The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1875.

Evening Star, Issue 3905, 30 August 1875, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1875.

The Mayor, complying with a requisition from opponents of the Abolition Bills has appointed a public meeting to be held in the Afln nteum Hall tomorrow evening. Possibly the division ol Friday night may disappoint some who hoped to distinguish themselves by their eloquence, but as there is yet opportunity to raise a dust before the third reading, it is as well that to prevent Mr Stouts sophistry blinding our electoral eyes, we should endeavor to understand the grounds of opposition. If we could imagine Pinnock reducing the matter to a catechetical form, the chiet questions and answers might appear somewhat as folio*

Q How many ven d in opposition to the Abolition Bill I

A. Seventeen—of whom it is said thirteen are receiving salaries from Provincial Governments, varying in amount from about three hundred to one thousand a-year. Q. So that there were only three or four who were not pecuniarily interested in the matter % A. Exactly.

Q. Should not opposition from persons so interested be regarded with distrust 1

A. It is always conaideied that, no matter how well inteutioned a man may be, he is biassed towards retaining systems which conduce to his profit. Q. What is the professed grounds of their opposition 1

A. T-hey say they are inllueneed by various motives—some of them personal, some political, some theoretical. One class professes to imagine the abolition of Provincialism is a curtailment of the people’s liberties. A second opposes the Bill because it secures the land fund to Provinces having land unsold, which they hold should be Colonial property. A third class opposes it because they say the land is not secured to the land-holding Provinces. A fourth class objects to the General, Government controlling public works, 1

which it asserts oau I)') better done by the Province. A fifth objection is that Provincial bomj Janos and existing Ordinances having foi e within them are retained, A. sixth opponent objects administrative officers being appointed by the Governor on the plea that they are nominees. Many imagi nary evils are predicted to result from passing the Bill, but the main plea is that it should not be passed by the present Parliament, but bo postponed until after the general election. Answer these objections in their order:—

A. Personal antipathy to the late Premier is u contemptible as well as trivial motive for opposing measures of general utility ;y> . nor© than one of tiie Opposition have frequently acknowledged that th<;\ i.-trust everv measure initiated by him, ail hough they have not ventured to assign that cause openly in the late debate as their motive for opposition.

2. No curtailment of liberty can result from aboli'-h.ng Provincial Governments, as the Constitution is representative without them. When the electors are culled upon to vote for Pro vincial Councillors, as well as members of the House of Representatives, they are often obliged to return men who do in one Legislature what, in the public interest, must be undone elsewhere, and unsweied for in another. As an instance, several Ordinances passed by the Provincial Legislature are annually disallowed, sometimes because they are arbitrary, sometimes unjust, sometimes antagonistic to existing laws. Thus the time and money of the Province are. wasted, and, not only iu useless legislation but in party contests. These are often so close as to interfere with public business. Though both elective, the Council and Superintendent are not always in unison ] and, in one instance at least, so determined were the latter to usurp the power of the Superintendent that he had to resign in order to obtain a new Council. In the Council, for years, the Ministry commonly had a majority of one only, and consequently legislation has been practically in the hands of a minority.

3. The opposing views on the laud question, some being for taking it from, some for securing :t to the Provinces, need no remark! The two classes of opponents cannot U both right. Quo main object of the Bill is to secure the land to the Provinces: postponement means absorption of our land fund. 4. Had not the General Government undertaken public works, they could never have been systematically carried out, and would not. have been colon tally useful. Provincial Governments, being jealous of each other, never acted in ’concert, but adopted di.Teiet t systems at grott expense to the people and with verr limited advantages' to the Colony, They have been the cur.: obstacle in the way of general schemes of improvement. The Clutha Rai!.. ay would have cost j 0*400,000, at 8 per cent., had the Proviuceconstrue; *. l • , instead of £300,000 ' at about 6 per cm.t. The SouthLm l Railway cost st. much that the Province 1 was unable to complete it, and the Port I Chalmers Railway, sanctioned by the Provincial Government, had to be pur- | chased of the promoters at thiee times what it would have cost the General Government to construct it.

5.. Every country is divided into territorial areas, and it would have been the height of folly to have interfered with boundaries subject at present to special Ordinances. Modifications in this, as well as othqr respects, may, and will be made hereafter.

0. Officers appointed by the Government and subject to their control are improperly termed nominees in the sense in which a nominee legislature is so termed. Tiny have no legislative authority, and .ov. bound to act according to laws made with the consent of the people’s representatives. They are mere public se v.u.ts, removable if proved inefficient.

7. Ail other objections may be fairly met by the consideration that the General Assembly really possesses all powers claimed to be so dangerous to invest them with.

8. To delay to pass the Bill is equivalent to tran derring the administration to Sir Guokgk G hey and his support' rs, disunited as they are even iu their grounds of opposition. A greater public calamity cannot be conceived than to be under a Government having nothing in come ,u out, a spirit of opposition.

•' J. Hie o ; t])u.-,iaou promised a ] better measim . bur. have not proj ducecl one ; and have contented themselves with endeavoring to thwart the Ministry. The presumption is they have nothing better to offer. In conclusion, we would remark that no matter what resolutions a handful of people may pass in a hull that does not afford breathing -space for one hundred and fifty in a population of 18,000, they cannot bo r. as the expression of the mint! of Dunedin. Whether for or against the Bill cannot matter much. Tue probability is thenwill bo an attempt. i 0 the meeting with anti-abolitionists. They may save themselves the trouble, for men who can write nonsense about birthrights in this country a v e not, likely to exert much influence over those endowed 1 with common sense. If they have been born in New Zealand since the Constitution was conferred, they are but sucking politicians who cannot be expected to know much about political principles. If limy were born before it was given, they have no birthright in it. It they mean that government by I

representative* is a Briton’* birthright, we agree with them it ought to be and consider that they have what they want in the House of Representatives. J hey will Jiave more freedom wlu a Provincial Councils are no more than the majority of Britons have over y t had at. Home.