The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1875.
Perhaps no one of our leading men has a better claim to a patient and attentive hearing on any point connected with the past history, the present condition, and the future prospects of Otago than Mr Macandrew has. He has done so much for the Province, his great ability, and his earnest desire to serve his country, are so generally recognised that very great weight is naturally and justly attached to his opinions on any political matter about which he gives a deliberate judgment. But it is of the greatest importance at the present juncture, when party feeling is running high, and when personal interests and prejudices are so inextricably mixed up with the main question at issue, that all those electors who really wish to give their votes on the right side should firmly resolve not to accept any statements on mere personal credit, butwithoutreference tothesource from which these statements emanate, to take them for exactly what they are worth, and no more. These statements, we say, should be accepted, if at all, only after they have been found to be correct; that is to say, after they have been subjected to the fullest criticism and have been found to stand the test, and not merely because they are the statements of an able and well-meaning politician. We confess that we have read with great interest the pamphlet of his Honor the Superintendent, and acknowledge with pleasure that it is a very able production. We must admit, too, that he has given us a sufficiently charming picture of things as they might be, if Otago could be allowed to withdraw from the partnership into which she has entered, and set up in business on her own account, maintaining her connection with the rest of New Zealand only to such an extent as might quite suit her convenience. The gloomy business, too, is quite as well done in this address; and if half the evils that are predicted by his Honor are likely to overtake us in consequence of our going in for simplifying our form of government, the sooner we all become uUi;aProvincialists the better. We need hardly say that in our opinion there is, on the one hand, not the slightest chance of the Superintendent's dark forebodings of disaster consequent upon the abolition of the Provinces being realised ; or, on the other, that we feel sure that it is very unlikely that his energetic struggles to prolong their existence can be of the slightest avail, Nor can we see that, even if the Provinces could be res m rected for a brief interval, Otago wovild be in any better position with regard to the General Government than sdie fot merly occupied. We propose to consider somewhat at length, as occasion sh all serve, the statements and arguments of the Sujierintendent. At present. we shall endeavor to point out exactly what his main proposal amounts to, anc I to show why this proposal cannot bi' carried out, and why it ought not to ht' carried out, even if it could. Before doing this, however, it might be well to call
attention to one statement in his Honor’s pamphlet. In one place it is said - How far our past progress is to be attributed to the action of the local Legislature is a question upon which opinions may differ; ther* can, I appiehend. be no difference of opinion
however, hs to the fncfc that; this progress habeen in no degree attributable to the action of the Colonial Parliament; and yet it is now proposed to part with the one, and to place the I'dniimstrat ion of affairs entirely in the hands of the other. When we came to this passage we opened our eyes wide, very wide indeed we carefully wiped our spectacles and read the passage again. No mistake had been made - our progress is stated to be in no way attributable to the action of the Colonial Parliament. It appears then that the Public Works and Immigration Scheme to which our recovery from the depression and stagnation of five years ago is most undoubtedly due—to which we owe our rail ways, our steadily adequate stream of immigration—inshort, our present prosperity—this scheme, we say, of which Mr Macandrew has been such a firm and consistent supporter, was in no degree attributable to the action of the Colonial Parliament, but in some mysterious and occult way, which ordinary minds are unable to understand, its initiation was the work of the “ local legislatures or some other unknown Provincial agency. Well, if this is really the case, we are glad to hear it—very indeed j we are always anxious to learn the truth, but we shall certainly require a great deal more evidence than is adduced in the Superintendent s pamphlet before giving even
a provisional assent to such an astounding statement. Our reason for calling our readers’ attention to this part of the pamphlet is that we think it will have the same effect on them as it had on us, viz; that it will make them feel the necessity of exercising extreme caution before receiving as gospel any of the arguments or statements contained in the brochure.
Mr Macandrew’s proposal, we take it, comes to this. Otago, or a new Province including Otago, should be virtually a separate Colony or State. It should manage its own affairs, should receive its own revenue, and pay its own debts. It should, in the main, be altogether independent of the rest of New Zealand; still as there are not a few matters in which the rest of the Colony could be of use to us, a sort of federal union might be kept up. Well, a few years ago we ourselves were in favor of the adoption of some such plan. That it might then have proved advantageous to the whole of the Colony we quite believe. Now, however, the case is very different. The colony has entered into engagements as a Colony. We have a large public debt, and, try to avoid facing the fact as we may, every part of the Colony is responsible for every part of that debt. If we suppose, for instance, that from some unforeseen cause the prosperity of every part of the Colony except Otago should begin to decline, then, beyond question, Otago would have to bear the chief burden of the debt, and to pay off the whole ©r the greater part of it. Thus it is certain, whatever may be said to the contrary, that the Colony is one and practically indivisible. No amount of adjustment of burdens amongst Provinces would relieve any one portion of the Colony of any part of the whole liability. The public creditor looks to New Zealand for the liquidation of his just claims ; he knows nothing of Auckland, or Canterbury, or Otago. If then the Colony is really and truly one, in the most important of all respects, what possible good could result from its playing at being a group of separate independent states ] But if, as we have shown, every district of New Zealand is practically responsible for the whole of the public debt, it is evidently of the greatest possible importance that there should be a strong central Government, capable of controlling the expenditure of the revenues of every part of it. Let us suppose the Superintentendent’s scheme to have been carried out, the largest Provinces to have been resuscitated Auckland, Otago, Canterbury, and Wellington—and its share of the public debt to have been assigned to each Province. Wellington, let us suppose, mismanages her affairs, becomes bankrupt, or goes in for repudiation. Then one of two things must happen. The other Provinces will either have to take upon themselves the debt of Wellington, or else they will have, as far as the public creditor is concerned, to repudiate too. It seems to us that a strong central government affords the only possible security against difficulties of this nature, and we believe that we are justified in repeating that it is impossible to carry out the plan proposed by the Superintendent, and that if it were possible it would be extremely unsafe to do so.
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Evening Star, Issue 3974, 19 November 1875, Page 2
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1,375The Evening Star FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1875. Evening Star, Issue 3974, 19 November 1875, Page 2
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