Hawke's Bay Times. THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1867. SELF GOVERNMENT

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 478, 23 May 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times.

THURSDAY, MAY 23, 1867. SELF GOVERNMENT

11 tful/iM addidtu jurare in verba ma-jtnri .”

I VERSUS CENTRALIZATION, j Previous to a meeting of the General i Assembly of tbe colony, at which a question, almost before all others of importance to the smaller provinces, is likely to be agitated,—-we allude to that of the centralization of Government, —it becomes of vast importance to the general public that that question should be well considered and understood, and that the voice ol the people should be heard. The Provincial Governments have, as a rule, been hitherto the bodies dial have done the real work of the ■Government in the colony. Trim ienough,they have one and ail been |guilty of many errors, and at this present time are in bad odour with the iocmral public. So much is inis the j •case, that there is danger of the 1 nnrrni Government taking advantage iof this state of tilings to gather mp the reins of Government into heir own bauds, and demolish the ! Pr .-viiieial Governments in tu!o. j Commencing with tbe most northern

lof t' ie provinces, and carrying our ob•.s< rvatious to tiae extreme south, we ilud ; that each and every one has to some extent failed to fuiiil their mission, ffud arc now suffering' from that mis ;government in a variety of ways, bus hill more or u-ss being in a state ol 1 difficulty and debt, which ciipple; Thera, retards their progress, and elf.-c----itually stops an increase cf population I by immigration. | The fact is—and we believe it will be admitted by all parties —Government lias cost too much—still costs too much—and unless the voice of the people be loudly raised against it, will continue to cost too much, and while it does so, our provinces will continue lin tlieir present chronic state of difficulty and embarrassment. Does any one say, “Therefore let Provincial Governments fall ami give place to centra’isation"? We reply that that would by no means better the state of thing?.

‘Judging from experience, we say i: (would be making bad vvorse, for while ; tile Provincial Governments have ebasjtised ns with whips, the Get eral Goivernnient has done it with scorpions. ; The cost ef the Provincial Govern 'incuts have been too heavy by far, but dial ol the Creneral Government has been ten times more so.

Ihe evils of Centralisation are sufficiently obvious to make a free people cry cut for local self-government, in that where abuses creep in they are not so far removed from the control of those who suffer thereby. This it was that inliaenced the early settlers of

’■ this Province to agitate for separation trout that of \Volliugton j and it will , unless people become blind tu their own interests, extend the princi-,iplc-s of Provincialism, and so place t;.e ipower where it should be, in the bands >f those who suiter, rather than those | who pn fit. l>r its abuse. Where fo-

tomes, stares, provinces—call them by whatever name you please—are united by common interests,—as are the United States of America, our own American Colonies, the States of Italy, of Germany, our own Provinces, or other analagous instances, —in all such cases there must be a General Government of some kind, whose duty it must be to regulate those matters

which concern the whole community, but it should be those matters only. Such a General Government we must always have, but it need not, and it should not. he an extravagantly costly body.