MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1874

Evening Star, Issue 3607, 14 September 1874, Page 2

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1874

Now that the Parliamentary Session is fairly over, a few months will be afforded to enable the country to make up its mind on the constitutional change to be proposed next session. It is very desirable that this decision should be one of reason—not of mere impulse. But reason, as applied to changes of so important a character, implies data on which to base an opinion. It cannot be expected that on such a subject any course of investigation can lead to a conviction of the absolute benefit of a change. Modes and forms of government cannot be reduced to absolute and unquestionable demonstrations. The utmost that can be arrived at is strong probability, and consequently there will be conclusions arrived at both in favor of and antagonistic to the proposed alterations. Some of the members have already met their constituents in the Middle Island; but even Mr Rolleston has expressed only a very qualified opinion on the subject. His conclusion is, that if we abolish Provincialism in the North, we ought also to include the South Island in the change. This is by no means a sound mode of arriving at a result. To justify such a conclusion, some likeness beyond Provincial institutions should be shown in the circumstances of the two islands, for it by no means follows that a form of self-government proved to be totally inapplicable to the one is equally so to the other. The fact forced upon Mr Vogel while preparing the Forests Bill was that the General Government —or, in other words, the Colony—provided funds, and the Provincial Governments of the North Island appropriated so much of them as was left after the local expenses were deducted. But he made no such statement with regard to the Middle Island. He found the North Island Provinces were so poor that they could not provide means for carrying out the duties of local governments, and that therefore education was neglected and development retarded. En order to prove the necessity for a change, he laid before the House certain figures obtained from f ■ the actual returns of the Provincial auditors for the year 1873,” They are worth examining, item by item. Auckland stands first, and is always assumed by the inhabitants to be the leading Province and the most ill-used one in New Zealand. The ordinary revenue of the Province, including fees under Provincial Acts and Ordinances, Licenses of all classes and Miscellaneous Receipts, amounts to .£17,315, and in addition to this there are special receipts from certain departments as follows : —Harbor, £663 ; Hospitals and Lunatic Asylums, £650 ; Charitable Aid, £170; Police, Gaols, &c.,£463, together £1,916. These make a total of £j19,23i, while the expenditure amounted to £28,249, or about nine thousand pounds over the receipts. Itisinstructiveto notice, too, thepurposes to which this very insignificant expenditure is devoted The enumeration stands thus:—Harbor Department, £2,586; Hospitals, £3,900 ; Lunatic Asylums, £3,188; Charitable Aid, , £3,.216; Police, £705 ; Gaols, £5,164; Education, including Gpmts to Institutes and Libraries, £4,4<£§, It cannot be imagined that tlye affairs of a populous Province like Auckland, at one time the seat of Government, and one of the Provinces first settled, could be carried out on such a slender income as nineteen thousand pounds. Auckland, like all the other Provinces in I the Pbluuy, has been a borrower, and the permanent debt of the Province is set down at £683,.Q86, the annual 1 charge ou winch is £41,660. It will be observed that the receipts w£ have already mentioned are what is termed “ ordinary revenue,” but there are four sources of additional income not yet alluded to—rfirst, Land Revenue, £4,397 ; secondly, Goldfields Revenue, including Gold Duty and Miners’ Rights, £14,603 ; thirdly, Public Works and Tolls, £5,607 ; and lastly, capitation allowance, £55,254. Including all sources of income, the total sum is £97,177 ; and the expenditure, £110,776. This amount, scarcely more than a respectable return for some of our tradesmen, requires for dispensing it a Superintendent and , Provincial Government, besides a large staff of officials. The expenses of the various departments stand thus ; “ Charges on the Land Revenue, £436 ; Charges ou the Gold Revenue, £11,000; Surveys, £1,302; Public Works, £14,470; Executive, £6,162 ; "Legislative, .£1,146 j and Miscellaneous, £8,205. As the interest ou the debt amounts to £41,66.0, it follows that the only amount available for all purposes was £55,517 ; and the cost of 'distributing it, leaving out the j item set down for public works, j £20,047, or fifty per cent, on I the net income. In these amounts we

have left out the odd shillings in order that the figures may not be uselessly encumbered. The advocates of Provincialism in the North Island tell us that the cost will be greater under the General than under the Provincial Governments. This can hardly be the case, unless the machinery to be provided as a substitute is very clumsy. It is for the country to watch this point, for upon it depends in great degree the advantage to be derived from the change. We have given an analysis of the state of affairs in Auckland, as detailed in Mr Vogel’s speech. The other North Island Provinces are pretty much in a like position. It is therefore plain that the Colony must provide a large portion of the money expended in them, and it is contrary to the practice in all countries to place a sum at the absolute disposal of local governments without some supervision as to the mode in which it is laid out. The rest of the Colony have a right to expect this, and this supervision, under present arrangements, implies additional officers—in fact, nearly a double staff in certain departments; so that, in order to understand the real cost to the Colony, a considerable addition must be made to the sum already stated, which does not appear in the Provincial accounts, but in general Colonial expenses.