The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 356, 3 August 1875, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1875.

The citizens of Christchurch are called together on Thursday evening to discuss the question of abolition, when a series of resolutions urging the reference of the question to the constituencies will, it is said, be submitted. We are not going to dispute the importance; in times of grave political

danger, of such gatherings. Public meetings are a perfectly legitimate mode of ascertaining the public mind on any great question before the country. But in the present instance, we would inform the promoters of the meeting, the public of Christchurch have fully made up their minds already. It took no great trouble on their part, with the Abolition Bill before them, to chose between the proposed new order of things, and that which has been the rule of late, under the Provincial Government, The contemptuous manner in which successive Provincial Executives have treated the claims and wants of the municipalities, has convinced the citizens of Christchurch, that they must look elsewhere than to the much vaunted people’s Government for justice to the people. The late session of the Provincial Council has proved conclusively as far at least as Canterbury is concerned, that the interests of a select few—the lords of the golden fleece—are far more jealously attended to than the wants of the people at large. The Council, during the last session, voted tens of thousands to build bridges over unknown streams in those remote regions given up to the squatter alone, and refused more than a miserable pittance for the drainage of a district inhabited by a quarter of the population of the whole province. As far as the centres of population are concerned, Provincial Government in Canterbury might be swept away tomorrow, without its absence being in the slightest degree missed. But now in its hour of danger, with the prospect of immediate dissolution before it, an appeal on behalf of this peoples government is about to be made. The promoters of the meeting may be abolitionists, for anything we know, but we would remind all those who intend to vote on that occasion that delays are dangerous. The provincialists are crying out for an appeal to the people, in the hope that some unforseen accident may turn up in the meantime, which may divert attention from this all-important question, and thus give them a few more years of life.

For ourselves, we have no hesitation in stating that a careful study of the Government measures, has satisfied us that the citizens of Christchurch have everything to gain and nothing to loose by the proposed alteration in our constitution. When the question of abolition first came before the country last session, we, in common with many others, declined’ to accept the abstract statement of the Government that a change was absolutely necessary. We stated our determination to await the production of the Ministerial measures, when we would be placed in possession of the machinery which was to take the place of provincialism, before we came to a decision. Those measures are now before us, and we must express our satisfaction with the completeness and comprehensiveness of their character. If the programme of the Opposition is what it is stated to be, a fusion of the provinces in each island into two or more larger provinces this will be an additional reason for the inhabitants of Christchurch declaring themselves in favour of the Government measures. Under such a system all the evils of the present form of provincialism would be intensified, and the interests of the people would be more than ever sacrificed to that of property. We trust therefore that on Thursday evening the inhabitants of the City will not neglect to give a most decided expression of opinion, if such is necessary, on this most important question.