The Globe. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 450, 23 November 1875, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1875.

We pulish elsewhere a summary of Sir F. D. Bell’s address to the electors of Waikouaiti. Like all the utterances of the Speaker, it is characterised by an absence of decision. One gets the impression from reading it, that he has not made up his mind on the political questions which have been stirring the public thought, or if he has he is afraid to give utterance to his opinions. At one time he maintains that if the provinces cannot exist without borrowing, or obtaining aid from the General Government they can serve no good purpose by continuing to exist at all; at another, he is o; opinion that it is not necessary to abolish the Provincial Councils, but only to strip them of their legislative functions, and convert them into Boards of Works. What the Speaker is anxious to see maintained is, all the machinery of the provincial system stripped of its legislative functions. “ What was wanted,” he says, “ was to maintain the expenditure “ in the provinces, and the admin- “ istration in the same way as “ hitherto, without the expense and “ worry of the political part of the “ provincial system.” But how the expenditure is to be kept up in some of the provinces in the North Island he does not explain. Something more requires to be done than merely to

pi rip ihiih > "'c I!’.. 1 tions, to place several ’ Cl" vincea ’in a position to carry on the administration of their local affairs. Merely depriving them of the power to legislate will not create the means of paying for education, roads, bridges, and charitable institutions. And yet he maintains that if the provinces cannot exist by their own efforts without borrowing or obtaining aid from the General Government, they can serve no good purpose by continuing to exist at all. If this test is applied to the provinces, the majority of them must be swept away at once. Canterbury and Otago alone could stand the application of such a principle, and he is a bold man indeed who will maintain that those two provinces alone are to be exempted when the day of reckoning comes. Of course the real explanation of all this indecision, on the part of the Speaker, is, that he is addressing an Otago constituency and is looking upon public affairs from the Otago stand-point. This view of the question is confirmed by some remarks which fell from Sir F. D. Bell towards the close of his address, when he announced his intention, if returned, of trying to unite the Otago interest in the Assembly. It is amusing, did it not make us sad, to witness, Sir D. Bell resorting to such paltry and contemptible means, to secure his return. We had hoped that at least the Speaker of the House of Representatives would have given us some proof that he is possessed in some small degree of those qualities which he said at the beginning of his address their representatives should possess —“ Skill, expe- “ rience, and patriotism.” Experience, no doubt, Sir D. Bell does possess, if the possession of a seat in the House for many years can supply that. Skill to guide the colony in its present crisis, we scarcely think he has displayed, judging both by his speeches during the past session, and his utterances on the present occasion. As to his patriotism, it is confined to forwarding the interests of Otago alone. It is not what will be best for the colony at large, but what will best forward the interests of his own little province. Could a more convincing proof of the necessity of at once and for ever sweeping away all traces of provincial boundaries be given, than this announcement of the Speaker’s policy.