THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1873.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 233, 22 August 1873, Page 4

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, AUGUST 22, 1873.

Centralism ! or Provincialism ! It may sound paradoxical, but probably both are best. The more the question is looked into, the more difficult it becomes to see a clear way out of the mazes that have now found for themselves fixed courses up and down the Colony, much as arteries an.d their subsidiaries permeate the human body. To check this time-grown system suddenly would be to produce stagnatic paralysis. By letting it go on increasing we shall have to stagger along with over-burdened and uncertain steus. The true solvent, in this case, may be the regulation of a central heart, which, while not neglecting the machinery it supplies, by regular pulsation, might imbrue and keep it in health and viofor. It is easy to see that our present Provincial (Government is too costly in proportion to the funds it has to deal with. Yet even this is hardly a fair inference for the right functions of the Provincial Councils should not be considered to be the mere expenditure of some fevi thousands of pounds,-but the settling a large tract of country in a mnDir?; that will tend, in a few years, to produce a very much larger revenue thau any Province has ever yet dreamt of, and to lay the foundation for a prosperous future for the Colonists. iStill, a Council of some forfy-six.mern-hers from different districts, each pledged to get as much as he can for his own district, has a tendency to coerce the (Government of the day, for the rtakc of peace, to make concessions and compromises they know to be unwise, and which a smaller body would never agree to. As to Centralism,

pure and simple, the Premier has something to say. In his Financial Statement he lays it clown very clearly that it would be impossible for the Central Government to undertake the responsibility of judging' lis to the local works necessary in any Province, and that if these local works are neglected, and the main arterial communications of the Colony only constructed, the result would be the building up of prosperous towns on the seaboard, while the country around rein rags. The policy laid down hy Mr. Vogel will p rub ably give a new lease of life for Provincial Councils. He says : —• " The policy I am about to elaborate I '" describe as the result of a search " after equilibrium—or as nearly a " state of equilibrium as is possible " amidst the many varying and con- " tending interests with which we have i" to deal. Broadly, we want the Co- " lony to take charge of Colonial works, " the Provinces to take charge of local "works. Broadly also, we class, main

" railways aDcl immigration as amongst " Colonial works—other works neces- " sary for tho settlement of the coun- " try Ave class amongst the local." He goes on to say that there should no longer be a hesitation in dealing with a great question merely because it is difficult—-either the system should be Colonial and the Provinces be abo- j lished, thus saving their expense, or, he implies, that a distinct line of demarcation should be laid down. From this very clear statement of the future policy of the Government we hardly think there is the slightest chance, for many years to come, of the total abolition of Provincial Legislatures. Whatever differences of opinion may exist as to the desirability of such abolition, there can be none as to the advantages to be gained by reform. Twenty members, with the Superintendent 'as Chairman, could do the work better, - more thoroughly, quicker, and with less expense. We should like to see a measure brought forward next session, in the Otago Council, to reduce the number of representatives to twenty, and also giving the Council more the features of a Board or Directory than, as at present, surrounded with" all the pomp and paraphernalia of Parliament.