The Southland Times. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1866.

Southland Times, Volume VI, Issue 506, 2 July 1866, Page 2

The Southland Times. MONDAY, JULY 2, 1866.

The G-eneral Assembly may now be considered in session, and the results of its deliberations will be of the highest importance to every colonist ia New Zealand. The cost of the native war, should it continue, must now be liquidated by the colony, and its operations carried out by colonial forces. The position taken up by the Imperial G-overnment necessitates the colonists adopting a self-reliant policy. This is no matter for regret. The question to be considered is, what system is to be adopted ? We have no hesitation in asserting a belief that the colony is able to suppress rebellion, and that the native war would have terminated lenj; since had no imperial interference been experienced. It now, however, becomes a serious question. It is clustered round with difficulties ; the colony has been plunged into liabilities that will require statesmanship of the highest order to overcome. 'The debts that have already been incurred are very considerable, and those that are yet to come cannot be estimated. Hitherto the Southern Provinces have had to pay the major portion of the general expenditure without deriving any benefit ; while the Northern Provinces (Auckland especially) has been benefitted by a military expenditure ; its inhabitants have " grown fat and kicked" at their neighbor's expense. To them war was a profit ; to us it was a loss, and their policy has been to procrastinate its termination to the latest possible period ; aud with the aid of the Exeter Hall muddling sentimentalists, they have tolerably well succeeded. This time is over ; the South can no longer afford to sacrifice its best interest to bolster up the North ;— and that a ' change, sweeping and radical in the system of Government is an absolute necessity is acknowledged by all parties. What is that change to be ? It is evident that Separation is not obtainable ; that the entire colony is responsible for all liabilities, and that provisions for the future must be made. How is this be s accomplished-? The Government are cd *»- w^ e -necessity for increased taxation, but what ■*,' jt ig tQ takg appears as ainicuit to determiuv „„ Chinese puzzle. All imaginable schemes have been advanced, entertained, and then abandoned ; and the last that has been propounded is the most objectionable of all. It we can read aright, the mysterious sayings of members of the Ministry, and the shadowing of the coming policy reflected in the columns of the journals known to be sprinkled with Ministerial rose water, and ranked as those privileged to speak with authority, the coming programme will be all on one side. The Southern Provinces will be called upon to give up their three eighths of the general revenue to pay the Northern debts, aud that all the confiscated land is to be handed over to the latter — that what the South has paid dearly to obtain is to be given to the North, which has profited by the war, and contracted all the partnership bad debts. But this is not all. In order to pay these liability the taxation is to be. increased ; the, heaviest taxed people in tbe British don-mien's nre to have an extra •weight n.nded to tho I i millstone -which has so long btsen rou-vi j < the?.? Jie^kti. i^rom Uylr.pyr.V-.c {77; -v.^.-; turn, we knrti-thal; ib*> customs 5 7=77 vi 7 ary again to b^incH^'K 1 7:- ; v ; ,^ t . J; ,j ! .. ovW aerr^wk? uf U^ajru. 7;Vb% m^v-; | r; b n " "" -'"sed, and »t r lmt3^!i : i!<^';^nn.j;--;7 ;[ . '"'■'^nftDCV ']A;:y:yi:„ \7 •< 7,.. ;.. •'W'Mi vt7"''- j t

t colonists in affirming that they would L sacrifice, much rather than repudiate a 3 just claim. The partnership be--5 tween the North and South has 3 eventuated in the South having to pay : the North's debts, and now she is re- ; quired to begger herself in order to provide r funds for the settlement of that Island I without having any prospective benefit. 1 The three-eighths of the Customs is an 5 important item in the revenue of every \ Southern Province ;to give up this would l make Provincial Councils worthless — a I sham and a delusion. Yet we find even » some of the Southern newspapers advo--1 cate it. The Lyttelton Times, 19 th June, ' says : — " The probable amount this year, I for interest and sinking fund, to meet the j i Three Million Debt, is £180,000. In- » stead of imposing Stamp-tax or Incoine- \ tax to this extent upon the community, [ let this be met by the surrender on tlie part of the Provinces to the General GoL vernment of so much of their three- ' eighths of the Customs as may be neces- ; saiy. The sum of £180,000, less the \ amount of the half-crown tax on tbe sale ; of the native lands, would have to be de- > ducted from the Provinces' share of their • Customs revenue. Now, as it may safely : be counted upon that the Customs revenue will steadily increase with the natural buoyancy of the colony's fortunes ; freed , from the dread of future warp, it is not at [ all likely that the Provinces will receive back a sum greatly below what tliey have hitherto received. They will not get, in- » deed, the increase of their own revenue, s but they will continue to get not much less than hitherto." It may be thought : noble for the Canterbury writer to be thus generous in his advocacy of so onesided an agreement ; but those who know 1 thejuncertainty of gold- delving prosperity who, by bitter experience, have learnt , that it is a mirage, which has allured many to adopt a course of extreme gener- > osity, which lias led to dire embarrassment cannot be entertained. [ It may appear to our Lyttelton contem- ; porary , atatimeof great buttransitory prosperity^ small matter for Canterbury toyield i up £45,000 or £50,000 of its legitimate Provincial assets ; but to those Provinces that have experienced tbe delusive character of El Dorado progress— who have suffered from an over anxious desire to provide for the requirements of a migratory population, it is viewed in a different light. In fact, none of the Southern Provinces can in justice to themselves or to posterity permit the three eighths of the general revenue to be wrested from them without obtaining an equivalent. Should such a course not be adopted, Provincial Governments will become powerless, and local legislation simply " a name and not a reality, & body without a soul." The proposal indicates a desire on tbe part of the General Government to initiate a system of intensified centralization. If adopted it will be the driving in of the thin edge of the wedge that is to destroy local self- Government — it will be the bell note of a demand for the South to yield up its Provincial lands to the General Government for the benefit of tbe North. Such a policy should be determinedly resisted.