New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1871. THE WEEK.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 36, 30 September 1871, Page 10

New Zealand Mail. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 30, 1871. THE WEEK.

Procrustes has returned to this nether world, and has taken up his abode in the House of Eepresentatives ; so let men and districts beware whose stature exceeds or falls short of the legal standard. Everything and everybody must be all of one uniform cut and pattern. The bed of Procrustes was not altogether "a bed of roses." Garments all of one color, size, and shape may be met with at a Quaker meeting house, or at military parade, but nowhere else. And know, ye legislative clothiers and general outfitters for the New Zealand public, that size three will not fit the man requiring size seven. Tailors know this, but legislators are wholly oblivious of the fact. If it is necessary for Ministers to cut their coats according to the quantity of their cloth, it is not less necessary that legislators should adapt the garment in some measure to the Bize and circumstances of the person who is to wear it. Let them think of this, and they will talk less in future of uniform laws, and comprehensive measures, and enquire chiefly whether they are seasonable and suitable.

We have a leader in our present issue on institutions in general and provincial institutions in particular. Since it was written we have waded through, not without difficulty, and in a very unsatisfactory state of mind, the wide and muddy debate on Highway Boards, as reported in " Hansard"; and we were not long before we made the discovery that not only were provincial institutions doomed, but that their bosom friends were the most anxious to get rid of them. When a Csesar is to be stabbed, there will always be found a Brutus te execute the deed. Direct taxation is as inevitable as death ; and it will not be averted by the destruction of provincial institutions. Neither will general uniformity be secured by such mean?, or by any other. It is the nicely blending of diverse sounds which produces the sweetest harmony j and it is by the nice adjustment of diverse interest that unity is best secured. It is no more necessary that all local boards should be constructed on one pattern, than that a brassband should be confined so the use of one instrument. The great fault found with the Highway Boards Bill is in our opinion its chief merit.

There is a bill before the Legislative Council, which has already passed the Lower House, intituled " An Act to amend the Waste Land Begulations of the province of Wellington." The preamble states that whereas it is provided by the Highways Act that the Superintent shall pay out of the revenues of the province certain sums of money on account of rates in respect of waste lands of the Crown, and whereas persons purchasing sueh lands will derive great benefit from such expenditure, it is only just that they should pay an increased price for such waste land in consideration thereof. Hence power is given to the Superintendent to increase its price to the ex« tent of 2d in the pound for every year in which any rate oa account of whereof has been paid.

In other words, the money paid out of the Provincial Treasury in the shape of rates on Crown lands, is to be recouped by those who purchase them. This is a wise and just provision, and we trust that it will receive the sanction of the Legislative Council.

There is a " Native Land Court Act" now under discussion in the Legislature, containing provisions which, however wise and expedient they may be, are in open violation of the Constitution Act, and the spirit of the Financial Compact of 1856, to which we direct the particular attention of Southern as well as of Northern members. The Native Lands Act itself was a violation of that compact, but now the whole revenue derived under its operation ia to be paid into the Colonial Treasury ; and ifc is at the same time enacted that no native land shall be subject to or affected by any Provincial Legislature ; nor shall any hereditamants granted under this act be subject to or affected by any laws as long as natives alone are beneficially interested therein. If the North Island provinces are to be deprived of their legitimate revenues, and their provincial legislatures are to be deprived of all powers, the question arises whether the whole of the land revenues of the colony should not be subject, as provided in the Constitution Act, to the appropriation of the General Assembly. In any case, the effect of the provision above referred to, will be to prevent any rates being imposed for road making purposes, or any money being recovered for the erection of boundary fences, by provincial legislation upon us from native owners. Though frequent reference has been made in the House to the large sum of money proposed to be granted out of the loan to Eoad Boards, not a single member appears to be aware of the manifest injustice of saddling posterity with the cost of repairing district highways, from which they can receive but little appreciable benefit. The construction of district roads and bridges is altogether another matter, to the cost of which posterity should be made to contribute. Again, if, as in Victoria, the land fund was Colonial Eevenue, or if, as in England, there was a land and property tax, it would be quite right and proper to make grants out of general revenue to district boards ; but we require to know how such grants can be justified when made out of revenue derived from impost duties, or out of loans contracted for permanent and reproductive undertakings. As a temporary measure it may be defended; but we should be sorry to see such a policy continued after the Eoad Boards had been well established. There are other ways of creating a nation of paupers, or of creating and fostering a pauper spirit, besides enacting a poor law. Self-help is not lees a virtue in road boards than in individuals, and its cultivation not prove less beneficial. The proposal to make grants either out of loans or Customs revenue for repairing roads is indefensible, and we trust that after the present year it will not be continued.