The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2214, 11 June 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, JUNE 11, 1870.

The Daily Times has been latterly looking beyond the doings of the Provincial Council, and speculating upon a variety of matters that will ■ in one form or- other come before the General Assembly. As these speculations are based upon the usual airy foundations on which our morning contemporary reaches conclusions when he does at-

rive at thfp, it sensing that ; •the results 'ate . as visionaly as the reasoning is; unsatisfactory/ We must, however, compliment him on having determined in what character to appear in this monologue entertainment, and that henceforth—at least until another garb is put on—centralism is to be the chief good. We do not know whether or not this is only another form of the monomania witli which he is afflicted regarding the Fox and Vogel Government. It is more than probable if Mr Stafford, Major John Larkins Cheese Richardson, Colonel Whitmore, and those in the Province who pull the strings in answer to which the Times is set in motion, amUvhose views or fancied interests coincide with the opponents of Mr Fox, were in power, and uttered the cabalistic word “ Provincialism,” from that time foi - ward it would become the watchword of that journal. At present, according to it, everything is to be done by the Central Government. Immigration is to be under its direction —railways are to be made at its dictum—Provincial loans are to be abolished. That paternal Government is to do all, and we are to do nothing for ourselves. Our contemporary does not appear to bring his ideas down to the plain every-day matter-of-fact position of aflairs, but sees advantages in this central system that cannot be° realised until the interests of the different Colonies by which New Zealand has been settled become one. The great difficulty rich Provinces have had to contend with has been the abstraction of their revenues for the benefit of other Provinces. Our great fight has been to localise expenditure, so that those parts of the Colony incurring special expense should not be a burden upon the rest. Had the South Island been unanimous and determined, the North would have had to bear the cost of the Northern war ; and it is plain, from the events of the past twelve months, that means would have been found for the maintenance and perpetuation of peace had that wholesome policy been adopted. No one denies that Provincialism is not likely to he enduring, but it should be equally plain that in the present political position of New Zealand, which is best described as a federation of independent settlements, the only certain way of fairly apportioning expenditure on reproductive works, is to let those Provinces in which those works are to be constructed bear the expense. We know of no way in which this can be done so well as by permitting them to borrow, on condition that the interest and principal are paid out of the revenues of the Province. The least reflection will convince anyone that this is a much more equitable plan than a Colonial loan, to be expended on public works, unless by any process the amount raised could be exactly apportioned to the revenues and requirements of each Province. But this from the very nature of the case could not be. Superior as we believe the Fox Administration to be to the Stafford in principle and straightforward honesty, we should be sorry to see so potent a means of political influence in their hands. We have more than once during the lifetime of the present House of Representatives seen a batch of members turned, as if by magic, from being rabid opponents to lamb-like followers of the Minister of the day, A huge bribe on one occasion caused the Auckland members to withdraw in a body from the support promised to the Otago members. Our American brethren have taken the sting out of the term “ bribe,” by the bushmau’s term “ log-rolling,” by which they mean “ Help me, and I will help you.” By such dodges needy Provinces can appropriate the revenues contributed by those which are richer, and by such dodges the Government could purchase support. Had New Zealand been peopled from one centre, the matter would have been different. There would then have been the possibility of a plan of development being persistently carried out, subject of course to such adaptations as circumstances pi-oved necessary. But Auckland at one end of the Colony, and Otago at the other, some ten or eleven degrees distant from each other, are the largest contributors to the revenue, and on account of their present stage of development require the greatest amount of outlay on public works. It would be manifestly unfair to take the revenues from either Province to expend it on the other, and equally unfair to take portions of the united revenue of both and fritter it away on any of the Pro* vinces that lie between tliem. But create a common fund, and Taranaki, Marlborough, or the West Coast would be very likely to get far more than their proportion by a little bit of logrolling. . The only way to prevent this is for each Province to bear its own burden, and on this ground the General Assembly ought to sanction a loan to Otago. Our contemporary seems to mistake when he supposes that the Loans Consolidation Act was opposed to the principle of Provincial loans. That Act gives to Provincial loans the

advantage of Colonial security, and thus ensures them a negotiable character on the Stock Exchanges of Europe. To this extent it is an advantage. We dare say our contemporary, if Mr Stafford wanted it, would advocate a Colonial loan for war purposes, to which we should be opposed ; but: it is different when it is proposed to borrow for reproductive investment. A well-con-trived, cheaply-made, and well-worked rail wav is a reproductive investment that pays for itself, and not only lays no burden cn the Province, but will prove a means of enormously increasing its wealth and developing industry. Yet our visionary contemporary opposes it!