THE POLITICAL QUESTION.

Evening Star, Issue 3972, 17 November 1875, Page 2

THE POLITICAL QUESTION.

A> ttie KdU’tt agiee with you that “It it equally true of countries jib of commercial esfc blishmcnta: they flourish best under one common direction when the d fferrnt departments a c entrusted to those best instruct d in |heir specult es ” I therefore claim a verdict in favor of Provincia'imn. Provincialism, riybtly understood, is, after all, a g-neri.l or comprehensive municipal government. The Colony has >ot Ivon able to work without the Provincial Councils any more than the cities and leading towns have been without municipal powers. The repeated argu* incuts that because some of the Provincial vrovemnaents have not been satisfactory, there fore all must be_ abolished, are of no more force against the priuciple of such administrative powers than the argument of the son of the nmerald Isle, who clearly saw tnat if the bed on which ho had the ban fortune to sleep was Bokhara because of the very few feathers it contained, much harder indeed would be a bed full of leathern. Ihe people are their own rulers, ine Provincial Councils are capable of adaptation to the wants and circumstances of the peop e. They mould the administrative power, that the voice of their chosen representatives would be unanimous for the sweeping away altogether of Provincial Government in the event of its being a sham. As agencies in the administration of local government Provincial Councils cannot be conveniently dispensed Wlt ‘ l ’ “Our institutions,” you justly say, unfortunately have been founded, too muck on tradition, and too little on the teachug of experience” PxperI ienco has proved the great advantage of Pro- | vincialism, at least so far as Otago is conI cemed. Let experience modify, but by no | means destroy Provincialism. There has been : too much of the “abstract style of treatment I o* l the subject.” Profound thinkers should | give their ideas in the fewest words, cenveying the fullest meaning There has _ be< n too much speaking and writing. The people want more wheat and less busks The apoloey of th- old classic author, given in a oostcript to a long letter - that he “ had not time to write a shorter letter”—should be suggestive to those who speak or write much Toe people want plain reasoning —the reasoning not so much founded on tradition as on experience. _To take a common-sense view of the question, i that to pan lyse the strong arm of local aiiministrative government, ns it should exist in Provincialism. is as abmird a proceeding as it unquestionably would be to remove the editorial staff and publishing office of the Evening Stak fmm Dunedin to Wellington or any other place in .New Zealand.—l am, &c., _ , Caution. Dunedin, November 15.