THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1876.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 369, 31 March 1876, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, MARCH 31, 1876.

If we suppose any one of our great interior plains to have been settled by only nine settlers it would naturally be expected that, although all might have started on fairly equal terms, yet in the course of a few years a few would be found prosperous, and a few but little, if any, richer than when they started; if five out of the nine then agreed to enforce a communism of estate on the plea that it was scandalous that four men should be prosperous while their five neighbors were mnVing no progress; if such a position is not too ridiculous for conception, we have a very fair parallel to the W anganui proposals. To question the accuracy of this grand speech ; to ask how long such a delightful state of financial equilibrium could last; to ask further and more pointedly still whether spoliation and robbery are in any case to be justified, is, we fear, to be ostracised as a helpless lunatic, or, worse still, as an out and out Provincialist. Yet these questions are asked', and will have to be answered, o theory of communism is good. Communism, once perpetrated, in any shape, must lead to insecurity of public and private property, for it is the first stage in civil revolution. In every day life there is a partial and limited communism for trading purposes, but it is voluntary. The terms are defined, and the operation is jealously guarded by the law. The personal identity of the shareholders in a Company is not destroyed. Their property is of a certain known value, and can be transferred, or used as security. _ In the case of the proposed abolition of Provinces, the communism of interest in the public estate of the Colony is complete and entire. An abolished Province can have no identity, and therefore can neither hold property nor be held responsible for money previously borrowed, or for deficiencies on interest where railways do not prove remunerative. Sir Julius Vogel must be aware of this, yet the way he toys with an evident truth is notable : —" I hope that in future we shall " have such a system of finance that " we shall not find the Provinces with " deficiencies which the Colony has to " make up, for the Provinces, when they " cease to exist, can hardly be said to " owe us money." On the debtor side of Colonial account will then stand all outstanding liabilities for Provincial loans, and all deficiencies in revenue of political railways in Nelson, Marlborough, and the North Island. On the credit side will be the land and railway revenue of the South. When there is no such thing as a Province, and no Court of Probate with powers of administration, there cannot be even a spiritual claimant for the deceased's patrimony.

The dishonest pretence of localisation of the residue of theland revenue is, under these circumstances, most reprehensible. What possibly could the residue be ? It is curious that political parties are so mixed up on a basis of self-interest that the most conservative politicians of the day are the most violent communists. The bugbear of this party is a property tax. Rather than encounter such a personal calamity Otago and Canterbury may be sacrificed a hundred times over. It would have been quite easy to give to Provinces a Municipal character .if such a character to use the slipshod politico-economic phraseology of the day is so especially adapted to the genius of the British Colonist. There is no more advantage gained in allowing seven counties to borrow to the depths of their own securities than in allowing one Province to do the same on exactly the same securities. The necessity for abolition we are told is financial purely. This is strangely said to be got over by allowing an extinct. Province, dividecj into seven Counties, to borrow on its oWn securities as much as ever it can. What difference would it be if the Province were given the same power. There is no reason why the term Province, used in the stead of County, should saddle local loanß irrevocably upon Colonial revenue. If it

were not intended to strip tbe South of its revenues, the false pretence of Provincial districts, floated by Ministers during last session, would have been kept up. Even Ministers say that the localisation of revenue and responsibility for former expenditure must be but visionary if boundaries are done away with. Consequently they created Provincial districts. Their bolder colleague scornfully sweeps the subterfuge away, hoping by his very audacity to impose upon the people under the cover of statesmanship—the grossest repudiation probably ever attempted in the history of responsible Government. The coming session carries its history as yet in the dark. It may be that, calculating on a defeat, and feeling it useless to attempt to patch the rotten joints, the Premier has put out a straight Centralists policy, which he would have excuse for reverting to when in his turn and tbe chapter of chances he succeeds in displacing his immediate successors. Should the Assembly ratify the Wanganui proposals there is not the slightest reason to believe that Otago or Auckland will recognise the act. The upshot of such a ratification would be separation of a worse nature than has been as yet shadowed out. Otago's settlers have chosen the Province because of her resources. Having so chosen, they will not consent to be robbed of the reward of their judgment, simply to add power to a Ministry, or to build up a Utopia, in which community of interest and responsibility are to be proved strong enough to over come tbe ordinary weaknesses of human nature.

Me. Michaelßbookes, of jSaseby, has with great spirit applied to the "Warden for leave to construct a tail race from his claim at the foot of Roach's Gully to the terminating point of the Sludge Channel,one-and-a-quarter mile in length, fifteen feet in the greatest depth, and sixty-six feet in the greatest width. Whether the Warden will see fit to grant the application on the day of hearing, April 7, will of course depend upon the nature and form of objections lodged and known to himself, and the conditions which could be framed to meet them. The application is of value, as proving what we have so long preached in vain, that the speedy extension of the Sludge Channel, when once an outfall is secured, is of much less importance than the completion of the Head Race. Given a terminating point for the Channel, private enterprise announces that it will reach it. On an uncompleted Government Head Race private enterprise can do nothing. If claimholders like, we do not see why a dozen tail races should not be granted to the Channel of sufficient width to afford a jhance of partial remuneration dnring their construction. Probably the best way to work out the upper portion of the flat, as one monopoly exists in it,'may be found to be by tail race claims. A tail race, however, need not necessarily mean a monopoly.

Db. Whitton's letter in another column should attract attention. His strictures upon the sanitary condition of Naseby are amply merited. Typhoid fever has now shown itself at St. Bathans and Palmerston. It can hardly be expected that Naseby will escape. Now while publio attention is first directed to the personal danger is the time for the local Board of Health to step in, and to take measures to save human life. All closets, as the doctor points out should be seen to, and earth closets enforced. There would be no hardship or difficulty in this. A little difficulty at the outset of the new plan would be experienced, but a few sharp prosecutions by the Inspector of Nuisances would put a stop to mere carelessness. It will be seen in our Municipal report that the Council have supported their officer in the matter of the pigstyes, and have refused to allow any to be kept in the heart of the town. Measures must not stop at pigstyes, Some pigstyes can be, and are, kept perfectly clean. Many a backyard in Naseby is filthier, though perhaps not quite so apparent, than some pigstyes. Experience has shown that typhoid fever, once rooted in a small town, is not got rid of without its roll of victims. Preventative measures, when taken in time, are gocd, when taken too late, they but too often mock us by their very fruitlessness. Our friend the Inspector, has been taking vigorous measures since our last issue.

Yeby little has been said of late about free selection as a mode of settling people on. the land. It is evidently the direction in which the Government mean to move. In this paper we have repeatedly pointed out the tendency to frame a Colonial land law upon the Canterbury basis shewn by Mr. Bowen, Mr. Richardson, and Mr. Stafford. This is the way the Premier put it—" The " Government are sensible, whilst they " desire not unduly to interfere with " local administration of the land, that ® o ™ e thing must be done to increase the " facilities for obtaining land for settle-' " ment. There are a great many young " men throughout the Colony who must " be enabled to possess themselves of land upon which to settle if they so desire, " and the Government have the belief that less is to be dono in that way by any ar- " tificial system of special settlement than " by offering ficilities to all who desire to " obtain land and to settle upon it." The only "indication" of the Government's intention to be gathered from this passage is clearly free selection, unlimited and open to all. Coupling this with the atrong Ministerial protest against a land tax, little room is left to hope that Otago can gain anything by the proposed change.