THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1255, 7 August 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 7, 1872.

If prophecies of evil were invariably fulfilled and sinister auguries were generally realised, the present Ministry of New Zealand would have a bad time before them, for already, in anticipation, they are beaten and about to be ejected from office. Telegrams, colored as highly aa the moat rabid opponents desire, and evincing in their tone the wish that is father to the thought of their concoctora, are wired round the Colony in every direction. If they are to be believed, not only are the days of the existing administration numbered^ but its members are aware of the humiliation that awaits them and have nerved themselves to meet the painful ordeal. We are only surprised that the imaginations of the fabricators of these telegraphic romances have not further dipped into futurity and designated the new Ministers and the individual into whose hands the manufacture of the next Cabinet will fall. That information, we presume, may be expected shortly. That the attitude taken by the Provincial party has been both unexpected and embarrassing, in some degree, is undoubted, but that with all their pains, they will succeed in ousting the present Government is in the highest degree unlikely, however sanguine some of them may be of such a result. Superintendents and their Executives are not, of course, supposed to be endowed with such a principle as gratitude; all are pretty well alike seltish and desirous of seizing any opportunity that enlarges their own power or aggrandisement.' Last year the Wellington members, with ' Superintendent Fitzherbert and his lieutenant, Bunny, at their head, were the most devoted adherents of the Fox and Yogel -Cabinet. They obtained all they wanted — were spoilt children, in fact — and now£turn round on their indulgent nurses and cry for the moon, in the shape' of the administration of that portion of the loan set apart for the construction" of public works. The demand that the Provincial clique makes is neither more nor less than that all moneys voted pass through their hands, that the General Government should be privileged to provide funds, and that Provincial officers should be permitted to disburse them in such manner, or at least in such fashion, as they think fit. We have no hesitation in distinctly affirming that, however agreeable such a procedure may be to the ambitious proposers, it is diametrically antagonistic to popular feeling throughout the Colony, and, should the Ministry be defeated on this point, an appeal to the country would very quickly set matters straight. When- ! ever the public have had an opportunity of forming an opinion on the relative modes in which the General and Provincial Governments carry out public works, tho superiority of the former haa'been unmistakeably manifested. Whether the time occupied in execution, the quality of the work, the promptitude displayed, the absence of nepotism and jobbery are taken into consideration, in any and all the contrast is strikingly unfavorable to tho Provincials. Though General Governments may not always be infallible or wholly incorruptible, at least in the very worst cases they cannot hold a cundle to the hole-and-corner corruption of email local executives. The heads of departments are not ear-wigged by every ' petty politician or local demagogue. They nave certain work to execute, and have no motive for delaying it or diverting funds into any particular channel. Money expended under their control is properly j applied : can as much be said on the other side 1 As a matter of course, in case of the Provincial authorities obtaining the coveted expenditure of millions, Superintendents and others would become great in a short time, for many would fall down and worship at (he shrines of deities who had such an amount of money to dis-

burse, but at the same time the people as a whole would not only bo infinitely worse served, but would be dissatisfied in the highest degree. If an example of Provincial maladministration was needed, we need look no farther than the adjoining Nelson South- West Gold Fields. From that portion of the Coast large revenues have been wrung, whilst the, smallest possible amount has been returned for public works ; and this has only been obtained by the persistence and energy of West Coast members. Year after year that Executive has made promises to the ear and broken them to the hope ; sums have been voted time after time that Jwere never intended to be laid out, and repeatedly the Superintendent and his officers have deliberately frustrated the intentions of the Council, and treated their votes aa waste paper. At tho same time, revenue raised on the Coast has been spent on works in pet parts of the settled districts hundreds of miles from the gold fields. It is not necessary io go through the catalogue of Nelson's sins of omission and commission. We merely refer to this as a sample of a Provincial Executive, and would ask our readers if, with the comparatively limited means at their command, Jiey have deservedly earned well-merited odium, what might be expected if they were entrusted with the administration of the Nelson share of the Public Works Loan. We have no doubt that in their late conduct they are not alone, and that other petty rulers are quite as unscrupulous. It is not at all likely that thny are solitary in these respects. Ministers, as might be expected, have repudiated the idea of divesting themselves of power in order to clothe a lot of Provincial tag, rag, and bobtail officers, and endow them with functions that they are in every respect unfitted to discharge. Yet this, forsooth, is the sole ground for the attack a*bout to be made. We cannot for a moment Jthink that the good sense of a majority.of the Assembly will allow such an Opposition to gain even a temporary victory. That this combination could hold its ground, even should such a contingency arise, there is not the smallest chance, and it is to be hoped, therefore, that public business may not be even temporarily suspended by Provincialism run mad. The struggle will commence almost immediately ; let us trust that as the " flurry" of a whale is indicative of its dying agony so this latest Provincial effort may be but precedent to the collapse of Provincial institutions as at present existing in the Colony of New Zealand.