THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 896, 10 June 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. SATURDAY, JUNE 10, 1871.

It needs little to those who study the course of political events to convince them that a serious change in the constitution of this Colony is fast approaching. The dirge of Provincialism has so often been prematurely snng that the probability of the decease of the system has almost passed from the public mind. But a sterner logic than the theories of reformers is slowly but most assuredly preparing the grave of Provincial Governments, .and clearing the way for a system which will be more compatible with the circumstances of the Colony, and more likely to secure a consistent Colonial policy. The present Ministry inserted the thin edge of the wedge for the disruption of Provincialism by the Capitation scheme and the P«Wic^Work8 x Act. iji . 1 Th v g place of a division of the actual revenue was only a step towards the absolute abolitiou of partnership between the Colonial Government and the Provinces in. the public revenues. No one who has paid any attention to this question can believe that the Capitation system will last the period apportioned to it. The plan answered its purpose for the moment. It was a concession to the anti-Provin-cialists, and at the same time it conciliated those Provinces which were gainers by the change. But it is simply impossible that it can continue. At the present time the revenues of the Colony are exhibiting an alarming decrease, and the Capitation allowance is actually in excess of the share which the Provinces would have obtained under the old plan. This process cannot long be followed ; the Colonial purse must come to the bottom, and the Provinces be left to their local taxation for local purposes. And once the Provincial Governments are directly confronted with their people as tax gatherers and tax imposers and their downfall will rapidly follow. So long as the Provincial Governments have the handling of revenue raised by the Colony, arid can sport the proceeds of land sales, public wink at the absurd and costly institutions of State government they live under. But take sway these adventitious circumstances, and the tinsel and frippery will tumble off, and expose to the people the rottenness of the system which is devouring the substance of the Colony. One by one the special attributes of the Provincial system are being wiped away. The Colony has already put its veto on any more Provincial loans pledging the public revenues. It has assumed the liabilities of the Provincial debts, and although these are for the present recharged locally, it requires no prescience to see that the Colony will have to terminate this complex and inconsistent arrangement, and actually assume the entire responsibility aud, as a consequence, take possession of the Colonial estate — the Waste Lands. The Public Works Act has paved the way for this. It overrides all Provincial authority, and gives the Government the right to deal with any of the Waste Lands required for carrying out the purposes of the Act. There is nothing to prevent the utmost extension of this principle, and we think the Colony would be perfectly justified in assuming entire possession of the Waste Lands, and at once relieving the divisions of the Colony from local charges for interest on Colonial debts, and from the cost of the services of the various departments of the General Government. Some such change is imminent. The opinions of our leading public men of all shades of parties are converging towards a consolidation of governing power in all that relates to the interests of the Colony as awh jle. The General Assembly has already constituted itaelf the chief authority in the construction of Public Works, and assumed the coloiiisii)? functions of the Provincial^Govermiionts. It is gradually taking its proper position, and will legislate more and tin ire for the Colony, and less for portions thereof. Undei> such circumstances what will there be for the Provincial Councils, Superintendents, Provincial Secretaries, Treasurers, Solicitors, and all the rest of the paraphernalia of Provincialism to do '? Deprived of revenues in the raising of which they have no responsibility ; their hands stayed in sacrificing the public estate ; their legislative func-

tions limited^ to Municipal bye-laws, they must die down. They are a stumbling block in the way of Colonial progress,* and they are altogether too grand and costly for municipal purposes. They will pass away and give place to real local self-government, conducted on the only basis that will secure proper responsibility and economy— local taxation. The Colonial Government will then be able to reduce the general taxation of the Colony by raising no more revenue than it actually requires for Colonial purposes. The Assembly will decide public questions dispassionately and unswayed by Provincial jealousies and contentions, and the Colony will_ have a chance of becoming great and united.