CENTRALIZATION AND SEPARATION

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 485, 27 June 1857, Page 5

CENTRALIZATION AND SEPARATION

(From the ' Southern Cross,' May 15.) Eepresentative Institutions, notwithstanding their inestimable advantages, are accompanied by their own peculiar dangers, which it is the duty of those who live under them to watch for, and, as far as may be, provide against. For the present we concern ourselves with one of these dangers only—one that is of little moment in England, but of serious import in

young colonies, on account of the more unequal distribution oi population. ■* We allude to Centralization. Not to Centralism, which, in New Zealand, has a recognised local meaning, a technical sense peculiar to the colony,—the maintenance of the supremacy of the General over the Provincial Governments • but to Centralization, and that of the very worst Our meaning may be explained in few words, liepresentative Institutions involve a struggle for power; the issue of the struggle deplnds upon the number of votes that can be brought up to the poll; and the operation of votecatching is most successfully performed by sacrificing the interests of the more thinly populated districts to those in which voters are more densely congregated, i.e.—the out districts to the central districts. The public revenue may tall into the hands of a Government whose main object will be, not the general good of the community, but to maintain themselves in power - and accordingly risks being expended so as to*' make the greatest superficial show, in those localities where there are most votes to be picked up. It is to be observed that the temptation of thus making the public expenditure subservient to political ends is induced, not so much by the elections for members of Council, as by the concentration of all the votes of the province into one focus—that fatal error of the New Zealand Constitution—at the election of a "Superintentendent. The parcelling oat of the province into electoral districts, which might, indeed, be further divided with advantage, lessens that temptation considerably, in regard to the election of members. But the combined Legislature of the province takes its tone from the Superintendeucy election, the Superintendent having been shown, by practical experience, to be a stronger power than the Council. It would be easy to show that this mode of expending the revenue is not the real and ultimate advantage of even those who dwell in a central position—that fair play over the whole province is to the -interest of all alike; but there is no preventing men from looking to immediate convenience, rather than to a contingent benefit. Every man likes to see a road before his own door, —a bridge over the creek which he has oftenest to cross, although knowing full well that the advancement of the whole community, with which his own, as a general rule, must keep pace, depends upon the opening up of the out-districts.

Centralism—that is to say, the preponderating power of the General Government, is contended against by Provincial Governments, partly because it diminishes their own power of Centralization. No Government is so clamourous against Centralism as that of Wellington; no Government, excepting that of Auckland, has pushed Centralization to so vicious an excess. The proof is in the result. Ahuriri—the most important of the out-districts of that Province, is already desirous of throwing off the yoke. The settlers of the Ahuriri feel that they are being sacrificed to vote-catching, about which the Wellington Government, with all respect to themselves be it spoken, are as busily engaged as our own. And they are consequently urging the need of an early emancipation from what they term the " devouring influence" of Centralization by obtaining the administration of their local, affairs, and of expending their own revenue, preparatory to an entire separation from the Province of Wellington. The desire is not unreasonable. Wellington proper, if we .may so term it, is but a small district, as regards available land; it is to the Ahuriri that immigrants must mainly look for a supply of land ; nevertheless its settlers see their land being loaded with an increasing debt, and themselves, in point of fact, charged with funds an undue portion of which is expended upon the capital town of the Province. They say that they in no way form, geographically or otherwise, an integral part of the Province of Wellington, and that they derive no more benefit from the expenditure of the sales of Ahuriri land in the more immediate neighbourhood of Wellington than if it were spent at Auckland or Canterbury. Consequently, taking example from Melbourne, which a few years ago was in the same position with respect to New South Wales, and in imitation of the association there formed, which in three or four years obtained a separation, they have organised an Association and a Committee for the purpose of maintaining their own separate interests.

Like causes produce like effects. Ahuriri is merely leading the van, and what is now taking place there may yet take place elsewhere, even on a grander scale. Wellington, ostensibly for the sake of centralizing the General Government calls for its removal to that Province. In the event of success, the probable result would be separation of Auckland, and perhaps of Taranaki, from the rest of the colony. So far as Auckland is concerned, we have been already told, that we have only to ask for a LieutenantGovernor, to obtain one. This would probably be followed by a separation of the Middle Island also; for although the three southern-most Provinces might be content to remain in connexion with the Northern Island, taken as a whole, we do not believe that they would wil r lingly bear with being an appendage to a single Province,—with having to acknowledge Wellington supremacy. Then again, in the Otago Province, the Bluff is certain, sooner or later, to demand separation, and in all probability will obtain it. Wanganui appears to be content as yet; but there is sufficient reason to suppose that at no distant period, local self Government will also be demanded there. And what if the Bay of Islands district, so profitable to Auckland, were to follow the example of Ahuriri, and agitate for the power of appropriating its own revenue? The colony of New Zealand, divided as it is, has not only lapsed into confusion, but is also, by its very constitution, saddled with one of the most expensive Governments in the world. We may yet see the time when through subdivision, the Provinces shall be reduced to Counties. By means of further disintegration, the separate divisions of the Colony may even yet be reunited as a whole.