The Globe. MONDAY, MAY 17, 1875.

Globe, Volume III, Issue 290, 17 May 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, MAY 17, 1875.

A Wellington contemporary says that it is reported on good authority that the Government scheme of Abolition when brought down, will be found to apply to the provinces of the Middle Island as well as those of the North. We are glad of this. The question will then be discussed on its merits, and the future form of government of the colony settled finally for some time to come. In former articles on this question we have pointed out that the Government proposals last session were brought down in a hurry, without any previous consideration, and without any serious demand on the part of the people of the colony for such a change. No agitation has been going on in any part of New Zealand in favor of Abolition, and even the press with one or two exceptions, have not treated the question in that grave and serious manner which its great importance demands. No very decided public opinion can therefore have been formed on. the question. Besides, the present Assembly is eminently unqualified to discuss it. Its members were elected pledged to carry out in its entirety the scheme of immigration and public works upon which the colony had entered, and it is of the greatest importance that it should devote its last session exclusively to completing the work upon which it has entered. There are signs in plenty that time spent in this direction will not have been thrown away. In the recent address of the Superintendent of Nelson, reference is made to the gross mismanagement of the Brunner railway —“ that remarkable specimen of a political railway,” as he calls it. The first estimate of its cost in 1871 was £26,250; in 1872, the .estimate was

raised to £54,400; in 1873, it was raised to £74,000; and in 1874 it was raised to £84,000, and it is said that £15,000 more will be required to complete it. The Superintendent of Nelson is of opinion that after all this waste it will be found necessary to abandon it altogether and re-construct it on the other bank of the river, in accordance with a proposal made by him before the line was commenced. We believe this line is only a specimen of others which are in the.course of construction, and therefore it is that we think that if the Assembly’s attention is directed to the great question of constitutional change, the colony will suffer serious loss. Of course the ministry would gladly have attention withdrawn from their mismangement and neglect, but we trust the House will not be hoodwinked by any such artifice—that it will insist on having the public works of the colony placed on a sound financial basis. Before the prorogation, the Ministry might give some outline of the scheme upon which they will go to the country. At present no such plan is before us. All that has been insisted on is that the provinces are living on the General Government, and that without the assistance of the colony many of them could not fulfil their functions. But it has not been shown that the money so obtained from the colony has been misapplied. It has riot been shown that Auckland squanders the grants from the colony on useless works; on the contrary, were there no Provincial Government in Auckland at all, her roads, schools, hospitals, and other, departments at present under provincial control, would still have to be provided for. We therefore fail to see how any saviner can be effected bv a change^|||jj^-