The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1875.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 192, 3 August 1875, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 3, 1875.

To attempt to criticise at a day or two's notice such a Bill aa that by which it is proposed to sweep provincial institutions from off the face of the colony* and to the framing of which many weeks and months of patient study must have been deyoted, is a serious undertaking, and one that renders those who enter upon it liable to many errors and to blundering into pitfalls which, had a longer time been allowed to them for consideration, might have been avoided. Nevertheless it is the duty of the press to comment upon measures of such grave importance, not only carefully but speedily. Before commencing our task we would invite all those who take an interest in such matters to assist not only us but $ose who represent the electors iq the Parliament of the colonjr by an expression of their opinions in our correspondence columns. If the people will take this question up, not lightly, but with a view to making th& best of the change in our constitution that is inevitably impending, they may suggest many ideas which have not yet occurred to those to wh^m they have entrusted the management of their affairs. We shall certainly "regard it as a healthy sign: if our correspondence columns teem with letters upon this all-important subject for the next two of three weeks, and the more diversified the opinions therein expressed, the greater will be the probability of some satisfactory conclusion being arrived at. It is scarcely necessary for us to assert that with the principle of the " Abolition of Provinces Bill " we entirely agree, but at the same time we must admit that there are many ot its details which appear to us to require revision and alteration. There is no need to look far for occasion for fault finding. The 4th section contains what to our thinking is a moat objectionable provision, since it opens the door to very graveabuses. Briefly summarised, it reads as follows : — Within ninety days after the passing of the Act, the Governor shall proclaim that each and every of the provinces is to be abolished, the proclamation to fix a day upon which the abolition in each instance is to take effect No limit -whatever is to be placed upon the frovernor's discretion — or, to put it more plainly, the Ministry's inclination— in this respect. The proclamation is to be made within ninety days ; tlje abolition which it proclaims need not take place within ninety years. Here there is at once placed in the hands of the representatives of the most influential provinces a political lever even more powerful than that which they have hitherto possessed, and have not been slow to use. We can easily imagine Mr Macandrew, for instance, endeavoring to strike a bargain with the. Ministry gsmething in this fashion :-**" You give us fifteen years longer life, and we will give you fifteen votes." And, as easily, can we conceive that the present, or any, Government would, under the circumstances, be disposed, if not to accept the offer as made, at least Contemporise with those from whom it emanated. Such a state of things, it will be generally allowed, would be most undesirable, and there» fore we would prefer to see this section absolutely providing that on some specified date to be fixed by the Assembly, not by the Executive, the whole of the provinces should be abolished. We now come to the a vexed question of the appropriation of the land funds, which are to be charged as follows: — (1) With the payment of the interest j and sinking fund on all liabilities existing at the^ time of abolition against the province, in which, under the new name of " Provincial district " they shall be raised. (2) With the cost of surveys ! and administration of the waste lands in the same districts. (3) With the anuual payment to the several road boards in the district of one pound for every pound raised by the governing body up to one shilling m the pound of the value to let. If, after these deductions have been made, there should be a balance remaining, it is to be appropriated by the GeneraPAsseaibly for the promotion of public wofks^jind immigration within the provincial district wjierein the revenue is raised. This would be all very well if each province or provincial district could calculate ' upon something like an equal amount of land revenue, but then we are met with '• a poaer." If, it is provided, it it should happen that in any case the land revenue of any provincial district for any one year should be insufficient to meet the charges for interest and sinking fund ; for surveys and administration of its waste lands ; and for the annual payment of pound, for pound raised by the various goveitoing bodies within its limits, the OoSnial Treasurer is to borrow under the "Treasury Bills Eegulation Act, 1868," sufficient to make up the deficiency, such l»an 1 Ac, to be charged upon the future land revenue o£ the district. Very nice this for those for whose benefit the money is borrowed, but what about the actual borrowers — that is the General Government— and the lenders? The latter may certainly fall back upon the Colonial Government, but where is the Government to raise the necessary funds to meet the liabilities' it incurs in this respect? Suppose that a "provincial district" does not possess sufficient available waste lands, upon the sale of which it can depend for the sum requisite to meet the liabilities imposed upon it in the shape of interest, sinking {

fund, coat of surveys, and general administration of waste lands. To make up the deficiency the Treasurer is to borrow; but how long is this to go on? Tear after year the debt is ruuning on at compound interest, while year after year its revenue remains stationary, and all this time the pound for pound raised by its road boards is withheld, thus crippling its power to extend colonisation. And so, while other provincial districts are flourishing, and, in addition to the first charges upon their land revenue, are able to pour in immigrants, and to prosecute public works with vigor, those portions of the colony lesa favored by nature are to be not only starving, but actually incurring a rapidly increasing debt, the payment of the interest and sinking fund upon which is annually growing beyond all hope of redemption. Some day these arrears must be met, if not by the provincial districts immediately intereoted, by the colony at lar^e. The question then naturally arises: — If we are to be an united colony, why not secure an average and contemporaneous amount of prosperity throughout the whole country, ratfier than have wealth and poverty, luxury and starvation alternated, without any more cogent reason for the- distinction than that a river, or a range of mountains divides those who are enjoying the one from the settlers who are suffering from and groaning under the other. If the larger provinces are strong enough to retain their land fund, then they should receive less out; of the consolidated revenue, thus leaving more at the disposal of the Government for the poorer districts. There are other details in the Bill to which we shall refer on future occasions, but this land question is clearly the main difficulty with which the Parliament has to grapple. In ita present shape the Bill cannot possibly prove workable. Whether in Committee it can be rendered more suitable to the requirements of the colony remains to be seen. That the task will be by no means an easy one is beyond all question, for local prejudices and selfish considerations in those who happen to reside in those provinces which are yielding a large land revenue must first be overcome If, in dealing with the Government proposals, the \memberß of the Assembly will adopt as their motto—" The greatest good for the greatest number," there will be some chance of the difficulty being surmounted ; if not, we can look forward to nothing but confusion and failure.