The Globe. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 321, 23 June 1875, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 1875.

The approaching session of the General Assembly is beginning to occupy some attention, and rumours of the Ministerial measures are beginning to find their way to the public through the columns" of the press. These reports are in many cases rather vague, but now and again a journal, more favoured than the rest, is made the medium of Ministerial intentions. A short time ago the Wellington Tribune gave an outline of the Constitutional Changes Bill, and although disavowing any Ministerial inspiration, it evidently spoke with some authority on the subject. In the midst of the excitement of local politics this matter did not receive here at the time, that attention which it deserved. It may not, therefore, be out of place to refer briefly to the information then made public, and we do so now in the hope that a decided and enlightened public opinion will be formed in Canterbury on this all important question. After the measure has all but passed through the legislature, should such a result come about, it will be too late then to influence the Assembly in any appreciable degree. Recent experience justifies our remarks in a very striking manner, for had any active steps been taken at an earlier period, we feel convinced that the province would not have been committed to the present policy in education matters —a policy which we believe is distasteful to a very large majority of the people of Canterbury. We therefore direct attention to the Constitutional Changes Bill in the hope that the people of the province will take up the question and discuss it on its merits, and be prepared to pronounce an opinion upon it when the time arrives. It cannot be said that the subject has not been discussed in the public journals. One of our morning contemporaries has devoted a great deal of attention to the matter during the last twelve months, and has brought forward in a clear and systematic manner all the arguments which can be adduced against provincialism. But the public here must remember that the question is about to emerge from the region of philosophical discussion, and that more than silent approval or acquiescence is demanded of the electors. By means of petitions and public meetings the voice of the whole province should so be made known to the Assembly, as would convince that body that the people of Canterbury have very decided views on the question. In the hope that this matter will be taken up with spirit and in real earnest, we direct attention to what are said to be some of the leading features of the proposed Bill. The clauses, says our contemporary, will be so drawn as to permit, without any rude dislocation of the several parts of the measure, the inclusion of the provinces of the Middle Island as well, and the Government will not oppose its amendment in this direction, they being quite in favor of total abolition. It is said that the measure will extend generally the powers of existing Road Boards, and will chalk out a plan for the amalgamation of two, three, or half a dozen of them into County Boards, to which will be given the license fees and other miscellaneous receipts in the county. Whether the endowments from the Central Government will be paid to the County Boards or to the Road Boards it is not stated. It would appear therefore that abolition will be

attempted for the whole colony, if the Government find their followers prepared for it. To this we wish to direct our reader’s attention. Before three months are over they may find the existing forms of Government entirely altered, and we wish to ask them if they are prepared to accept the change without a word. We have always maintained that such an important question should have been referred to the constitueuces before being finally settled, and we are still hopeful that such may be the case. We may be permitted to protest in the strongest possible manner against the present Parliament dealing with this matter, and yet be allowed to reserve our judgment as to the desirableness of such a change, till the measure is fully before the public. We are strongly averse to change for its own sake, and we have our fears that the Government measure may but slightly alter the form without doing away with the evils of the present system of local Government. But should the measure really secure local government and the local revenue, we believe the centres of population, that is the vast majority of the people of the colony, will declare themselves in favor of it. The people of Christchurch, at any rate, have been so unjustly treated and so robbed of their legitimate revenue by the Provincial Council, that we believe they will hail with satisfaction any measure which proposes to deal justly with the revenues of the province.