THE COST OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 190, 13 October 1866, Page 3

THE COST OF PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT.

A return laid before the House of Representatives, furnishes us with some very useful information as to the cost of Provincial Government iu the colony of New Zealand, and it may perhaps afford us a. clue to the reason why this form of government is so popular with a certaiu class of persons. We have -so frequently stated our opinion that Prov. Government is a clumsy, and rotten system that we shall not go over that ground at present. What we should rather propose to ourselves to do is, to show that a large class of persous in the various provinces are something like the active vestry men of the London parishes. — They make a. very haudsome yearly subsistence by talking provincialism to the general public. Altogether there are 200,000 souls supposed ■to be in Nev/ Zealand. Taking ihe usual estimate out of this 200.000 there are 50,000 -adults, and taxpayers in the general sense. To govern these 200,000 persons there are •len separate aud independent governments. For our preseut purpose we must leave out the tenth or general government, and assume that it does not exist. So then we have nine separate^aud independent governments. These governments are iu the northern islaud four, ■employing 276 persons, at a cost of £.47,500 in round numbers. In the southern island •five, employing 282 persons, at a cost of .£77,200 in round numbers. Or giving the gross totals of 554 persons dividing among them £-125,000 of the taxation of the country. This, it will be remembered, is not strictly the cost of the provincial government, for we know that ifc costs somewhere about double the amount, leaving out of the question what it costs indirectly by the withdrawal from their legitimate pursuits of something like 1000 persons for mere official and legislative duties of no possible value to the public. The Province of Taranaki is a notable instance of how the public is hoodwinked and humbugged by this stupid aud rotten system of provincialism. A province not containing so many persons as Westward No. 4 of the city of Auckland employs no less than 22 individuals, afc a cost of £4772 annually to administer its affairs. The equally extensive province of Hawke's Bay employs 25 persons at a total annual cost of £5118, while Wellington, uuder thafc impersonation of provincialism, Dr. Featherston, caps the lot by employing 76 persons at a cost of £15.017 9s. annually. The province of Southland, having a population numbering about 2500, requires 31 persons, at an annual cost of £6460 to to keep its people in order. We need not multiply these instances of scandalous extravagance. To men who take the trouble of reflecting at all upon the matter, it must be evident that these officers and offices are uot required, or if they be required, then we do not require a General Government. But as wc have now disposed of- the petty maiversators of the public money, we will proceed to take the greater delinquents. Those who come nearest to each other are Auckland, Canterbury, and Otago. Auckland has one hundred and fifty-three persons engaged in her Provincial Government, who divide among them £22,602 14s. 9d.j Canterbury has seventj r -four at £21,833.; Otago one hundred and twenty-three at £38,538. Thus Auckland pays her officials an average of £141 2s. 7d. each yearly. Canterbury £295 os. 9-Ul., and Otago no less than £313 ss. 10|d. Who will not go in for provincialism after this ? Any man who gets put into a provincial office in the Northern Island is sure of a yearly average of £172 2s. 9|d. We prefer the Southern Island, however, where the average rises to £273 15s. l|d. The average on .the whole colony being £223 2s. s_jd. If here is not a strong argument in favor of provincialism Ave should like to find one. Nine governments and nine legislatures, — these legislatures passing in five years some two thousand five hundred laws, many of. those laws being different in each of the nine provinces. Never was there any legislation like this. It beats the patent egg-hatching machine, where they put in fresh laid eggs at one end, and .brings out trussed chickens, ready dressed for table at the other.: — Aucklaud Penny -Journal.

A singular instance of. " what may happen to a man in Victoria" has been related to us (the Gippslauder) by a gentleman who was an eyewitness at the meeting about to be described. "It appears that as late as ,1.861 an English couple, possessing to all appearance every requisite for happiness in this abiding place, lived in' comfortable quarters in one of the large diggings townships, not a hundred miles from Ballaarat ; and the man being possessed of several . good shares, he and his better. (?) half seemed very well satisfied with themselves and the world. On an evil day however a brother shareholder was iutroduced, and from that "time things went on but indifferently, until one fine evening, the lady and the friend left the house and the district together; and the unhappy Benedict, thinkiug that if she could leave him in that way, he was perhaps better without her, succeeded, at length, in consoling himself for her loss. The mines in which he was interested having been lately worked out, he decided to release his little, properties, and start for fresh fields and . pastures new, and hearing a great deal about the GippsLand gold fields, our friend determined to seek- the new Eldorado, and with that intention landed a few weeks back in Sale. Here he heard that, at some distance from town, he could buy a large hotel from a widow, at a ridiculously small sum. He started to view the investment, when, judge his surprise to find that the widow he was succeeding as proprietor was no other than his long-lost wife. The husband used recriminations, the wife tears, and it finally came to pass that she was forgiven for her faithlessuess, more especially as she had endured a long list of sufferings at the hands of her paramour, who had, a short time before, been removed by death. The hotel has not changed hands, but the husband has asserted his rights by placing his name over the door, and has dropped into his new situation very comfortably.