THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Issue 4066, 8 March 1876, Page 3

THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Alluding to the movement initiated in Southland, for the assembling of the members of the Provincial Council “as a convention,” the ‘ North Otago Times* inquires what they can do, if the Superintendent should agree to the request of the memorialists: —“ No estimates can be considered—-certainly no moneys can bi voted, and all that could possibly he done would be to obtain an expression of opinion on the part of the forty six gentlemen as to what should or should not be done at the next session of the General Assembly; some of those gentlemen being thenbselves members of the superior Legislature, and therefore Able- to - express, their views by the more important methoii of the division lists, and some of the remainder being of opposite Opinions as to certain nvatteis at issue with the portions of the Provinc ? which in the Pro-vincial-Council they represent,. Under all the circumstances then we fail to see what can be gained by' this Provincial convention,- for We do not believe that a single member of the Assembly will be influenced by the opinion of the Provincial Council.” Our contemporary then goes on to discuss the bearing the conclusions the-convention might arrive at would have erf the all important qufstioii of the Land Fund t and so well does he express our own opinions that we have no hesitation; in quoting them

The recent election has determined the stand each must take, Provincial conventioiofl notwithstanding; and as the whole matter in the As- . sembly isone of voting power, the resolutions of the , Convention would just go for what they would be worth, and that is—nothing. The fact is, and the southern portion of the Province begins - to feel it, thafOtas-o has made an egregious mistake. Following the lead of Mr Macandrew and that of Mr Stout, she .has laid down a pathway of ’ good intentions, no doubt quite unmindful of. the proverbial direction in which such pathways often tend, and, having thrown her weight into the wrong scale, has nothing left for it but to mourn a lost opportunity. Had Otago as a Province accepted the position, and sent np her members pledged to see that the localisation of .the land revenue, as proposed by the Government, whs fairly carried out, she would ha ve succeeded in keeping her oWn; but, leaguing herself os she has done - jvith Auckland, she has walked straight into the. lion’s month, and no Convention will save htr. .While we write thus, however, we do not mean to implythat Otago is going to lose her Land Fund—that will depend, as that question has always depended, upon the voting power in the Assembly; but we f.el certain that its security would have been ten times greater had the abolition Of Provincialism been accepted, subject to the one stipulation, that the sacredness of the Land Fund should, as proposed by the Government, be maintained inviolate. We cannot too often reiterate, foi it is the fact, though there seemsto be an unaccountable difficulty in getting people to apprehend and comprehend it, that the question of Abolition or non-Abolition has nothing whatever to do with the Land Bill; for were the Abolitipn Bill repealed to-morrow, .the very next day the House of Representatives could, hy vote of a majority, make the L.tnd Fund Colonial revenue, and proceed to allocate it just as it list.