OPENING OF THE OTAGO PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4411, 10 May 1875, Page 3

OPENING OF THE OTAGO PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

[FROM OUB SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Dunedin, Monday.

There was not a very large attendance of members of the Provincial Council to-day. The Superintendent delivered a long speech, which concluded as follows :

Gentlemen, in conclusion, there is one subject which so vitally concerns the future welfare of this province to which if I, as an integral of these Legislatures, did not on the present occasion advert, I should fail in my duty to the people, with whose intei’ests I am specially charged. I refer to the contemplated constitutional changes. It is proposed, as you are aware,-forthwith to abolish the North Island provinces, on the plea that they cannot longer perform the functions assigned to them by the Constitution Act—that is to say, that they are unable, without the aid of the colony, to provide for the maintenance of peace, order, and good government within theirhorders. Gentlemen, if this be so, which I deny, the cause is not far to seek. The present condition of the provinces might be very aptly illustrated by comparing them to a man who has been bound hand and foot by one stronger than himself, and then told that because he cannot walk he is a cumberer of the ground. Of one thing I am certain, and that is that there can be no partial abolition ; that so long as New Zealand is one colony the provinces, both North and South, must stand or fall together, unless in so far as they may mutually agree to a voluntary fusion, as in the case of Otago and Southland. It is useless to disguise from ourselves the fact that abolition of the provinces implies that the whole revenue of the colony is to be appropriated by the Colonial Legislature, and that Canterbury and Otago, which now contribute the lion’s share of the Consolidated Revenue, are to be called upon to supply still more. It implies that the resources which will be derived from our railways, the whole of which are being constructed at the cost of the province, shall become colonial revenue, to be appropriated by the General Assembly. It will not be long before this item figures very largely in the annual balance-sheet. It implies, moreover, that the administration of the waste lands and the settlement of the country will be under the control of a power much less directly responsible to and under the eye of the people than at present. Although, no doubt, this might suit the interests of some, it is doubtful whether in this province, at least, it would he conducive to the public interest. In the course of two or three years, the existing leases of extensive areas of country now held as grazing runs will begin to terminate. If properly dealt with, these runs avail yield a considerable permanent revenue, which will be increasing annually for the next ten years, and which will go far to wards keeping down local taxation. They "will also carry a large agricultural and pastoral population. It therefore becomes us to guard most watchfully against an organic change in the Constitution, which I am persuaded will prove to be as the letting in of water as respects the future disposition of the provincial estates. No doubt we are told, and that sincerely, that the compact of 1856 is to become as the laws of the Medes and Persians. I confess, however, that I have no such faith in A Legislature composed of such conflicting elements as that of New Zealand. I regard it as the sheerest infatuation on the part of the people in Otago to countenance a constitutional change, the advantages of which (granting that there are any) will be as the small dust in the balance compared with the certain loss which cannot fail to ’ result. The same remark will apply in a somewhat less degree, perhaps, to our neighbors of Canterbury. Why should the people of Otago submit to their resources being still further swallowed up in the Maelstrom of colonial finance ? Why should they quietly take it for granted that they must needs be the victims of the inevitable when, if they would only pull together, and rise superior to local jealousies, they have the destinies of the province in their own hands ? It is humiliating to reflect that while this province has been materially the backbone of the colony, contributing, as it does, about one third of the Consolidated Revenue, it has been politically a rope of sand, allowing itself to be kept in leading strings by a political system which has little’ knowledge of, and less sympathy with, its interests and requirements—a political system, the relationship - with which has been to repress the progress of the province and to swallow up its resources. Gentlemen, there can he no doubt that a radical change is required in the political framework of the colony as it now exists; and if this change would only take the right direction happy would it he for all concerned. It was a disastrous day for New Zealand when the policy which dictated the New Provinces Act, 1858, presided over its destinies ; and I am persuaded even now, difficult although it may appear to be that the wisest thing that could be done would be to fall back upon the Constitution Act, allow the respective provinces to rely upon themselves, limit the Central Government to purely federal action, let each province have the uncontrolled disposal of its public revenue from whatever source derived, contributing its hare pro. rata towards the maintenance of the central power, and towards the payment of the debt for which the colony as a whole is now liable. Were this policy adopted, the provinces in each island would gradually and spontaneously merge into each other, and the apparently irreconcilable idea of a great and united colony, and at the same time practical financial separation between the two islands, 1 would be realised. We should, moreover, be relieved to a large extent of that enormous departmental expenditure which is yearly assuming more and more gigantic proportions, and swallowing up resources which might bo more beneficially applied;—expenditure which, in a great measure, is at present practically beyond the control of the representatives of the people. It may be said that these views are now impracticable, and that it is too late to entertain them. I venture to think, however, that nothing is either too late ori impracticable if the people will it.. It should not be lost sight of that most of the absolutely necessary and primary functions of Government are now being carried on by the provinces. Surely it is only reasonable that, before committing political suicide and relinquishing the powers which they now possess, by means of the existing provincial organisations, the people of the colony should know into whose hands these functions are to be hereafter entrusted. If they are to devolve upon the Central Government, all experience goes to prove that they will neither be better nor more economically performed than at present. If they are to be entrusted to Road Boards, not only will the cost of administration be enormously increased, but it will end in confusion Worse confounded. You may depend upon it, that the real question with which the colony ought to grapple is not the abolition of provinces, but the question of finance a more equable appropriation of the public revenues among those by whom it is contributed, and the reduction of the cost of administration without impairing its efficiency. I am well assured that under the peculiar circumstances of New Zealand, colonial administration will give us neither. The great problem which wo, in the South, have to solve, is how best to hold our own, which we certainly shall not do by renouncing the local self-government which we now possess. From first to last, the Central Government has abstracted from Otago alone two millions of money, not one farthing of which has over been expended within the province, and it is because the abolition of the provinces of tho North Island must, in my opinion, stereotype the continuance of, and render worse, this state of things, that I express myself so strongly upon tho • subject. No doubt I shall be jibed with the

“Great is 'Diana of the Ephesians" argument by those who cannot conceive it possible for men to be prompted by principles of political action different from their own. , I can- assure you, however, that were this the last day of my official existence, the opinions now expressed are those which would be honestly held by me. Gentlemen, hoping that your deliberations will conduce towards the best interests of the province, I now declare this Council open for the despatch of business. '