PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 20, 16 July 1864, Page 2

PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENTS.

(From -the Southland Tiiies, : July 2.) Eeverting to the * subject of the Provincial form of Government and its inability to meet the present circumstances of the Colony, whatever may have been its advantages while New Zealand was in its early youth, we will now view it in the political relations it has bequeathed to us. Sir Geobge Guey expressed the opinion that, as the various Provinces progressed in wealth and prosperity, instead of amalgamating with one another and becoming fused into one, they would remain distinct and separate ; and that, so far from being merged into municipalities, the Provincial form of government would require to be changed for one possessing higher and more important functions. Earl Gket, however, taking a clearer and more comprehensive view of the ultimate fate of the Provincial Governments, differs in opinion on this point. In his despatch of February, 1852, he writes : — " With respect to the powers to be entrusted to these Provincial Councils, I am disposed, for my own part, to believe (notwithstanding the alterations which you state to have taken place in your own views on this point), that with" the progress of events, as colonization extends, and the several settlements are drawn nearer to each other in boundaries and interests, they will very probably assume more and more of a municipal character, while the functions of the General Legislature will increase." By this we conclude his Lordship means that the impotency of Provincial Councils to meet and satisfactorily \ grapple with the more important functions j which the altered circumstances of the ; Colony will force upon thorn, will become more and more apparent, and tho want of a higher form of Legislature, with a larger field for its operation, must necessarily be felt ; that a general desire to sweep away the present hybrid and expensive system of Provincialism, and substitute a more economical and legitimate form of government, will gradually assert itself as a larger population requires, and a more extensive field for operation developes itself with the growth of each Province. Already the anomalous position of Superintendents, is beginning to work unsatisfactorily for the interests of tho public in the various Provinces. Possessing, on the one hand, extraordinary powers, -the limit to which, judging from experience, it is difficult to determine ; on the other, having no executive powers conferred by the very Act which calls into creation the appointment, a Superintendent must either be left to act despotically, or become bound by a compact with his Council, which on the face of it is absurd and unconstitutional, and necessitates a series of compromises on either part to be at all workable. His functions, under the Act, are wholly legislative. The intention seems to have been to have constituted him a sort of Upper Chamber, having the power of veto on laws passed by the Lower Chamber or Council. But the exercise of his functions are accompanied with singular conditions, viz. — " subject to instructions." He can assent to or disallow a bill ; not as he pleases, but as he may from time to time be instructed. Should he assent to a bill in defiance of the Governor's instructions, he can be removed. Should he disallow an Ordinance in defiance of the wishes of the Provincial Council, it can stop his salary by refusing to place it on the estimates. On the whole, it is an anomalous position, which has been saved from becoming humiliating by the log-rolling policy of the General Assembly rendering it advisable to court Superintendents. In no Province have the results of a Provincial form of government proved so satisfactory as to induce the majority of settlers in it to seek for an augmentation of its powers or dignity. Every Province can point to a period in its history when the Superintendent and Council were at variance on their relative positions ; in some the dispute is not yet adjusted ; in all, it depends entirely on the temperament of the individual occupying the position of Superintendent, as to whether the compact he may have entered into with his Council, however strictly worded or seemingly binding its nature, will be broken. Of all the Provinces in the Middle Island, perhaps Otago is, at the present time, the most constitutionally governed ; but that is simply because the present Superintendent, Mr. Habbjs, is wisely content to throw the responsibility of government entirely on the Executive chosen for him by the Provincial Council; but in some things it is a concession on his part, which no Provincial legislation could compel, aud is dependent entirely on his will. His successor may take a different view, and the old squabbling be renewed. As for ourselves we are groaning under this absurd and anomalous mechanism of Government at the present time. It it true that the New Provinces' Act was intended as one step in the direction of reducing Provincial Governments to municipalities, by curtailing the powers of Superintendents, and providing that they might have seats in the Council. Were this adopted, much of the present paraphernalia of government would be simplified. By the Superintendent being the head of the Executive, fighting his own policy in the Provincial Council, standing or falling by the will of the majority of the peoples' representatives, and, if necessary, appealing to the people, should he fail in carrying that policy, we should have responsible government without paying too dear for it. Even this has its inconvenience, by rendering fresh elections so frequent, that the public, wearied by constant applications, would become apathetic on the subject. Another disadvantage in the present system is beginning to manifest itself in the lack of ambition on the part of the ablest and leading men in each Province to contest for Provincial honors. .' Occasionally, should any peculiar, phase in- the political: ; horizon cause a ; temporary ( excitement, a seat ; in the Council inay ; be' sought after by those who, under, ordinary circiiia-

stances, would not trouble themselves in the matter; but it is' more Uwith a view of. removing an obstacle \ to the general prosperity, than of seeking that which ought to be . considered an honor. Looldng. at the history of the older Provinces, we "are led to the belief that, whatever may have been the inducements — novelty or what not— which led; the ablest men to compete for Provincial honors, and enter the small . political arena of a Province, in its earlier days, as time progressed, they gradually dropped out of the ranks, and their places were taken by men of inferior stamp in education and social position. Nelson is a remarkable instance of this ; Auckland and Wellington can look back to Councils far superior to those they at present have. Canterbury has always taken precedence amongst the Provinces of New Zealand for the quality and mental calibre of her Councils ? but she [ has enjoyed a larger field of ability from which to choose. Yet we question if even Canterbury is not deteriorating in I this respect — not that the men are not there, but that they lack the inclination. In fact, the feeling is gaining ground that [ the Provincial are verging to Municipal Councils, and that their powers of legislation ought to be curtailed. It is not uncommon to bear men of position excusing u \emselves for being in the Provincial Council by assigning, as a reason, that it is necessary to keep up the respectability of the institution. It is not as an honor to be sought, but as a safeguard against misrule, that they condescend to enter the arena. The ambition of the ablest and leading men in the various communities is turned to obtaining seats in the General Legislature. In the earlier stages of the Colony, the difficulties of communication, and the exigencies of circumstances, acted as a barrier towards the gratification of th^s ambition. Each had enough to do to fight the battle of life ; few had the means, or could afford the leisure, of attending a General Legislature in a distant part of the island. In a Province they could attend to their own affairs and the public business without inconvenience, and thus their political ambition was satisfied in the more contracted sphere of a Provincial Council. Now, with easy and constant communication with any part of the Colony, with the ladder of fortune surmounted, political ambition takes a higher flight, seeks a larger theatre for its display. A seat once gained in a wider field for the exercise of ability, and what is conceived a more honorable position, a member of the General Legislature, as a rule, despises the more contracted and less distinguished position of a Provincial Councillor, and does not conceive it a prize worth contending for. We do not argue this to be a proper state of feeling; we merely record Avhat experience has proved to be the case, and cannot deny that it is a natural oneWe have even heard it argued that a seat in the Provincial Council, by contracting the scope of a man's abilities to the contemplation of the storm in his own saucer, unfits him to grapple with, and master the subjects brought under his consideration in the sea of general polities. Be this as it may, so surely as a member of a Provincial Council looks with contempt on the present municipal -lonors conferred by a seat in the Town Board, as certainly will he, on entering the General Legislature, view with disdain the former object of his ambition— a seat in the Coxmeil of his Province. And thus, unless some radical change is made in our system of government, Provincial Councils will fall into as much disrepute as Town Boards enjoy at the present time.