THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 1871.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 917, 5 July 1871, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 5, 1871.

Provincial institutions are working themselves out literally. The great strongholds of Provincialism — Otago and Canterbury — are showing symptoms of a desire on the part of the garrisons themselves to throw down the walls from the inside. Iv Canterbury a most curious spectacle is presented. Not many months ago the Superintendent, Mr Rolleston, submitted to the Provincial Council a series of resolutions having for their effect the simplification of the machinery of local Government, aud the placing the Superintendent in a position of closer relationship to the Provincial Council. Mr Rolleston's propositions at that time aimed at something not far removed from the system of Government carried out in Westland. He desired that the Superintendent should, like our County Chairman, be not only the chief Executive officer, but an elected member and Chairman of \ha Council. He evidently at that time was impressed with the idea that if Provincial institutions were to be maintained at all they must revert to the municipal position it was intended they should occupy when the Constitution Act was passed. He held, or was supposed to hold the opinion, that the Superintendent should simply be the agent for giving effect to the decisions and desires of the Council ; and not a power outside the Council, and capable of opposing or refusing to give eftect to the wishes of that body. He received a good deal of kudos for his courage 'in submitting such a revolutionary proposal, but his ideas were not carried out. Latterly the Superintendent of Canterbury has most determinedly opposed the practical realisation of his former principles. He is now in a position of absolute antagonism to his Council. That body by a memorial signed by a majority of its members, has asked the Superintendent to convene a special meeting of the Council in order that several imporiant questions may be. considered by the local Legislature before the General Assembly meets. But Mr Rolleston does not wish for this extra session of the Provincial Council. His views with regard to the Immigration and Public Works scheme of the General Government are at variance with those held by a majority of the Oouncil, and he falls back upon his prerogative as Superintendent and refuses to convene the Provincial Council. Naturally this absurd position of affairs has disgusted the people of Canterbury, and, in spite of their Conservative principles, they are beginning to ask themselves seriously, " Why should these things be 1" And no wonder. Can anything be more absurd than that one man can prevent the local representative body meeting for the purpose of giving authoritative effect to its own wishes and opinions. We are surprised that the Canterbury Council has so quietly submitted to such an anomalous stato of things. They should have met without the summons of the Superintendent, and, whether irregular or not, expressed their opinions on the important questions they wished to consider. Canterbury is opening its eyes, and would be only too gkd to see Provincial Government as at present constituted wiped out. If we turn to Otago — the very focus of Provincialism — we find the radical evils of the system coming rapidly to the surface. There we have the remarkable picture of Local Government being administered by anExecutive which is notoriously opposed to its Head on the questions in which the people profess to be the most vitally interested. Mr Macandrew, the Superintendent, was elected upon the strength of opinions of policy entirely opposed to those held by his opponent, Mr Reid. Mr Reid is now the responsible leader of the Provincial Government. He commands a majorityin the Provincial Council, but with his majority is in a position of antagonism to Ihe Superintendent, who alone can give legal effect to the decisions of Mr Reid and his followers. Can anything be more absurd than s'icli fictions as we have presented to us of 'h-\ working of Provincial Institutions ? No wonder that even in Otago a resolution has emanated from amongst the Provincial Council itself in favor of the termination of the existing farcical parody of State Government, and the

substitution of a system of a simple and municipal character. No doubt the unavoidable tesult of any policy of a Colonial character, such as that initiated by the Consolidation Act of 1867, and again by the Immigration and Public Works Act of last session, will be the reduction of the Provincial Governments and Councils to the exercise of the merest local functions. But the attempt to struggle against the inevitable is no longer invested with dignity or sentiment. Mr Yogel now would not venture to recal his celebrated overwrought simile of the Christian Martyr floating down the stream with a, circle of glory round her head. He would have to look, too, for a more familiar and less sentimental image to depict the downward career of Provincialism. Probably a drowning dog with a stone tied round his neck would be nearer the mark.