THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1875.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 320, 17 April 1875, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle SATURDAY, APRIL 17, 1875.

A good deal has. been : written about Centralism as opposed to Provincialism, but we have not seen the case of the Centralists better or more concisely put than it is by Mr. Vogel in the able article .published in 4 JBYaser's Magazine,' wbieli so totally cut away the ground from under the feet of Mr. Fellows. Having explained that " the " Colony could not continue spending " money on war, and neglectingail means " of developing the country's resour- " ces," he gaes.on to state the difficulty of dealing to the greatest advantage with the money raised by loan for Public Works:—

The difficulty of proposiag a plan which would iind acceptance was much increased by

bhe mode.in which New Zealand Las been colonised. As many of your readers know, New Zealand was divided .into Provinces, each representing a different area of colonisation, each having distinct interests, and each naturally disinclined to support any plans in the benefits resulting from which it was not to share. Ido not condemn the diffusion of settlement "which was a consequence of the Provincial system. If it has added occasionally to the difficulties of Colonial legislation, it has been the means of largely increasing the settlement of the country. But it made it that, in providing a Colonial system of public works, regard snould be had to all the Provinces; and a plan applicable to the whole country had to be submitted.

It no doubt required the actual proof of fact to make this evil tendency of Provincialism visible, or rather to mark the exact stage when a centralisation of Government would become a neces-, sity to check the undue influence of the strongest at the expense of the weakest, sure to arise at every centre of petty power. The proof that these undue influences have arisen and do exist is very clearly shown by the unanimous condemnation of subdivided Government which has been declared throughout the country districts in every Province where there is any so callM local revenue. - -Provincialism in the North has now no avowed defenders, and in the South the best that can be said for its continuation is. that each Provincial Government presents all the indifferent characteristics of Centralism. Instead of—as in Centralism—the country as a whole, under average representation, being drawn upon Tor expenditure for the general good, in Otago at the present time the bulk of the Province is drained to bolster up the capital town. The celebrated Dunedin Harbor Board has the honor of proving one evil of. Otago Provincialism. It will be remembeied that less than a year ago the Ordinance constituting the Board was passed, endowing the Trust thus formed with property differently valued at from £300,000 to £500,000. This Ordinance was not passed without difficulty, and not without its friends vehemently protesting that no Provincial securities or revenue were needed other than the revenues arising out of the Harbor itself. " Only last week we find that-what is called the Legislative Committee of the Board waited upon the Hon. Mi\ Kichardson and the Hon. Major Atkinson to point out " the ab- " solute necessity of revenue to enable " the Board satisfactorily to carry out " its functions.". The report of the in..teryiew goes, on to- say:—"lt was " pointed out in fact that the Board ." without a sufficient revenue was " simply powerless to effect the purpo- " ses the local Legislature contern- " plated; and, seeing that the local Le- " gislature had no power to impose the taxation necessary, that such powers; " should be given by an Act of the Assembly." The Speaker of the Provincial Council formed a part of this deputation, and had as servant of the Board to listen to the very' gross-as-sumption raised in the above statement that-such taxation was a sweet notion very dear to the Council, who indeed had only refrained from carrying it out because it had not the power. It is evident that the ...Committee who had the duty; of , watching the-; Harbor Scheme as it ran the gauntlet last year thought itbetter,rather than submitto a defeat, to accept an imperfect and premature Ordinance on the chance of going behind the Council to obtain powers from the Assembly they well knew the Council itself would never agree to. The Provincial-system lends itself... over -and over again to such miserable subterfuges, but it is not often that so- glaring instance is exposed to the general view. l Aijo.ther instance showing .the-evils of the present system is to be found in the account published elsewhere in this ;issu'e of the expenditure of Otago's portion of the vote for Water on Goldfields. It will be there seen that the Assembly did not dare in 1870 to say where the £BOO,OOO voted for Goldfields should be spent, but, as a' compromise, • Superintendents 'and Provincial Councils should scramble for a share. . It will also bo seeii how. entirely owing to the centralisation of Otago in Dunedin the interests of her Goldfields were neglected, and the Province which, from the extent and vaku'j of known undeveloped auriferous lands it contained, should have stood first on the list in the distribution of" the vote was quietly allowed to stand last, or • nearly so. . . The Southland railway, which ruined the late Province, and the needless expense of which has been a standing reproach, is—as Mr. Yogel points out—another memorial of Provincialism. In hardly, one case can it be said that a certain positive good has resulted from the system, while cases could be multiplied of unnecessary expense incurred splely because of it. Mr. Togel's article, while utterly annihilating Mr. JMlows reputation as an amateur fi-. nancicr, has also exposed the Colony's weakness, arising out of the rivalry of the Provinces.