The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3848, 24 June 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star THURSDAY, JUNE 24, 1875.

The proposed changes in the form of | government in New Zealand are attracting atention abroad, as well as in the Colony. The ‘ Australasian ’ of the 19th has an article on the subject, which, if not absolutely correct in its details, deals fairly with the defects of our system of government. That old colonists who have had the labor and worry of building up a constitution adapted to the early requirements ©f the Colony should be slow to believe that their fabric is cumbrous and unsuited to its present condition, is not surprising. Provincialism was almost a necessity when each Province was virtually a separate Colony. Although the result has proved that its benefits have only been realised where the ; settlers were gifted with honesty-of purpose and some measure of forethought, we know of no other system so well adapted to things as they were. In Otago it has worked fairly. From the founding of the settlement there have been men to guide its affairs gifted with intelligence, although their efforts have been to some extent neutralised by the rival factions of squattocrats and clodocrats. But, on the whole, the objects contemplated by Provincialism have been attained * immigration has been fairly, though unequally fostered ; industry has been encouraged, attempts at equit able conditions of settlement on the land have been made—we do not say with complete success ; and an admirable educational system has been adopted. The same may be said of our Canterbury neighbors. Could these two Provinces have been separated fiom the rest, so that the revenues raised in them had been expended within their territory, in all probability they would have been considerably more advanced than they are. That they have had their means crippled unduly, is owing to the failure of the system in other parts of the Colony. That Provincialism has notoriously failed in the North Island needs no demonstration ; and thus it is clear that, however apparently calculated to insure

successful government, it is peculiarly open to mismanagement through the greed, unscrupulousness, or mistakes of the leading men of a Province. The disadvantages of the system necessarily did not develop themselves until the local revenues were exhausted. When each Province was a separate Colony, united merely as a federation, and being represented in the Assembly for merely federal purposes, but little inconvenience was experi enced. But now matters are different. Uie individuality of each Province is daily becoming less marked, and the inconvenience of local legislatures clashing with the central government, 10th in matters of law-making and in works of Colonial utility, is dailv increasing It i s truly said by* the Australasian ’ that New Zealand suffers through being over-governed. In estimating the relative advantages

of Provincialism and Colonial government, it appears to bo overlooked that the latter has conferred benefits sought in vain to be secured without its help. When, for instance, the Province borrowed on its own account, it was placed at great disadvantage; high rates of interest were paid on loans, for which heavy premiums had to be paid as well. The financial Solon s of to-day are loud in their cry because of some rumoured brokerage paid to the contractors for the last loan, which may or may not be true. Sut when Otago borrowed on its own securityita hundred pound coupons only realised eighty pounds, the holders of which who sold realised handsome profits when the consolidation of loans was effected. And with regard to public works, we have no hesitation in saying that the construction of railways would have been impossible excepting at enormously greater cost, had it been left to the Provinces to make their

own trunk lines ] apart from the probability that no general plan would have been practicable, but that the surface of the country would have been covered with a patchwork of railways of every variety of gauge, and with no necessary connection with each other. In fact, the unity of the railway system is a silent monitor of what may be anticipated from Colonial unification. Instead of the Provinces being separated by conflicting laws and jarring interests, as the railways work into and feed each other, so will they find mutual help and support. Thera are sermons in stones—why not in railways 1 In support of our belief that to the General Government Otago owes its railways, we need only refer to the strenuous and unnavailing efforts through years of disappointment to construct the Clutha

and Dunedin line. It was hawked through England and through the neighboring Colonies, but nobody had confidence in the ability of the Province to pay the price, and at last the General Government saved at least one-third of its cost by snatching it out of the power of a Provincial Secretary to let the contract at an extravagant figure during the excitement of an election contest. We quite admit that there are evils connected with Centralism, but these are not. likely seriously to affect a Province confessedly the most wealthy in the Colony, represented in the Assembly by nearly one-fourth of the number of its mem ben. United for an object they must'be all-powerful.