NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4411, 10 May 1875, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

SUMMARY FOR THE MONTH. APRIL-MAY, 1875.

For transmission by the on the nth, anil the A.S.N. Co.s steamer City of Melbourne on the Ihth May, from Auckland, via San Francieco:i.‘ Monday, May 10.

His Excellency the Governor, accompanied by the Marchioness of Normanby, is now on a visit to the Middle Island. He left Wellington on the 20th ultimo, by the Phcebe, for Canterbury, and was received in Lyttelton and Christchurch with every demonstration of loyalty and respect. His Excellency visited the various “ lions” of the capital of Canterbury, and afterwards proceeded overland to Dunedin. The Hon. Dr. Pollen has gone South to accompany his Excellency in his progress through Otago ; and Major Atkinson, the Minister for Immigration, was in that province on official business before his Excellency’s arrival in it. Very little information has reached the public as to the intentions of his Excellency, but it is understood that he will spend some time in the Middle island, with the condition and prospects of which he appears to have been at once surprised and delighted. . . Sir Donald M'Lean still remains in the Hawke’s Bay district, but is expected to return to Wellington within a few days. "Wherever he has gone he has succeeded in placing disputed matters between the Natives and the Government on a most satisfactory footing ; and has settled, or has placed in a fair' way of settlement, a multitude of troubles that but for his presence and influence would have simmered for years, and from time to time have occasioned difficulty to the Government. We are as yet without more certain intelligence of the movements of the Premier (Mr. Vogel) than that he intended to leave London in time to join the P. and 0. mail steamer at Brindisi on the 14th of May. That mail is only due in Wellington on the 9th of July, and the understanding was that the General Assembly would meet, for the last session of the present Parliament, towards the end of June. It was also understood that during the recess a scheme should be elaborated for the substitution of a system of local government, subordinate to the central authority, in substitution for the present system of provincial government in the North Island. Whether the subject has engaged the attention of the Cabinet during the recess or not does not appear. It was understood that the matter was to be referred to a leading barrister of the colony, who should be charged with the preparation of a measure to amend the Constitution, in accordance with the resolutions adopted by the General Assembly last session. But who that barrister is has not been ascertained. Nor is it probable that in the prolonged absence of the Premier, the protracted visit of the Native Minister to the North, the stay of the Minister of Justice in Canterbury pending his election, the prolonged tour of the Colonial Secretary in the North, the almost equally prolonged absence from Wellington of the Miniate for Immigration (Major Atkinson) who is still in the South, and’ the occasional visits of the Minister for Public Works and the Commissioner of Customs to Christchurch, or Dunedin, or Auckland, there can have been any very serious Cabinet Councils over this momentous question of the abolition of the provincial system for a change Mr. Vogel originally intended to apply to the Northern Island alone public opinion will certainly insist shall be applied to the Middle Island as well. In this matter there is no making fish of one and flesh of another. And things undoubtedly favor the Premier in his views of Colonial versus Provincial Government. Canterbury and Otago are the chief opponents, after Auckland, of the scheme of the Premier. Canterbury and Otago have been so prosperous, and their land funds have so fed fat their treasuries, that they dreaded incorporation lest they should lose the command of the money they possessed, or were receiving, for their own local purposes. But the province of Canterbury appears to be about to realise a different state of things. The Provincial Council of Canterbury met a few days ago. The statement of the Provincial Treasurer, as telegraphed, will be found in another column. It will be seen that the falling off of the local revenue has been so considerable that alarm has arisen as to the power of the province to continue the public works it has commenced, or to carry on the business of the province, without the institution of a tax upon income or property. In this state of things, what becomes of the argument that the revenue and the landed estate of the province should be reserved for the province, and should not be part of the colonial revenue 1 Irresistibly the provinces are drawing together, through the mere force of attraction—the pressure of the times. It is becoming evident that concentration is inevitable ; and when the question really comes before the General Assembly the public will be found quite prepared to adopt the suggestions of the Government. But we are left in doubt as 'to the precise course of the Government. That Parliament will meet about the middle of July is to be presumed. If a further prorogation should take place, to permit of I he presence of Mr. Vogel at the opening of the session, Parliament will meet without the possibility of there having been consultation by the members of the Cabinet, or any agreement on the subject of the system to be substituted for that of Provincialism, which Mr. Vogel and the great majority of the people of New Zealand desire to see abolished, and only a small minority would wish to see maintained. With the latter we do not reckon Sir George Grey, whose views of government in the colony, and the relations of the colony to the mother country, are altogether peculiar and impracticable. The success of Mr. Vogel, in floating the four-million loan so readily through the Messrs. Rothchilds, has been received with great satisfaction hero, as it means a continuation of those public works and that immigration from which the colony has already derived so much benefit, and is likely to receive so much more. The Provincial Council of Wellington has_ met, has gone through nearly all its business with remarkable alacrity, and in this respect has shown an example to Provincial Councils—and higher assemblies—generally. The Superintendent (Mr. Fitzherbert) made an admirable speech—summarised in another column—in which ho avoided everything excepting reference to the work the provincial authorities have done. The Provincial Secretary was equally discreet. Ho brought in an Imprest Bill, which was immediately passed through all its stages; and he placed before

members copies of all the Bills the Provincial Government intended to present during the session. An ill-judged resolution in support of the proposals of the General Government on the subject of provincialism was introduced by Mr. Hutchison, but rejected in favor of “ the previous question” (proposed by Mr. Bunny). The division is of no value as to the feeling of the Council on the real question at issue. In all probability the business of the session will be brought to a close early this week. The Board of Education of the province of Wellington has reversed the decision arrived at some time ago, as to the amalgamation of the offices of Inspector and Secretary —much to the satisfaction of the public. Mr, Seymour, the Superintendent of Marlborough, and Chairman of Committees of the House of Representatives, has resigned his seat. Ho goes home to visit his father. Mr. Moorhouse, the Mayor of Wellington and formerly Superintendent of Canterbury—is a candidate for the seat vacated by Mr. Seymour. He is opposed by Mr. Ward, a local candidate, but will probably be elected. The harvest has been unusually prolific in Canterbury, and large quantities of grain are now being exported from the ports of that province.. The election for Rangitikei, to fill the vacancy caused by the retirement of the Hon. W. Fox, has been filled by the election of Mr. Ballance, of the Wanganui Herald. The unsuccessful candidates were Mr. Watt, of Wanganui, and Mr. Hutchison, of Wellington. Mr. R. Pharazyn has succeeded Mr. Watt as a member of the Executive Council of the province of Wellington. The French war-ship LTnfernet paid a short visit to Wellington during the month, and is now in Auckland, en route to New Caledonia, from whence she came —it is supposed in search of escaped Communists, of whom there are none in this colony. The Macgregor reached Auckland punctually to time with the ‘ English mails of March 9, and it is hoped that henceforward the mails by the Pacific route will be carried to and fro as set out in the time-table for the service.

The out-going May mail via Suez was despatched hence by the Albion on Friday, .the 7th instant; and the N.Z. S.S. Company’s fine steamer Taranaki will take her departure hence early to-morrow, to tranship the San Francisco mails to the s.s. City of Melbourne at Auckland.