New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4188, 22 August 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, AUGUST 22, 1874.

The hon. member for the Hutt has a speech prepared on the Provincial question. He missed the opportunity of delivering it, through over-anxiety to have the last word in the “flyting” on Thursday night; but as ho regards it as much too good to bo lost to the country he has been ingenious enough to invent an opportunity for having it recorded. On Monday he is to move the following resolutions 1. That this House, having resolved that (taking the circumstances ol the Colony into consideration) the Provincial form of government in the North Island should be abolished, tills House further declares its opinion that an organic change in the Constitution involving the establishment of a central bureaucratic authority for the administration of Provincial affairs in the Northern provinces, in substitution for the rights and powers conferred on the people of the Colony by the Imperial Parliament, ought not to be made without first testing the opinion of the people through their constituencies. 2. That in order to givo effect to tho foregoing resolution, a respectful address be presented to His Excellency praying him to dissolve tho present Parliament.

Wo cannot suppose that the hon. member for tho Hutt has the slightest conception that anything he may have to say—and which ho might have said if ho had been in his place in the House on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday last—will induce the extraordinary majority which Carried the resolutions of tho Government on the subject of tho abolition of Provincialism in the Northern Island to take another view of tho subject from that which it has done. There is not tho slightest necessity for the afterthought that has crept up in the mind of the Superintendent of Wellington. The resolutions proposed by the Government affirm tho desirability of a principle, it is true, but they do not propose that the ■contemplated great change should take place before the country shall haye an opportnnityof expressing an opinion upon it._, Tho Government have been instructed by tho House to consider the whole subject during tho approaching recess. They are asked to submit to Parliament, next session, their plan of governing.tho North Island without the assistance of Provincial institutions, and on that scheme the representatives of the constituencies will bo asked to decide. In the meantime there will be ample opportunity for discussing the subject. It is one with which

the country is perfectly familiar. Already, on the mere telegraphic announcement of the intentions of the Government, and on the summaries of speeches of the Premier, the other members of the Cabinet, and of hon. members, there have been numerous public meetings held throughout the Colony, both in Provinces that afe affected by the resolutions arrived at, and in others which are only interested as spectators and admirers. It is very remarkable that though in Auckland, when the first imperfectaocountsof the Premier’s scheme reached that city, there appears to have been an outburst of indignation and remonstrance, it has already subsided. Further information has reached the furthest outskirts of the Colony, and it has sufficed to change completely the current of public opinion. Prom Auckland itself we learn now that the public do not dissent from the groat constitutional change proposed, but are ready to agree to its adoption, desiring only that the measure the Ministry have in contemplation should not be confined to the North Island alone but should extend to all the Provinces, that one form of government may prevail in New Zealand. Testimony of the same kind has come from other quarters within the last few days. Similar expressions of opinion have been made both in the south and the west of the Middle Island. Some members of the House who elected to oppose the resolutions of the Government have found themselves in the singular position of being repudiated by their constituents almost before their voices were silent. On the West Coast the feeling appears to be unanimous that Provincialism should be abolished, not only in the Northern Provinces, but —as the people of Auckland think—all over the Colony. That, however, is not the question now before the country. The proposition of the hon. member for the Hutt" does not really advance in the smallest upon the resolutions to which the House has already assented. It has been decided by an absolute majority of members that Provincialism should cease in the North Island. It has also been decided that the Government shall be asked to propose a plan of government during the recess, to supersede that system. If the House should, next session, approve of that course, it will not be without the country having been consulted on the whole subject. Members, in the next session, will speak on this matter, not for themselves only, but for the country. In that case there will he no necessity to resort to the constituencies. If the plan of the Government should not be agreed to, there is no doubt that an appeal on the subject will then be made. Next session will be the last of the present Parliament. If the scheme of the Ministry has not previously been agreed to, it will then undoubtedly be the chief subject for submission to the decision of the electors. Every object, therefore, that can he served by the resolution of which notice has been given by the hon. member for the Hutt, excepting that of enabling him to air his eloquence under special circumstances on the whole subject, has been anticipated by the resolutions already agreed to. There is, in fact, nothing new in the notice of motion which was given yesterday. Mr. Fitzherbert merely desires to revive a discussion in whicli he was expected to take a prominent part, and did not do so, either from miscalculation, or from disappointment as to expected support, and an unwillingness to head a losing battle. It is questionable whether it is within order that the discussion -can be revived. Should that point he decidedin favor of the Superintendent of Wellington, it is possible he may be permitted to indulge in an afternoon of his peculiar eloquence on ihe subject, to the great weariness of the House, and the utter extinction of life in the galleries. It is beyond all possibility, however, that the decision to which the House has already come can be reversed, or that on the question of the abolition of Provincialism in the North Island the Superintendent of Wellington can “beat” the Premier of New Zealand.