New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, July 21, 1849.

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume V, Issue 414, 21 July 1849, Page 2

New Zealand Spectator, AND COOK'S STRAIT GUARDIAN. Saturday, July 21, 1849.

At ihe close of the session of the Legislative Council his Excellency the Lieutenant Governor laid on the table copies of two despatches from the Governoi -in- Chief to Earl Grey, explaining at some length his plan for the future Government of these Islands, and the gradual introduction of Representative Institutions. These despatches have just been published in the Government Gazette, from which we have reprinted the first of these, and intend reprinting the other in our next number. In the despatch now under consideration Sir G. Grey states the main features of the form of Government which he recommends to be introduced, which agree in substance with the explanations given by him to the Legislative Council in December last, in reply to their address on this subject. His Excellency then proceeds to explain the reasons which induce him to make these recommendations ; that from the peculiar manner in which New Zealand is colonized, from the number of separate settlements established in these Islands to be constituted into sepaiate Provinces, the great difficulties experienced in communicating with each other, and their distance from' the seat of Government, it was necessary that the Provincial Legislative Councils to be established in each Province should posses large powers local self government, while, by establishing a General Assembly .composed of Represen-

tetives from the different Provinces, the means would be provided for legislating on all subjects of general interest, and that, as the means of communication between the different settlements were rendered more perfect, and the European population in them increased, the powers of the General Assembly would be extended by the constantly increasing number of subjects for general legislation until at length the Provincial Councils gradually acquired the form of District Councils. And his Excellency shows that - the introduction of this form of Government would have the effect of practically testing its efficiency and of gradually preparing the way and adjusting the details of that Representative form of Government by which it would ultimately be replaced. This in substance is, with one exception, a summary of the recommendations contained in the despatch, but the exception is an important one. We allude to the recommendation that the sum of ten thousand pounds per annum should be reserved for the next few years for the Civil l Ast of each Province. The principal reason urged for this recommendation is the large amount of the native population in each Province, and their contribution to the revenue while they remain comparatively unrepresented. We should gather from this argument that his Excellency means this reservation to apply to the Provinces as at present constituted, that he would wish to reserve £10,000 for the Civil List of the Southern Province, which now includes what is intended to form three provinces. We cannot suppose he intends to reserve for Otago and the Province to be formed at Port Cooper an amount equal to that set apart for the Civil List of the Southern Province ; that in another year in short, the government of what now constitutes the Southern Province is to cost £30,000 a year. But even on the supposition that the proprosed reservation extends to the whole of the Southern Province as at present constituted, we should strongly object to this recommendation ; the present Civil List is already too high, and any attempt to increase the expense of the machinery of Government, when so much is required for the purposes of internal improvement, will only excite opposition and produce unnecessary irritation and discontenr.