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New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1875.

The Southern newspapers continue to discuss the question of constitutional amendment. The tone of the articles, with a solitary exception or so, is favorable to the abolition of Provincial Government. We see few journals of any influence in the colony which stick to the abolition resolutions of last session, except one or two in Otago. Indeed, the Guardian appears to be the leader of the partial abolitionists, the arguments used being based on the narrowest provincial considerations. The people, however, are by no means ■ of the same way of thinking, and, were Otago polled on the ' question to-morrow, we venture to predict that a large majority vote would be cast in favor of total abolition. We have little doubt, therefore, that the Guardian will come round to the current of popular feeling, and advocate for the Middle Island the adoption of that simpler and more economic form of government which it insists on conferring upon the North Island. Indeed, to advocate any other line of policy would be extremely inconsistent. What is good for the North cannot be bad for the South ; and if the abolition of Provincial Government in this part of the colony is desirable and expedient, it cannot be the reverse in the South, where, but for the territorial revenue, provincial institutions would present as attenuated a shape as they do in the North. In this Island, there is no patrimony to alienate. The timber has long since been made away with, and the broad acres have been sold ; but the Southern provinces have a residue of their patrimony, and while it lasts they appear determined to keep up expensive and useless establishments. It is not, however, in the public interest that the Crown lands should be wasted ; and it is a fatal mistake in finance to treat the land fund as “ revenue.” Only a very small proportion of it is revenue. The rents and license fees paid by pastoral tenants and others come under the head of revenue; but the money realised by the sale of the public estate is capital, and should be treated as such. However, our fiscal system is faulty in this respect; and wo are surprised that our well-informed contemporary, the Canterbury Press, when writing on this branch of the subject, overlooks this point. The scramble in the General Assembly for the Consolidated Revenue is bad enough; but it is forced upon the impecunious provinces by the unequal distribution of the territorial revenue. These had nothing to fall back upon, and were compelled to extort as much as possible from the Colonial Government to keep up their establishments, whilst those provinces which possessed a land fund, inaspirit ofgenerous rivalry with their less fortunate neighbors, pressed their own claims for consideration with as much, if not greater, pertinacity. Thus it happened, that the provincial system led at once to log-rolling and extravagance. Thrift and economy were impossible under such circumstances. Waste and improvidence characterised the administration of every public body in the country, so thoroughly had the vicious system to which we refer demoralised the country. Every one looked to Government to do everything and provide everything, in the firm and settled belief that the Government possessed some hidden and inexhaustible treasure on which they could draw at pleasure. Such a state of things, however, could not last. It has come to an end in the North, where the land fund has failed ; and it will as certainly come to an end in the South, when the public estate has been dissipated by provincial magnates, I

It has been argued by those who are in favor of the Provincial system, that by abolishing it the log-rolling evil will be .magnified ; —that instead of having num provincial sections to deal with, the C.overnment will be called upon to propitiate the more numerous highway districts. There is some degree of truth in this, and the Victorian Government has recently been compelled to submit to the demands of the local bodies, and continue the State aid ; but with all that, we think the evil will be lessened in New Zealand if the provinces are abolished. There could not be the same inducements to combine as presently exist; and it will become possible for a Minister to set about the work of retrenchment in an earnest spirit, with some hope of success, which he could not now venture to expect. Writing on subject, the Press has the following pertinent remarks :

But what we mainly look to is the purification of the Assembly by the removal of fcho source of tne noxious influence. Provincialism is the origin of tne evil, and while it exists the case is hopeless. Palliative measures, or such as deal with the symptoms only, are of no avail: the one certain remedy is to go to the root of the mischief. That excised, a cure at last becomes possible. The present system forbids any hope of improvement. Not only is it fatal to good government by its direct influence within the Legislature, but the sectional feeling it engenders throughout the country is incompatible with the growth of public opinion on which good government rests. There is no place where the people are, politically speaking, so apathetic as in New Zealand. Things are done here without remark which would not be tolerated elsewhere. 'With rare exceptions, the people seem never to bestow thought on politics—numbers of them will not be at the trouble of putting their names on the electoral roll. They let their representatives go up to Wellington without knowing what they mean to do there, and let them return without caring to hear what they have done. They talk of the General Government and General Assembly, not as institutions intimately connected with themselves, dependent for the powers they exercise, and even for their very existence, on the popular will; but as though they were foreign unintelligible bodies, imposed by some mysterious external authority, hanging over them like the floating island over Laputa.or, as according to Kinglake, the Turks regard the Franks—as an inevitable, uncomfortable dispensation of Providence, the object of which will be revealed hereafter. They do not realise the intimacy of their relations with the Assembly, or its immense importance, for good or ill, upon the public welfare. There is, in short, an almost total absence of national feeling. This is the radical vice of provincialism. It is on this ground chiefly that we advocate, and have always advocated, the abolition of the provinces. A policy of unity and nationality is not to be created in a day ; but by .abolishing the provincial system we shall sweep away the one otherwise insuperable obstacle, and make the task at least practicable. This is the first indispensable step. The first condition necessary for the establishment of a wholesome state of affairs in NewZealaud is the bringing of an active, intelligent public opinion to bear upon the administration. And that can never be done so long as there is any body, or political organisation, which stands between the Parliament of the country and the people.

Permanent link to this item
Hononga pūmau ki tēnei tūemi

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NZTIM18750318.2.7

Bibliographic details
Ngā taipitopito pukapuka

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4366, 18 March 1875, Page 2

Word count
Tapeke kupu
1,187

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1875. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4366, 18 March 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. THURSDAY, MARCH 18, 1875. New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4366, 18 March 1875, Page 2

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