PROVINCIALISM AND CENTRALISM.

Evening Star, Issue 3971, 16 November 1875, Page 3

PROVINCIALISM AND CENTRALISM.

To the Editor. Sib,— Pretty sure sign you were hard hit, Mr Editor, when you felt it necessary to work off the bile by publishing remarks that passed between us as private individuals. And then the odor of “the herring you draw across the trail” I think unworthy of you. Has a salaried officer no claim to the exercise of his private right of judgment ? I know some would have him to be but “ a toolbut for my part, perish the salary if it is to be kept at the coat of freedom of thought and the exercise of a just conscience. True, I have always been a Provincialist, and maintain that it, as originally established, was the truest safeguard of the people’s rights and the most economical system of administration of our revenues. At the same time I recognise that the legislation of the last nine years has rendered it impossible to return to what was; and as to what is, it is now only an abortion. That I opposed Mr Macandrew when his policy tended to the destruction of Provincialism, and that I should now so far support him agianst extreme Centralism only proves what always has been my policy—“ measures not men.” I do not wonder at your surprise at such independency of character. When you quoted the “ chaff,” however, you ought also in fairness to have given the “ corn.” One of the strings harped on by yourself and other Centralists has been that Provincial Governments ought to be abolished because they were unable to meet the requirements of the people and the progres < of the country. The point intended by his Honor I took to be this (and which you have overlooked, I will not say purposely but unwittingly)—“ What was sauce for the goose ought to be sauce for the gander.” Then why not abolish the centralising policy of the General Government because it has proved unable to meet the requirements of the people and progress of tbe country ? Had Provincial Governments not been deprived of their powers to borrow, they would have done more with le«a money than what the General Gohas done with their borrowed millions in the way of providing those reproductive works required by the people and necessary for the progress of the country. Session before last Sir Julius Vogel acknowledged that one and one-half millions had been unproduotiyely expended, but it was necessary to do so to secure support to his policy. 1.50,000 would make the Tapanui railway a reproductive work. This I conceive is what his Honor meant when he told the Tapanui deputation “ to pray for the continuance of Provincialism.” The reason why Provincialists mustered so strong at the latp banquet was because his Honor had become a convert, from what he had seen result from the policy of Centralism, to views which Provincialists in the exercise of reason and judgment foretold in years past would be the consequence. Now allthough too < late to go back, and equally unwise to think of remaining always as we are, let us, while concerting mea sures deemed best for the future, firmly 1 set our faces against a wholesale throwing of ourselves on the mercy of a Central Government in Wellington. We are told that the General Government Abolitian Bill has secured us our Land Fund and our Education Reserves. What a mockery! True, in name they are secured ; but railways and education are to be made first charges against them in the Provinces that have them, and in those Provinces that have no Land Fund or Education Reserves, but who in past years disposed of their estates in a lavish and reckless manner, railways and education are to be provided out of the consolidated revenue. Our Land Fund and Education Reserves are preversed at the cost of a sacrifice of our equitable share of the consolidated revenue. The Abolition principle while pretending to button up the one pocket quietly provides for extracting the cash out of the other. The whole proposal is but a financial juggle, disguise it as you may. Adopting the name you have given me, I sign myself Dunedin, November 15. Meniob,