New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4216, 24 September 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1874.

When Mr. "Vogel addressed his Auckland constituents, immediately prior to his departure from the Colony for England, he spoke not so much as the representative of Auckland City East as the Premier of the Colony, and consequently, he did not allude so much to little and petty local politics as to those which concerned the whole of New Zealand. As he was able to explain, the most responsible member of any Ministry necessarily, occupies a somewhat invidious position towards his constituents. They cannot fail to perceive that he has the Colony to consider rather than any electoral district of it. Other members may devote their energies to the accomplishment of objects that are merely local in their character; but he must consider the common weal.before that of any fragment of it. Not that it follows he thereby forsakes a trust reposed in him, or forgets the interests of the electors who returned him to Parliament. Mr. Vogel was able to tell the meeting—and his statement cannot be confuted —that the welfare of the North Island, and of Auckland in particular, had been a source of constant consideration to Ministers. Here he was justified in slating that there are constituencies which prefer being represented by a leading Minister. Auckland, as n matter of fact, has benefited by being represented by the Premier. Its advancement: has been made a subject for the consideration of Dr. Pollen and the other members of the Cabinet. Had the Premier been content to forgot that

Auckland had special claims on him, he mi"hfc have saved himself and his colleagues much anxious thought and solicitude. The Middle Island, with a fat land revenue, settled, and free from Native complications, was much easier to deal with than the North. But, five years ago, Mr. Vogel was called to office, ho has-been in the Government —with the exception of one month —ever since, and he could ask with confidence the Auckland electors to contrast the state of things then with that which now prevails. Every day the land is being made available for settlement. Beads are being constructed in the recesses of the interior. There will bo a railroad from one end to the other, at no very distant period. And the very words which Mr. Vogel used, shortly before midnight, were .in print the following morning on the breakfast tables of Wellington. Surely this is a marked advance upon the position of affairs in 1869, and Mr. Vogel, having been in the Government since that time, had a right to recall such a great fact to the recollection of his constituents, and put it to them whether it would not warrant him in expecting a renewal of their confidence. The idea seems to have been possessed in Auckland, as elsewhere, that the General Government in proposing the abolition of Provincialism in the North Island, and in other measures, had some fell design on the land revenue of the Colony. This has been the case, although Jt ia a fact that,£7oo,ooo. were voted by Parliament for the purchase of a landed estate in the North Island. A Government proposing such a measure should scarcely be taunted with a desire to rob the Provinces of land, or to filch the revenues of Canterbury and Otago. Did the impression generally prevail, or were it other than a scandal raised by some outwitted marplots, the Cabinet could not have survived the attack that would have been made on it. The principle obtains in every Colony in Australia that the major proportion of a land revenue should bo locally expended ; and it cannot be reversed in New Zealand. If the matter bo viewed in this light, and we say it is the true and correct one, it will be seen that the population of the North Island -would not gain by the abolition of Provincialism in Otago and Canterbury. The land revenue of those provinces, be it much or little, should be expended on public works of a local character ; and the same in the North. By this course being adhered to the North will gain. The time is coming when the land hero will bring a far larger sum to the treasury than that in the South, so much of which has been alienated, can do. And, when we speak of a land revenue, we must be understood to do so in the very broadest sense the words can convey. Revenue derived from the invaluable forests of the North ought to bo locally expended, just as should money derived from the absolute sale of the freehold. The same remark applies to funds derived from the issue of licenses. The General Government admits this, so do the Provincial Governments, and also it is the belief of the community at large. The questions at issue are therefore, practically, but two. Are the Provincial Governments of the North giving the best possible returns for the money they expend ? And, if they are not, by what form of local Government should they be superseded ? Local Government of some character or other is indispensable. The Premier was able, by means of the silent eloquence of facts and figures that cannot be explained away, to prove to his audience that the time had arrived for the great change to take place he and every thoughtful politician had so long contemplated. When Parliament was committed to tho policy of constructing great public works through the entire length and breadth of the Colony, and settling an imported population all over its face, the opinion was expressed that if Provincialism should prove hostile to it, or obstructive to the General Government, it must give way. Even the policy of creating State forests where they do not exist, and preserving and improving them where they do, obtained the stern opposition of the Provincial authorities. In every way they could these authorities hampered the action of the General Government. In the North Island especially the great anomaly was presented of one Government having to find funds and being accountable to Parliament for the proper and economic disposition of these, and another totally irresponsible Government being intrusted with their expenditure. The General Government, whilst considering the course of action that would be best for the Colony, had to remember that there is a knot of Superintendents and their satellites in Parliament who might bo reasonably expected to vote solid on any question that remotely affected money the disposal of which they conceived they had a vested interest in. In the face of such facts, an honorable statesman, anxious to do bis duty towards the country, the government of which virtually rested with him, would naturally ask himself whether ho should propose a great constitutional change, even though it brought about a disruption of parties that had long worked harmoniously together. Mr. Yogel did this, and he asked his Auckland constituents to look at the matter as ha had been forced to, after which, ho thought they would come to much tho same conclusion he did. At anyrato there was a remarkable unanimity of opinion on the subject amongst independent members of Parliament. Tho Opposition consisted principally of Superintendents and members of their Executives who have a personal interest in tho maintenance of the institution: who, had they refrained from voting could have given substantial reason for their conduct; and to whose votes we must attach tho limited weight only possible under tho circumstances.