THE PROVINCIAL COMMISSION.

Evening Star, Issue 4096, 12 April 1876, Page 3

THE PROVINCIAL COMMISSION.

The following correspondence is published in a special ‘Gazette’ to-day, for general information : Province of Otago, N.Z., Superintendent’s Office, Dunedin, 6th April, 1876. .Sir, —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of _ 28th March, informing- me that Messrs Gisborne, Seed, and Knowles are visiting this Province for the purpose therein stated; and enclosing a copy of the instructions with which these gentlemen have been furnished.

I-reply I have to say that the present action of : he Colonial Executive, in taking for granted that the new Parliament, to which was relegated the ratification or otherwise of “ The Abolition of Provinces Bill" will ratify the same, appears to me to be premature, and that it will be time enough to take such action after the Parliament has determined as to wi at is to be the specific form of Government for the future.

I cauuot for a moment suppose that in the case of Otago, -vliero under much abused Proviucial lustitutious the Province has grown up and flourished to a marvellous extent these institutions are to be wantonly destroyed in the very prime of their manhood, and directly in the teeth of the declared and and all but unanimous desire and convictions of the people. I feel persuaded that if a plebiscite wero taken on this question a vast proportion of the votes would bp on one side, and in favor of the Province retaining its own revenues, distributing them on its own behalf, and working out its own destiny m its own way. Your favorite idea of counties with fixed endow, mentis, far more permanent and secure than tiny that is likely to be acquired from Colonial legislation, has been for years within reach of the people of Otago if they chose to avail themselves thereof, and it needs no action on the part of the Colonial legislature to confer that privilege on them. Under all the circumstances of the case I desire to be excused from being a ptoty to initiating the policy now in question, as being alike disastrous to the interests and reouguant to the feelings and wishes of the people of Otago. I cannot recognise the right of the rest of the Colony to force npon Otago any system of administration of its local affairs which is to bo centred at Wellington, and which does not commend itself to the judgment of the people concerned. It is bad enough, for example, that Taranaki, with 6,000 people, should have au equal voice iu the disposal of the consolidated revenue as has Dunedin with its population of 21,000, and it will be influitcly worse that, in disposing of our territorial revenues, mid dealing with the domestic affairs of Otago, the Province of Taranaki is to have as much power as the City of Dunedin. The probable revenue of Otago may bo set down as about ono-balf that of the whole Colony, while the voting power of the Province iu the disposal thereof in the Colonial Parliament will bo leas than one-fourth of the whole. If left to itself the re. venue of Otago would, I bolievo, m a very few years exceed that of the whole of the rest of the Colony put together. You may rest assured that it is a grand mistake to suppose that the people of ibis Province will tamely submit to have forced upon them a system of political communism from which they have everything to lose and nothing to gam ; to aid and abet in winch on my part would be to belie the position which I have for so many years held at the hands of the people. I cannot think that the action of the late Colonial Parliament, which, as shown at the recent general election, has been so universally condemed in Otago, will be maintained by the now Parliament iu so far as this Province is concerufed.

It is, I think, useless to disguise from ourselves that, stript of all the verbosity aud special pleading with which tho question may bo sunonuded, there remains the naked fact that Colonial. Finance and not the good of tho people of New Zealand is at tho bottom of tiio proposed changes—changes which 1 have an intense conviction will, if carried into effect, very seriously prejudice the interests smd retard tho progress of this section of the Colony. I need not say that this has hitherto boon tho foremost P/ovince in New Zealand, and that it is not by depriving it of its revcuu-s, bringing thou tinder the sole appropriation of the Parliament at Wellington, and reducing the Province to tho dead level of Colonial uniformity that it can hope to maintain that position. If 1 might venture to say so, it is to my mind deeply to be deplored that Colonial statesmen cqu see no other way of grappling with the evils which ha® arisen out of a vicious system of Juauco than by applying a remedy which cannot fail to wrovc worse than the disease. No doubt it nicy fco said that while my views are limited to tho nai row pla.f-rm of a Province, vou are cal l ed to deal with the lutcnmts o‘ dm r, Vnv c: , , whole. I submit, however, that no pJiu-Vcau bo beneficial to tho Colony which affects so injuriously simh am important section thereof as that over wm«b K bar* the howr to preside,

In consequence of what 1 have so fully stated In this letter, and as I am advised that the sending of three gentlemen to inspect the deportments of the Provincial Government is without legal or constitutional authority, I most inform Messrs Gisborne. Seed, and Knowles, that so far ns the Provincial Government of Otago is concerned, they cannot expect nny a’d iu their mission. Kesretting that in the performance of my public duty I shall have been compelled to refuse your request.—l have, &c. J. Macahduew, Superintendent of Otago. To Sir J. Vogel, &c.