The Lyttelton Times

Lyttelton Times, Volume III, Issue 149, 12 November 1853, Page 7

The Lyttelton Times

November \2th, 1853

; T^E Provincial Council, on Wednesday last, passed the Resolutions of which Mr. Tancred gave notice, in relation to the Superintendent's speech on the financial arrangements of Sir George Grey. We print them again here, rather than refer our readers back to last week's paper for them. They are as follows :— ,

That this Council, having taken into their consideration the speech delivered by his Honor the Superintendent on the Ist of November, and the several matters relating thereto, resolve as follows:—

1.-That in the opinion of this Council all appropriation of the Revenues of the colony prior to the meeting of the General Assemblvis a violation of the.spirit and intent of the Constitution Act.

2. That until a meeting of the General Assembly shall have taken plnce, or until further information i? laid before them, the Council will abstain.from passing any law for the appropriation of the public Revenues.

3. That considering ihe extreme inconvenience which would be occasioned to the public service from the discontinuance of the functions of the Local Government, this Council .will (so far as it may hereafter be within its power lawfully to appropriate the public "Revenues of'the Province), guarantee the expenditure of such Revenues according to estimates to be approved of by the Council. "

4. That an .address be presented to" His Excellency the Governor, praying His Excellency to acquaint this Council whan the General Assembly are about to be called together,in-order that the Council may be guided as to the proper course to be pursued in the matter referred to in the speech of His Honor.

The Council has thus distinctly refused to pass any law for the appropriation of the Revenue, because such appropriation, until the General Assembly shall have met, is "a violation of the spirit and intent of the Constitution _ Act." In the interval which must necessarily elapse before any legal appropriation can take place, they propose only to pass the Estimates in a provisional way; kV/at is, to declare what expenditure they would approve of if they possessed the legal power to expend Revenue. And they propose to ask His Excellency the Governor-in Chief when he intends to p"ut an end to such an anomalous and irregular state of things, by convening the General Assembly. We presume, that the Superintendent will consider himself justified; in expending the public funds to the extent which may be thus provisionally approved of by the" Council. So long, therefore, as His Excellency chooses to continue the present arrangements, the funds will-probably be spent precisely as though the appropriation had been made according to law. The salaries of the public officers will be paid ; the Government offices will be supplied with what they require; the Government clock, in its present state, will be kept going.

It remains to be sepn in what manner'the > five other Provincial Governments will deal ■ with this important question; and what course Sir George Grey will then pursue. . ..^Piiy.^r-iliLtlo .as.Canterbury-has now r done, there are t\\>o .different ways of j>ro- .. ceeding which His Excellency may possibly !■ adopt; In' the first "place, struck by the

anomaly of expending the revenue not only illegally, but under the protest of the only acting constituted Legislatures throughout New Zealand, he may see the necessity of at once convening the General Assembly. This would, of course, be the proceeding of a constitutional Governor. Or else, satisfied to see the Provincial authorities practically acceding to, although condemning in theory, that division of funds and power among the Provincial Governments which treats the General Assembly as a dead letter, —con tented to hear that they will receive and expend in fact, although they will not appropriate by law, that share of the revenue which he has decreed to them,—His Excellency may perhaps stave off any definite reply to the inconvenient question of the Provincial Governments, and continue things as they are. Things as they are ! —That is, no legal expenditure of public money throughout the colony : therefore, no security on which to borrow funds for public works and progress: not even security that the gracious permission of His Excellency will be continued to his tenants-at-will, from quarter to quarter, to spend as much as may keep the present establishments going! Will the Council wait until they receive a reply to their inquiry from His Kxcellency,who is now at Auckland? In the meanwhile, is nothing to be said or done about those matters in which His Honor has pointed out the injustice, as well as the illegality, of Sir George Grey's division of the public money? In the meanwhile, is there no fear lest another letter from the Civil Secretary may declare the Governor to have decreed a different, and perhaps more unjust, distribution ? In the roeanwhile, if the Governoi", still assuming the powers of the General Assembly in other matters beside finance, should reject the prayer of the numerous addresses presented to him by Provincial Governments for reform in those matters, what remedy is there for the aggrieved Provinces, what popular check on an arbitrary Executive ? Provided that His Excellency is satisfied with the share of Revenue which he chooses to decree to himself, it will be of little importance to him, if arbitrarily inclined, whether the Provincial Governments spend by law, or without law, the balance which he may choose to decree to them. He may do, as to matters beyond the legal control of the Provincial Councils, precisely as he. likes, — whether in accordance or not with their Addresses : because they cannot, like the General Assembly, require an account of his Government's intentions before voting the supplies for carrying it on. It behoves .the Provincial Government and Legislature to be prepared for such a solution of affairs. They have earned credit by their discernment in understanding, and their respect for the integrity of the Constitution in declaring, the illegality of Sir George Grey's financial arrangements. We trust that they will beware, lest, as we have pointed out, all their power for. the good of the Province be nullified by the same process which leaves all power for the government of the whole colony in the hands of Sir George Grey alone. .