The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, OCT. 12, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 782, 12 October 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, OCT. 12, 1853.

Be just and fear not: Let all the ends thou aim’st at, be thy Country’s, Thy God’s, and Truth’s.

The despatches from the Governor to the Superintendent transferred to our last number from the Auckland Provincial Government Gazette merit fuller notice than time permitted us to offer on Saturday. Taken in connexion with the Despatches which appeared in the previous number of the Gazette (Sept. 6) they must satisfy the minds of all reasonable men that Sir George Grey is disposed faithfully to carry into operation those liberal principles, his advocacy of which in his communications with the Home Government confessedly laid a foundation for the extension of the power of Self-Government to the people which forms the characteristic feature of the Constitution Act. In his elaborate and comprehensive Despatch of August 30th, 4851, which is known to have been taken as the basis of the Imperial measure, His Excellency said of the proposed Provincial Councils, “They secure, in the only

manner which I believe to be practicable in New Zealand, real local self-government | throughout every part of those Islands ;” , and again, “ The constitution of such legis- j lalive bodies, which possessed such cxlensive powers of local legislation, would, for at least several years to come, render the frequent assembling of the General Legislature entirely unnecessary,” We find 1! is Ex-1 cellency, true to the views thus expressed, i exercising the large discretionary power entrusted to him with regard to the introduction of the Now Constitution in the manner best calculated to give the people of the several Provinces an efficient management of their own concerns, independent, in the first instance at least, of the over-riding control of the General Assembly,—a Body in which there necessarily must be a variety of views, and probably may be conflicting interests, as to the relative claims and wants of the particular Provinces, and in which the Province of Auckland —in itself equal in financial importance to nearly the whole of the other Provinces' taken together-may obviously be out voted by the Southern Representatives even on questions directly affecting the appropriation of money raised within the limits of Auckland itself. While we disclaim all intention or wish to foster prejudices or perpetuate jealousies between the North and the South, we hold it as a self-evident truth that the representatives of the Province of Auckland must be belter acquainted with and more competent to care for its concerns than the representatives of Provinces at a great distance can possibly be : and we further hold it as a fair corollary of this conclusion that—consideringthe vastly larger amount of revenue raised within this Province—it is only just that the appropriation of its Funds should, as far as possible, be vested in its own representatives. We may here again quote from Sir George Grey’s Despatch already referred to;—“I think it must be clear that between colonies so constituted, little of what may be termed community of interest can be said to exist. There is no general capital or marl to which all merchants or persons having extensive business at all limes resort. There is no one central town for all the Islands in which the courts of law hold their sittings. Individuals who inhabit one colony, rarely have property or agents in another. Personal acquaintance or intercourse between the inhabitants of the various settlements can be scarcely said to exist.” The inference which His Excellency draws from these and analogous facts is, —“I think, therefore, it may be assumed that a General Legislature which should be required frequently to assemble, should form no part of any plan of institutions to be conferred upon such a group of colonics.” The facts as staled by His Excellency arc undeniable, and are constantly brought into prominence by the ardent advocates of Provincial Separation when that is the question under consideration. That any such persons—taking a broad view of the existing political, financial, commercial and social condition oflhe country —should desire todeprivc this Province of the large measure of self-government which Sir George Grey’s present arrangements are designed to confer upon it, is a problem which baffles solution, unless we suppose them to be actuated by private and personal —ai.u therefore, in such a case, most unworthy—motives, or set them down as very superficial thinkers, incapable of forming for themselves or of appreciating in others, a consistent policy. Shallowness of political understanding and hollowness of political principle are quite compatible however; their co-existence in the same individual is by no means a rare phenomenon.

Oni* readers will remember that we have from the commencement expressed an anxiety that the Provincial Council should be convened sufficiently long before the meeting of the General Assembly to admit of an uncontrolled decision on many of those mailers of local importance which arepressingly urgent, and which they must of necessity be best qualified to deal with intelligently and beneficially. The only undetermined circumstance on which this desire was at all contingent was whether the Governor would see fit—in the exercise of that power which, until the meeting of the General Assembly, is vested in him—to place a large proportion of the Revenues at the disposal of the Provincial Representatives. We confess indeed, we bad no serious misgivings on ibis point. We never apprehended that His Excellency would be deterred by any fear of abuse from Mr. Gibbon Wakefield and his disciples and sympathisers from taking ibis step, any more than he had been deterred from anticipating action on the part of the General Assembly by issuing the Cheap Land Regulations of the 4lh of March, the benefits of which have already been so extensively realized, especially in this Province, All doubt on the subject has been set at rest, however, by the Despatches to the Superintendent which His Honor has recently caused to be published. As respects the General Revenue, the Council which is to meet on Tuesday next will have the appropriation of two thirds of the total amount after the costs of Collection have been defrayedor, to put the matter in a more striking yet a perfectly correct point of view, they will have the disposal of the whole of the Net Revenue of the Province remaining after the deductions required either by the Act of Parliament or by existing Ordinances of the Colonial Legislature,—-that is, they will have absolutely all that it is in the power of the Governor to make over to them. That such is His Excellency’s intention, is placed beyond question by the further arrangement that if, at the end of each Quarter, the prosperity of the Revenue should have produced a surplus above the amount required for the stipulated expenses of the General Government, and the two-thirds previously paid to the Provincial Treasurer, that surplus shall also be paid over to the account of the Provincial Council. Then, as respects the Land Fund, a similar liberality is to be exercised. One fourth of the gross proceeds must indeed be laid aside for the present , to meet the claim of the New Zealand Company,— (although if there bo power in the strength of a righteous cause wielded by a resolute and united community, no pound or penny of the Auckland Revenue will ultimately go into the coffers of that unprincipled Association) ; and there niustbe deductions for the costs of the Land Department, Surveys, &c., and for the indispensable and gically desiderated purchase of land from the Natives. Rut, after these deductions, the remainder is to be divided into two equal parts,—both of which may be said to be *u the dis-

)Osul of the Provincial Council, one moiety j li redly and unconditionally ; the other virtually, for although its appropriation is •eslricted to Emigration purposes on the ■dan laid down in the Proclamation of the ith of March, yet the Council are invited to propose to the Governor any improvement they may deem practicable in that plan, with the assurance that His Excellency will j be prepared to consider such representations. The plan is indeed so much in accordance with the circumstances of our community, and so well adapted to bring out immigrants of a most desirable description, that it may be doubled whether any belter scheme is likely to be devised by the Council; but this does not in any way diminish the grace of the concession which is thus made to their judgment and experience. The promptitude with which the payments are to be made to the Provincial Treasury should not be over-looked. The Collector of Customs is to make his payments weekly, and the payments from the Land Fund are to be made monthly, so that there need be no standing still for want of funds to begin with. Although there are certain reserved subjects on which the Provincial Council may not legislate, yet, as we have frequently had occasion to remark, these subjects (with one or two exceptions) are not of any immediate urgency; and the proper sphere of the Councils jurisdiction—to which we earnestly hope for their own credit and the welfare of the public they will have sound sense enough to confine themselves —really includes the vast proportion of the matters necessary for local advancement and “the peace, order, and good-government of the Province.” Invested with ample authority for their legitimate objects, and with large financial resources for at least the commencement of their operations, we must lake leave to add that if they do not forthwith address themselves to undertakings of practical utility, they will be left wholly without excuse.

At all events, so far as Sir George Grey is concerned, it must be evident to every impartial mind that he has proved himself not only willing but desirous, in the introduction of the Constitution Act, to give the people of this Province the control over their own affairs for which they have long been asking, and to place the Province in such a position that—if our local selfgovernment be interfered with, it must he by the over-riding power of the Southern majority in the General Assembly.