COLONIAL TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 499, 12 August 1867, Page 2

COLONIAL TAXATION.

(Xeison Examiner.) xo. xvi.

We liavc spoken of the work done by Provincial Institutions during the time the) have been in operation in this colony, and also of the changes in their position, apparent at the present time. Prom the short survey we have made, wegdher the result that the range of profitable exercise fori the powers hitherto committed to the prrvinces is manifestly lessening, while, at the same time, the duties still devolving upon them are very important, and arid nirhaps well performed b}’ them on the whole. N\ c have now to deal with the provinces, as we have dealt with the Colonial Government, and to inquire how far they are economical in their conduct of public business. It is not possible for into deal with the provincial expenditure n ilie same minute way in which we have followed out that of the Central Govern meat. AN o cannot take the departments to pieces and inquire minutely why so much goes to this item and so much to that, b.cause, in the case of nine provinces, the task would prove an endless one. This may however, be said for the provinces, that as a rule, their expenditure over and above the cost of establishments, is all of a reproductive nature. Hoads, bridg.-s ferries, hospitals, gaols, harbors, amt a hundred other works of invimfv acdrow-

lodged value to the people form the provincial expenditure. And this of oours is well, but is after all only what was tobe expected. We have Provincial Institu-j lion entirely for the purpose of attending toj those things, and to say that they do so is ! not very exceptional praise after ail. We 1 have been at some p..ins, however, to ascertain the Cost of keeping tip the Provin- ' cial establishments, and for this purpose ’ we have left out the salary of every oiKcial who appeared to hold an appointment in-,-dependent of Provincialism. We have i left out police, gaols, hospitals, lunatic asy--1 lums, and some other things which go to ) swell the price of Provincial institutions : on paper, but which fairly to be left out as things necessary under any institutions

whatever. Y/hat is left is the coat of purely provincial establishments; it is what the people pay the Superintendents, Provincial Secretaries, Treasurers, lawadvisers, clerks, engineers, surveyors, and many other othcers who manage provincial matters for us. These united salaries amount to fully £93,000 a year, or nearly ono-half of what the General Government staff of officials cost. It is no unreasonable question to ask. Whether the eflieient management of our roads, harbors, and public works generally, which we obtain from the Governments of the provinces, is or is not dearly purcased at an annual cost of nearly £100,000?

iiiis question lias, in tact, oileu been asked, and is looked upon as rather a puzzling question with uhich to floor a Provincialist. Put it is so rather in appearance than reality. £ 100,000 a year is a very large sum, as it amounts to about ten sliilli'iL's a head on the entire population ; and if we could see our way to keeping lids money in our pockets, instead of letting it go into the pockets of Government officials, no doubt it would be worthy of the most serious consideration. A great deal can be done in the way of public works with i.'iOU.COU, if only it is possible to spend the money directly upon thesepurposes. It would not be possible to do s-> if the Provincial system were at an end now, or were to one I at any time within the next five years. Some one must do much of work which is now done by these Provincial officials, and must be paid, moreover, for doing it. It is true some "ilivs would cease of themselves, such as Provincial Law Officers, and Treasurers, .and Superintendents; bat for ail tho ' ii! hers, even it cal lei 1 by new names, substitutes would require to bo found, and whether under these other names they would sound as unitrust and imposing or not, our experience of General Government management gives no great ground for thinking they would cost much less. It would be a very enticing prospect that promised us a reduction in the number of our officials and iu a vast sum we nowhave to pay iu salaries ; but we must not on thet account conjure up fancy pictures of this kind. In'o »uch thing would arise to any very startling extent, wo cannot but tear, by the diuiruetioa of the present system.

There is, however, another argument of comiderabie importance in the matter. '.Vilen we consider what our present system cos's, it is not unfair to take into acIcount tho advantages of sonic other systems of which we are deprived so long as j tills- hots. Mow if lint <)■ h ”.’ syst-m were ! merely the cscbaug.'of Provincial (Joveruonecti fir the Genera! Government, there I woe.ld iciihibly be little to say in favor uf p'bange. it would then be urged that, if Provim-ml Governments are costly, at all events Colonial Governments have proved vastly -more so. If we have paid a great many officials under the provin.es, theGeneral Government has been air more inexcusably extravagant. Such an argument as this would bo irresistible were the < ; ci'eral Government proposed as that to -icvrvd the Provincial Governments in Vie n• • agement of local works. This, how. v- •, i • not the case. The question is not, Wh.n ler a Provincial or a General Cloven nm it is to manage our roads and 1 public •••-• Its generally, but whether tho control i ; mese matters is to lie jot more localised than it now is. The Xow Zealand Constitution was framed distinctly upon the known fitness .-I’ local self-government for the genius of our race, and the proposed change of administration points to a greater dm- elopmcnt of this in the sarao direction. We have often, of late, heard the term, 3dunicipal institutions applied to something which a large class of our p diC ians prefer, at hast in the theory, to Provincial institutions such as now exist. T'ue term is a vague one, and may mean several tilings, but the general idea is tolerably plain, hr means, that whereas under Pie present system the towns and mot populous country districts have an almost absolute power of ibaiiiog with the Provincial revenues partly raised from the settlers in the less populous districts, a system of local boards should lie constituted, with power to deal with all these local revenues, for local purposes. It is undeniable that would remove a grievance which has been complained of and sever.-ly fit in many cases ; but it would be rash to say that on tho whole tilings would be much better managed. Piuler I’ruvineid 1 tstittutions, districts have been neglected and injured, but under Municipal !iwtit ntions, the settlers would unfrcquently so net as to injure themselves, owing to the ultra-localization of their in-

! crests. The genius of tlie Anglo Saxon race is, no doubt, adapted to local self-go-vernment, lu‘ it would be a groat mistake to run away with the notion that the more intensely oval we make our institutions, tile more wisely they will be administered. In the new state of tilings, which must and will arise without any effort on the part of our politicians, before very many year;, there will be a great many

evils, just as there arc in our present sys■cm ; and, for our own part, wo fail to see toe enormous benefits in the way of wise and cheap administration tor waieli some politician? look, and to which they point ’as good grounds for demolishing provinces by anv means. Vie believe Provincial Inst itut ions must go before long, and thafcit will he for the good of the colony that they should go, out we rest our opinion on a broader and sounder basis than the chimerical idm, that a parish-vestry, or sonic-tiling equivalent, must be wiser than a Provincial Council.