COLONIAL TAXATION.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 33, 12 August 1867, Page 198

COLONIAL TAXATION.

(Nelson Examiner.) NO. XVI. We have spoken of the work done by Provincial Institutions during the time they 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, we gather the result that the range of profitable exercise for the powers hitherto committed to the provinces is manifestly lcssenincr, while, at the same time, the duties still devolving upon them are very important, and are perhaps well performed by them on the whole. We have now to deal with the provinces, as we have dealt with the Colonial Groverument, and to inquire how far they are economical in their conduct of public business. It is not possible for us to deal with the provincial expenditure in the same minute way in which we have followed out that of the Central Government. We cannot take the departments to pieces and inquii e minutely why so much goes to this item and so much to that, because, 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. Roads, bridges ferries, hospitals, gaols, harbors, and a hundred other works of generally acknowledged value to the people form the provincial expenditure. And this of course is well, but is after all only what was to be expected. Wc have Provincial Institution entirely for the purpose of attending to these things, and to say that they do so is not very exceptional praise after all. We have been at some pains, however, to ascertain the cost of keeping up the Provincial establishments, and for this purpose we have left out the salary of every official who appeared to hold an appointme '.t independent of Provincialism. We have left out police, gaols, hospitals, lunatic asylums, 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. What is left is the cost of purely provincial establishments; it h whafc the people pay the Superintendea ts. Provincial Secretaries, Treasurers, law advisers, clerks, engineers, surveyors, and many other officers who manage provin cial matters for us. These united salarie.amount to fully £93,C00 a year, or nearh one-half of what the General Governmeir staff of officials cost.

It is no unreasonable question to ask. Whether the efficient management of our roads, harbors, and public works generally, which we obtain from the Governments o! the provinces, is or is not dearly purcasen at an annual cost of nearly £1.00,003? This question lias, iu fact, often been asked, and is looked upon as rather

puzzling question ■with, which to floor u Provincialist. But it is so rather in ap pearance than reality. £IOO.OOO a year is a very large sum, as it amounts to aboui ten shillings a head on the entire population ; and if we could see our way to keeping this me my in our pockets, instead of letting it go into the pockets of Governmenb officials, no doubt it would bo worthy of the most serious consideration. A great deal can be done in the way of public works with £IOO,OOO, if only it is possiblt to spend the money directly upon these purposes. It would not be possible to do so if the Provincial system were at an one now, or were to end at any time within the nest 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 offices would cease of themselves, such as Provincial Baw Officers, and Treasurers, and Superintendents; but for all tin others, even if called by new names, substitutes would require to be found, and whether under these other names thej would sound as august and imposing 6: 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 tliai promised us a reduction in the number of our officials and in a vast sum we now have to pay in salaries; but we must not on tbet account conjure up fancy pictures of this kind. No such thing would arise to any very startling extent, we cannot but fear, by the destruction of the present system. There is, however, another argument o! considerable importance in the matter. "When we consider what our present system costs, it is not unfair to take into account the advantages of some other sys terns of which we are deprived so long a this lasts. Now if that other system were merely the exchange of Provincial Governments for the General Government, there would probably be little to say in favor oi ' change. It would then bo urged that, if Provincial Governments are costly, at ah events Colonial Governments have proven vastly more so. If we have paid a greal many officials under the provinces, the General Government has been far mere inexcusably extravagant. Such an argument as this would be irresistible were the General Government proposed as that to succeed the Provincial Governments in the management eft' local works. This, however, is not the case. The question is not, Whether a Provincial or a General Government is to manage our roads ana public works generally, but whether the control of these matters is to be yet morilocalised than it now is. The New Zealana Constitution was framed distinctly upon the known fitness of local self-government for the genius of our race, and the proposed change of administration poiuts to a greater development of this in the same direction. We hare often- of late, heard <9

the term, Municipal institutions applied to something which a larg® class of our politicians prefer, at least' in the theory, to

’rovincial Institutions such' as now exist.

The terra is a vague one, and may mean several things, but the general idea is tolerably plain. It means, that whereas under the present Bystem the towns and most populous country districts have an almost absolute power of dealing with the Provincial revenues partly raised from the settlers in the less populous districts, a system of local boards should be constituted, with power to deal with all

these local revenues, for local purposes, ft is undeniable that would remove a grievance which has been complained of and severely felt in many cases; but it would be rash to say that on the whole things would be much better managed. Under Provincial Itstittutions, districts

have been neglected and injured, but under Municipal Institutions, the settlers would unfrequenlLy so act as to injure themselves, owing to the ultra-localization of their interests. The genius of tho Anglo-Saxon race is, no doubt,.adapted to local self-go-vernment, but it would be a great mistake to run away with the notion that the more intensely local we make our institutions, the more wisely they will be administered. In the new state of things, which must and will arise - without any effort on the part of our politicians, before very many years, there will be a great many evils, just as there are in our present system ; and, for our own part, we fail to see the enormous benefits j.n the way of wise and cheap administration for which some politicians look, and to which they point as good grounds for demolishing provinces by any means. We believe Provincial Institutions must go before long, and that it will be for the good of the colony that they should go, but we rest our opinion on a broader and sounder basis than the chimerical idea, that a parish-vestry, or something equivalent, must be wiser than a Provincial Council.