Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1070, 17 July 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. MONDAY, JULY 17, 1871.

In Mr Gillies' address we have another instance of a well-known truth—that it is far easier to expose abuses than to point out a remedy. It cannot be denied that Mr Gillies has made good his ease—so good, in fact, that all his foes can say in depreciation is, " We knew all this before," " he lias not said anything new," &c, all which may be quite {.rue without in any way detracting from the credit due to him for reproducing it, and forcibly impressing it p : n the public mind. It is a fact that ever since the constitution was granted to, the Colony, the cost of Government }|fta steadily increased, and this in a far

greater ratio than population. At the same time we are constantly being told that the enormous cost per head of governing is solely owing to the paucity of population, and that it costs but lit tie move to govern a large than a small community. This, at all events, lias hitherto proved contrary to fact as regards this Colony. Further: during the same time the burdens of debt have as continually increased, and if, as Mi Gillies says, the provinces have something to show for the money borrowed 011 their account, it is but little indeed compared with the burden of the debt which is left. On one plausible pretext or another large sums have been raised from time to time—of course always to be spent in a reproductive way, but seldom indeed so spent. In fact, to a Government, whether General or Provincial, to have funds at its command has proved quite sufficient to tempt that Government to waste them in patronage. Every pretence is taken advantage of to add to the list of salaried officials, and it has always proved that the sums borrowed have disappeared, having been spent in almost any way other than that for which they were raised. However, to return to Mr Gillies. He fairly states the difficulty he has in proposing a remedy. " Alas ! T can but answer that T, like many of you, am but groping in the twilight—but looking earnestly for more light. I feel the Egyptian yoke of bondage, but see no Moses to lead us through the darkness." He then tells of various methods that have been suggested by others for the alleviation of the evils we suffer, and discusses their apparent advantages and disadvantages— only, however, to discard them one after the other as insufficient. Ist. The remedy proposed by ultra-Provincialists, —to curtail the power of the General Government, and create the several provinces into as many separate states, having the General Government as a sort of federal head. This, he says, might have answered once, but that time has now gone past. " The provinces are indissolubly bound together by the tie of our enormous debt," and " we may dismiss the scheme as at least hopeless, if not undesirable in itself." A second scheme is to remove legislative power* from the Provincial Council ■*, and make them mere administrative bodies under the General Government. This he admits would be an improvement on the present system, but one that would do but little towards lessening our burdens, Next comes the plan of separating the two islands. As in the scheme of the Provincialists, he thinks this might have been done at one time with advantage, but now it is simply impossible, though in the modified way of making each island a single province with a Provincial Government for each, and under a General Government for the whole, he believes it still practicable, and would result in an immerare saving in the cost of Government machinery, combined with the advantages of sufficient local self-government. He is, however, not blind to the difficulties in the way of this scheme. These are, the jealousy of the smaller provinces of being swallowed up and their interests over-ridden by the laiger ones; and there is also the difficulty of allocating the colonial debt between the two inlands. Notwithstanding which difficulties, he believes it to be better than the only other alternative—which is sweeping away the Provincial institutions altogether, and leaving the General Government to undertake the whole legislation and administration of the Colony. He proceeds to discuss the relative advantages and

disadvantages of the last-named scheme, which latter he considers to far outweigh the former, as (1) the General Government would have Lo deal with subjects that would be better dealt with locally; (2) the entire Northern Island would be subordinate to Southern interests as long as the latter had such preponderating influence in the legisla ture; (3) the whole governing power would be in the hands of a few men residing near the seat of Government, wealthy enough to temporarily reside near it, or adventurers to whom it is not material where they reside so long as they were provided for by the emoluments of office; and (4) the impossibility of any Ministry having sufficient local knowledge to constantly keep up effective administration over the whole, the Colony being too large and the communication too scant. One thing only he regards as evident: "We cannot afford to carry on the present system. To attempt to do so is to force bankruptcy and ruin"; and he concludes as follows : " Whilst discussing the difficulties and the possible remedies, the ship of State drifts—nav, carries fall sail—right on to ruin. Around we can discern the shoals and breakers, and we try to descry some safe channel through these dangers. But 'tis no time for delay. Ahead is a rock-bound coast. Colonial bankruptcy and ruin await us there. To avoid it, we must alter our course. We want a pilot with coolness and uncommon nerve, who will not ignore the position and calmly trust to the chapter of accidents, whilst the officers are gambling with the crew or snoozing in their comfortable berths, but who will choose one or other of the channels of escape, and T care not which it is, for all are equally dangerous. Our course must be altered, and if in such alteration we must carry away some of our handsome spars or lofty rop-hamper, T say, in God's name, let it be done, rather than that the Colony be involved in one common wreck."