THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1876.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 391, 8 September 1876, Page 2

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 1876.

Sib Julius Vogel's announced retirement from public life will have very generally taken the country by surprise. ]n the House it received at once a practical protest at the hands of Mr. jßolleston the Superintendent of Canterbury, and Mr. Andrew, an eccentric but able supporter of the Government: The ground of objection these gentlemen took was that the contemplated desertion was inopportune, and the intention should have been announced to the House earlier in the session. The Government has been for so long a time in the hands of the retiring Ministry, and the present crisis has been brought about so entirely as a fruit of their individual ministerial policy, that the feeling is general that even private reasons are not sufficient vindication for leaving the ship of State to drift as it may. The Premier professed to be have been influenced by the fact urged upon him in England, and pressing upon him from actual experience during the present session, that, in duty to himself, he should relinquish public business. He finds that he is sliding into the position of a valetudinarian, while his family is growing up unprovided for. Of course he has been extravagant. Equally, of course, if he had been of another race, and had hailed from a cooler clime, he would have saved money out of his liberal allowances as Premier. But then he would not have been Vogel. Some of our public men have managed matters so well as to combine their care for their country with their care for themselves. Sir Julius Vogel has not been one of these, and has left office as poor a man as he was when he entered upon it. He tells us now that he finds the cares of public affairs utterly incompatible with the duty he owes—more especially on account of his declining health—to his family. His reputation for ability appears to be the only capital which hi 3 public life-in 'New Zealand has endowed him with. His .worst enemies

will not grudge "hi in that. And yet, anxious aa we are not to trample upon a fallen man, we cannot say that hehas been honest. His Government has been a Government in which honesty had no place, a Government which has existed by an unscrupulous expenditure of public money in order that -political support might be purchased. We hardly think that the vacant AgentGeneralship influenced the resignation ..of the .Government to the degree which, it has been said to have done. It might; be a desirable matter not to committhe Colony to a permanent appointment at the present time; and that. while a sudden step should not be' taken, preparations should be made by one experienced in our business for thaabolition of the office altogether, or at the least a.preparation for leaving it in the hands of an English agency similarly as the Otago business m Edinburgh is m the hands of a Scotch agency. If this view proves to be one favored by the Assembly, the action of the late Premier's colleague's in urging him to go Home can be understood. It now transpires that when he came out, before taking office again as Premier, he told his colhrgues he could not undertake to remain in the Colony for any time, and he looked' to them to relieve him of office at an early date. This being so it may have been considered more constitutional to resign while Parliament was in session than to slip away for the second time immediately after the prorogation. Although out of compliment to his colleagues, and perhaps as a matter of duty to their joint, supporters, the retiring Premier had to name Major Atkinson as his successor, yet he could .not suppose that any Government formedfromthedisorganised Ministerial side of the House would stand for theremaiuder of the session. Where, then, would be the permanency of any appointment that might be made ? A pure desire for the suppositious good things of the Agent-General's office could not have influenced the announced relinquishment of public life. The truth is Sir Julius is worked out. The House will scarcely listen to him. The country looks upon him as one who, being much trusted, has not reciprocated a blind confidence blindly bestowed. It is due at least from those who opposed him not to kick the dead lion by imputing to him so mean a motive as that the salary of the vacant office was counted upon ; that, for it,, he sacrificed reputation, and left theColony in a state of confusion. vVhatever virtues or faults he may have exhibited—and they have been many—financial forethought for the morrowhas not been among the number. His : Public Works Policy has belied its expectations, because of the weakness of' human nature and its love of being" bribed. (This last aptitude was not taken into account by the propounder of the Public Works Policy.) Our people have been corrupted by the cry of " money in the place." He himself has been foolishly extravagant, yet no one can say that for his own ends he has taken the opportunity of the occasion always open to him. Where he has failed, and he has failed, has been that he has not recognised that a political course based upon trick, upon surprise upon surprise, must, like a pillar of ice, melt away when exposed to the rays of the public conscience, awakened to the full contemplation of its own abasement. If he had only been honest he would have been truly great. As it is he leaves, moially and physically, a fvreck ; while New Zealand, which he would willingly have served, is in a state of danger arising from injured credit and internal disorder, which it will take or best and coolest heads to prevent culminating into actual disaster, until time, the solvent of all things, makes straight what is at present, decidedly crooked.

The Counties proposed by the Govern. ment are taking a more tangible shape than at one time seemed likely. It is hardly to be expected that the Bill will pass in such a shape as to be taken adivantage of by the people of *be- v Colony as a whole. A few isolated districts may, it is true, be tempted an experiment of playing at Local Government. The stem reality of facing an indignant community of ratepayers with an empty treasury will speedily extinguish the sentiment of Local Government from the breast of the greatest stickler for Centralism. The more consideration we give to the question the more firmly we are convinced that the Counties, as mapped out by the Government, will not work. They are either too large or small. They are toolarge for Counties, from all parts of which men.bers could be elected to meet in any one centre, and they are too small for modified Provincialism. If real Municipal Government, on the American system, is intended, the County of Clyde is unworkable. It is hardly possible to suppose a Couneilloi riding from Hamilton to Clyde, or trom Roxburgh to Naseby, once a month to attend a County Council. Small Counties, about the size of our electoral districts, could be worked by an honorary Council—being, indeed, nothing more than a Hoad Board. Large Counties, such as proposed by the Government, must be very expensive bodies; so expensive, indeed, as to be out of all proportion to the powers they are to be endowed with, or the usefulness that could accrue from them. The Counties of Otago, so far as we can see, will cost in administration treble that of our Provincial Government and Council, while they will have over £IOO,OOO a year less money for expenditure. If we are to submit to be stripped of our land fund to this extent, all the more is our need to insist upon economical administration. This can only be obtained by the smallest number of administrative bodii s. To dn ide the Province into Counties before it is settled is assuredly to sacrifice the unsettled country to the greed and selfishness of the settled The Centralism we hare suffered under, for causes we have often explained, will be recognised by law, and defined within certain boundaries. Any representative of the interior districts,

who willingly consents to a principle which placoa the lauds at the mercy of the coastal counties, is either extremely ignorant, or grossly treacherous. We cannot conceive that the surrounding Counties would spend their monies to keep up or improve tho main roads leading to districts inland from them. They would look upon the interior as a source of nourishment, by actual and direct mastication, not by careful development of in terior resources. Our own ease in this district is complicated, by tho bribe offered of the Water Works, Still we do think that the County Council would not do justice to tho ratepayers or to the works. Municipal bodies, unless of a high character, always fail in management of works requiring close and careful administration. A .Board of Works for tho Province, carefully guarding all parts of the country against the greeds and rivalvies of each other, could control all main ■roi'ds or brand) railways, while allowing the fullest development of Eoad Boards in settled districts. We hardly like to contemplate the amount of justice a County of Maniototo would get trom Shag Valley County below, taking in Strathtaieri and KyoLurn Hundred (the boundary advocated by Pahucrstonians), and on the other side from Wakatipu County, coming down to JUanuherikia. We should certainly have power to augment our own revenues by rating ourselves to our heart's content. If we are to have tho County system, whether we wish it or not, wo think there should be one large Central Goldflelds County, or else that the electoral districts, with very Blight modifications, should be Counties. A largo County might have ■ sufficient funds to undertake arterial works, Of one thing wo are sure, that the Counties as proposed by the Govern- •* ( ment could do nothing with the revenues at their disposal, whilo in the cases of Clyde and Wakatip, the population is too poor and 100 thinly scattered to stand tho amount of taxation that would be necessary to supplement their meagre revenues.