Mr J. Macandrew, M.H.R., made reference to local government, and laid particular stress upon opinions which he had expressed in a letter written in 1881, in reference to certain proposals, which he said he had no opportunity of moving in the session of that year, and which opinions, he maintained, bear exactly on the present position of affairs jußt as much as if they had been written to-day. What he said waa as follows :—" It must, in ray opinion, be apparent to every reflective mind that the attempt which is being made to manage the local affairs ot both islands by means of one central legislature and administration has proved an absolute failure, and cannot possibly succeed. What I maintain is, that tbe local affairs of each island can be much better dealt with in every respect than they are at present, without the interference of the people of either island ; and in the event of the people of either island being of opiaion that their local affairs can be better

managed by tbe residents in the different districts than by the people of the island as a whole, my proposals provide for such opiuion being given effect to. As regards the Middle Island — with the facilities of communication which, if it gets the management of its local affairs into its own hands, will rapidly go on increasing—l am disposed to think that one local government and administration, say at Christehureh, would be the beat and most economical. It will be seen that under the proposals in question there would be no more borrowing on the part of the Colonial Parliament, nor would there be any increase in the existing burden of colonial taxation ; but, on the contrary, as population increases, these burdens would be diminishing. The property tax would not be required in as far as the colony is concerned. There would be no more complaining that one island is getting more or less money out of the colony than the other; each would share exactly alike, and the advantages of self-reliance would manifest themselves in various directions We should be making as it were a fresh start in life, wherein it would be imperative that the whole ot our local government establishments should be adapted to our pecuniary circumstances and necessary requirements. You may depend upon it that the most effectual remedy for the ills which have been brought about by the financial in toxication and centralising policy of the past lies in the direction which lam now seeking to indicate. It may be said that to establish three or more governing machines in New Zealand, instead of one, is not the way to economise ; it would, however, be easy to prove that there is little or no force in such objection. If the colonial legislature and administration were placed upon the footing set forth in my proposals, less than onethird the amount which they at present cost would be sufficient for their maintenance, and the other two-thirds would more than suffice to support a local legislature and executive in each island. It is no reckless assertion, but a well-founded belief on my part, when I say that the £120,000 and upwards a-year which the people of New Zealand are now pajing for the mere purpose of central legislation and administration at Wellington, could and ought to be very considerably reduced under the system advocated by me. One of the difficulties which may present themselves in connection with these proposals, is an equitable adjustment of the colonial debt in respect of the public works loans as between the North and Middle Islands. It will, I think, be found on investigation that this difficulty is more apparent than real, and that the public works loans have been appropriated in each island in remarkably close proportion to the contributions of each to the consolidated revenue of the colony. Assuming that the relative proportion of the past as betwixt the two islands will be maintained in the future, the adjustment as suggested in my proposals will be more in favor of the North Island than otherwise. This is a matter of detail, however, which need not stand in the way of a change, which I believe would prove to be the very salvation of New Zealand.