New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4512, 6 September 1875, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 6.

The Otago Daily Times, which is in favor of an appeal to the country on the abolition question, furnishes one of the strongest possible arguments in favor of abolishing provincial institutions. In a recent issue of that journal, we find the following pertinent remarks : If any further proof were yet required of the necessity for the abolition of the provinces, considered simply perse, that proof would be forthcoming in the fact of the very anomalous condition undor which provincial legislation is carried on, and the very absurd, and often very injurious results of the maintenance of that condition. A telegram from AVellington, which appeared in our issue of Saturday, supplies a striking case in point. No less than six of the Ordinances passed by our own Council during its recent session, have been unceremoniously knocked on the head. All the time, labor, and money expended upon them have been simply thrown away. If any of our readers will take the trouble to examine the volume of Ordinances for themselves, they will see to what an 'extent this waste has been made. AVe shall have nothing to say here as to the reasons that may have led to this unexpected "Slaughter of the Innocents," but content ourselves with simply calling attention to the absurd figure we are made, as a province, to cut under the present system. AVo shall dismiss at once, and for the present, the six Ordinances from which the Governor's assent has been withheld, and refer but briefly to thoso which have been disallowed. Let it be borne in mind that upon any Ordinance being passed by the Provincial Council, and assented to by the Superintendent, it at once has all the force of law in full operation. But during three months from the assent of the Superintendent being given tho Governor, by a proclamation of disallowance, may knock it on the head. Now, let us seo what has happened undor this anomalous arrangement in our own case. On the 10th of Juno last the Town and Country Police Ordinance, 1802, Amendment Ordinance, 1875, was assented to,,and so became law. Arrests were taken and convictions made under it, as a law of tho land ; and then suddenly—on the 20th of August—H is law no longer, because on that

day a Gazette publishod in AVellington said it should be law no longer. In the case of the Cattle and Sheep Ordinance, 1575, the results of the system are still more startling. Here we have an Ordinance of 72 sections and five schedules, codifying and amalgamating all the various enactments previously existing on the subject. That Ordinance was assented to on the 3rd of June, and thereupon, as in the previous instance, became indisputably the law. What action the authorities may have taken under its various J provisions we know not. But this much we do know, that no less than seventeen previous Ordinances were repealed by it; some of these were Ordinances of the late province of Southland, and others were Otago (proper) Ordinances. Now, from what we have said abovo it will be clearly seen that from June the 3rd to August the 20th the whole of these seventeen Ordinances ceased to be—they were abolished, in fact. But suddenly, and for the same reason as given above, on the 20th of August the whole seventeen of them spring up into life again and claiar-frjr-thejvi-selves to be re-endowed with all the fhajesty of laws of the land I What singular and Serious complications may have arisen out of this/singular piece of abortive legislation, and what may even yet arise, it is not our present intention to inquire, nor do we stop to inquire who is to blame. AVe simply call attention to the circumstance as even further proof that something must be done to put a stop to such absurd playing at legislation as the facts adduced so forcibly illustrate. We agree with our contemporary in thinking that a total change of system is necessary. There should only be one law-making body in the colony ; and that body, of necessity, must be the General Assembly. We do not know that anything can be said in favor of a system which involves such "absurd playing at " legislation ; " but if anything is capable of being urged in its favor, it has not yet come out in the abolition debate. Perhaps Mr. Macandrew or Sir George Grey would devote their attention to it. They appear to be the most thoroughgoing provincialists in the Assembly, because Messrs. Stout and Sheehan are both young men, who are without any very decided political convictions at present, and are therefore liable at any moment to change their minds. But Sir George Grey and Mr. Macandrew are men of mature judgments. They may be supposed to have fixed principles, and we cannot expect them to change their opinions on compulsion. Opposition only hardens them. The absolute failure of their petsystem is imputed by them to some other cause than to its inherent defects. In this case, we may be told by them that the fault lies with the General Government, for delaying the notification of assent or disallowance ; but that would be mistaking effect for cause. Delay is the necessary and inevitable result of a reference to the General Government of all Provincial Acts or Ordinances ; the length of time spent in deliberation is a mere incident ; but the cause is the subordinate position of provincial legislatures. This is in itself sufficient to condemn provincial institutions. Matters cannot be allowed to remain as they are. The interests dealt with by Provincial Councils are far too important to be trifled with as they have been under the Constitution Act. Provincial Councils must either get increased powers, or they must be shorn of those they possess. And as the first alternative would involve a surrender, by the Colonial Parliament, of a large part of its legislative functions, it is pretty evident that it will not be adopted. It is the uniform tendency of all superior legislatures to increase their privileges and powers, and the General Assembly of New Zealand is no exception to the rule. Hence it happens, that by the slow but unerring operation of the law of the survival of the fittest, the functions of provincial legislatures are being absorbed by their stronger brother, and they will soon become things of the past. They were useful, no doubt, in their day, and if they had realised their subordinate position, and not "played at Parlia- " ment,"and "Responsible Government," and other tom-foolery of that kind, the chances are that instead of being "abolished " out of existence they would have survived for many years to come. But they too were perfect gluttons for power and authority, and were increasing in their encroachments on the domain of their bigger and stronger brother. Hence ithappened that "ultravires" was written upon so many Provincial Ordinances. The fiat has gone forth however, and it is now a simple question of months when the end shall be. If Sir George Grey and his supporters can prolong the life of Superintendentalism till June next, it is the very utmost they can hope for. A miracle may save their darling, no doubt; but this is a prosaic, practical age, and miracles are of such infrequent occurrence that men have come somehow to doubt their existence. At all events, very few could be got to believe in a miracle which professed to set Provincialism, on its legs again. It is simply a question of money, and there is no money to support it, The colony cannot afford the luxury of ten legislatures, ten "responsible governments," and ten patronagemaking machines. It is altogether too much of a good thing. One of the family is sufficient for. a much larger and more populous country than New Zealand, and we trust the common sense of the General Assembly and the people of this colony will " put a stop to such absurd playing '' at legislation" as the Otago Daily Times very properly condemns.