The Globe. SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 65, 15 August 1874, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, AUGUST 15, 1874.

It is evident from Mr Vogel's speech in introducing the measure for the measure for the abolition of the provinces of the North Island, that ho does not intend to accept the decision of the present House of Representatives if it should happen to be adverse to him, and that in the ease <>f finding a majority agaiDst him, he will apply for

leave to dissolve, and go to the country on the question. It may be imagined by the whips of the Government party, that a majority may be obtained in the present House, and if so, the Premier will be able to work his will without the alternative of a dissolution. It is evident enough, that the tone of feeling amongst those in the North Island who are in favor of the abolition of the provinces, is that this will be merely the preliminary to the abolition of similar institutions in this island, and, the New Zealand Herald calls the opposition offered to the proposition by the members from the Middle Island, an " opposition to the re- " sumption of the colonial land fund.'''' The same paper also goes on to state that. " this subject will yet force ,( itself into prominence, without re- " gard to the particular way in which " a Ministry may bo affected by it." In other words, that if Mr Vogel's Government cannot carry a motion to the effect that our land funds belong to the other provinces, some other Government must be found that can affect this desirablo object, and that, what the same paper stigmatises as the " unjust " compact of 1856," must be cancelled, it possible. All through the arguments of the North Island papers there seems to run a feeling that they do not like to give up the provincial system .but are prepared to swallow the bitter pill profferred to them by the Premier, if he will only force a larger bolus of the same description on to the South Island, and that they are ready to endure evil at his hands, if the evil that the South shall endure is to be intensified thereby. Tho New Zealand Herald says that " questions of this "kind once raised arenot readily allowed to sleep," aud this being the case, the South Island representatives have no excuse for not being prepared to oppose the doom that the Premier, backed by the great majority of the Auckland, Wellington, Hawke's Bay, and Taranaki members with the help of a contingent from Nelson, and Westland, will endeavour to pronounce on the two great provinces of the South. It is stated in the paper we have before alluded to, that the present Premier is "at the head of a Government of uu- " precedented strength," and we must admit the truth of the statement; but already one member of the Government, and he a member representing an Auckland constituency, has resigned on this important question, aud no doubt more will follow his example, while some of the various members who have hitherto followed Mr Vogel's orders, will iind that their duty to their electors will compel them to separate from their chief on this point, and we do not yet despair of seeing an answer given to the proposals now made for the abolition of provinces, which will settle the question for some j sessions at least.