COLONIAL TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 497, 5 August 1867, Page 3

COLONIAL TAXATION.

(Nelson Examiner.) KO. XV. We hare now concluded our investigation of tho various Leads of colonial expenditure. We have found that our central Government has been guilty of great extravagance in its administration, both in the work which it has attempted to do, and in the wav it tried to do it. Hardly single branch of colonial expenditure seems to bo free from the very serious charge of unduly extended patronage, and ft y<*rb’ objectioi-ahlf* amount of ivl-tapit-m. In every direction wo see Government! becoming dearer instead of cheaper us the population increases 5 oilieials multiplied in a greater ratio than revenue; taxes to a greater extent linn tho resources of the colony can bear without serious injury. We have not, however in this survey exhausted all our Governments bv anv means. The General Government is found to be a heavy burden, and a hard taskmaster ; but in New Zealand it is only one of many Governments, each of which imposes its own burdens upon the people. !'he Provincial system of tins colony has b-en subject of more praise and heavier blame than almost any other form o! Government we have ever heard of. Its friends have been unable to see a Haw in its fair proportions ir.un the first ; its enemies have almost from ihe first, seen no good thing about it. It has never been

difficult (or -lie Blends ot Provincialism to point to Die roads, bndj. s, and pu lie works which are maintained by tho Provincial Governuientout of funds attln irdisposal, and to compare these results so tangible and gratifying with those of the Colonial Government expenditure. On the oilier hand the retort lias never failed Die centralist Dint these public works, 01 which the provinces are so proud, have been done by means of large hums which have sunk the country into debt, and in some measure at least with money which they hare found the Colonial Government to raise whiht they threw cm it the blanu of excessive taxation, buieli are Die invectives rather than arguments which have marked the controversy b-twen the Provincial and c entral parlies in New Zealand, ami we believe them to bo most unpi’ofi'ahlo In all such coni r.v ersies there too much tendency to look back and dwell' on the-pas’, too liliie to ix.nnine imp naiady Die position of t o matter nt present. it is easier to p >int tiiumphantly to our own ao.nl deeds ami our adversaries’ failure: in lice pus: D an to prove that our own scheme holds out any promise of future excellence.

Tho origin of our Provincial Governments was a very simnlc one. When powers of self govern meet, were first en- • rusted to tin- cohmi-.1-, it was felt limb divi b 1 i ns tiu-y were i.et) a number oi .1 siinct communities having little communicate m with one unorlur, nothing of the .".Dire of a central government coichi ..Dend matters of pu-elv lead cone r:i

i'ln' o .Is bridge.-, iimnierat-on, surrey.- - , &■-. in ii■ be placed under tbo control of 'oral bodies acquainted with the eiivum--tsnces ol’ the ease?, and the needs and resources of the various diGriets. Thi~ was tho intention with wbieh provinces were made a part of our original eonstitulion, and there can be no doubt that in rh s way they have, for pa-1, beer, of Tory great u-c. The question for cm■ -ideration tiow is, however, not so nine 1 ., one of the past a? of the future nut so ouch what they have done, as what they are now doing, or about to do, lor the to.in! ry, This inn-t be considered exaetl, out .e same p'm.eiole on which we have e insider.'d the former part of our subject under the head.? of Colonial Government expenditure, and wo mist ask ourselves what Provincial Governments do for ns and what we pay f o r (heir services. It is by an. examination of this kind, after all. that any popular institution sue i t.s Provincialism or Centralism, must stand or fall. It is quite vain to think of trading upon former virtues, when the ques ti.ni is one of tho present ; it iequally useless to speculate upon how a condition of things yet undeveloped win affect any given institutions if they are felt •o bo economical and eliective in the meantime.

We have said that Provincialism ha? lone good service to tho colony, but (he question that we have now to discuss is.

•A hat i? it doing now ? The management of waste hnd-q of immigration and ol public works may be considered tin* especial functions of the Provincial Governments of .Now Zealand. First, then, of the waste lands. The North and .South a\o very differently situated in this respect and rau-t be separately considered. In the North, till within (lie last two years, the Government was the sole manager of wastelands. All the lands in tho islands not in European hands were waste lauds of idle Crow;: so far as the European purchaser was concerned, b.cause he could, c■ i■ iy buT froin tlic Gcvcriiuioiit. iXovr the

Provincial Governments of t.lie North but little land, and ai'o not likely to m?t more. There will soon bo no -waste lands to administer, because all linxt the European ha# not yet got will be in the hands of the native seller, who will sell to any one rather than to Government, it is hardly too much to say that, in the .Northern Island of .Mew Zealand, a verv few rears will probably see the last of Government administration ot waste lands, unci that even now that administration has sunk into a matter of second or third-rate import .nco In the South it is different 10 a considerable extent; and yet if we t rust the accounts given of the position ol the landed estuUs of the various provinces by the press, we cannot fail to see that the importance of the waste lauds is ou the

decline. It is said that in a few years more the magnificent landed estates in Canterbury will have been alienated almost entirely ; while in Nelson tho proposal to alienate at one blow nearly all we have left of it, has met with universal approbation. If this is tho caso, the provinces’ occupation is gone, so fur as the waste lands are concerned. But there is still immigration to be considered and this is work which lias been, on tho whole, well done by the provinces ; while \vo believe it would not be Well done, and, in fact, had better not be attempted, by a General Government of the that henceforth our immigration will re-1 quire to be unforced and natural. The! gold Gelds have done much to force this conviction on the people of this island, and other things hive combined to make the Provincial Governments of the North come to tho conclusion that no extensive schema of immigration to their provinces can really be pursued with any benefit. The main point, however, is that of public works. Kvery one knows what has been done in this way by the Provincial Governments in in the different provinces. In some cases (he results have been more gratifying than in others but in all they have been, and still arc tangible. We can use our roads and bridges ; and even the costly harbor and railway works which ■iave been confessedly beyond the means ol some provinces that have undertaken ■ hem, are substantial, though, it may be, cost:y benefit. It is useless (j say that these things are tnlles, or to leave them unnoticed, for every one knows their importance to bun-elf, and feeU that he has in them a tangible return for his money, which lie has not always, not perhaps often, in the expenditure of the General Government. Ihe cost may be great, and not only heavy debts may have resulted from them, but a heavy share of taxation may go to their account; yet the public will not, ami < light not to believe that, this is an exp.md,lure that can be got rid of Kailway io ms indeed may hive been mis rakes, but even railways increase the wealth ot the people and may' eventually pay. In any case roads and bridges, wharves and harbors, arc 1 ece.-sarv to the pro.-parity of the country, and if the ■ money does not come from the Customs I three-eighths it must come from some p.md of taxation, so that the saving will be j scarcely appreciable, bi fact tho public ' I must sc 0 this, that so far as economy and clbciencj go it is only a question of one 1 sort of admi istration against another ' the money must be spent 0 r cads, therefore the money must be r.usea by taxation ■ —and it matters little by what particular 1 form of t-uxaiiou it may bo. Thus v 0 ■!consider it evident that in the state of ■ idlings now existing the question of Pro--1 j vineialism or Lentracism simply amounts ■!to this. Are the evils of the present •Imodenf administering our provincial ex- - 1: pend 1; ure such :n to override the vein I considerable bem ills we have experienced ,bm r i slid do experience from it ? And te l l :tiiis que.-t.on wo impe to return in our ■'next is.-ue.