PROVINCIALISM.

Southland Times, Issue 551, 31 August 1866, Page 3

PROVINCIALISM.

(From the " Daily Times," August 22.) There has beeu a growing tendency for some time past to depreciate the value of Provincial Governments, and to claim for tbe Colonial G-overnment advantages which it is assumed to possess above merely local Legislatures. It is not very clearly stated by any advocates of the change iv what the superiority is to consist. Perhaps tbey imagine that is not a necessary element in the consideration, and that it is suliicieut to point out the smalluess of Provincial, as compared with Colonial interests to prove that necessarily tbey will receive proportionately intelligent attention. That some such idea pervades tho minds of a section of the population, is undoubtedly true. It may not have assumed a very definite form iv their minds, but it finds expression in a variety of ways. Several times, when the effect of Provincial immigration has been discussed in our columns, and it has been pointed out, in illustration of its benefits, that tbe rapid advancement of the United States in wealth and influence was owing to the continued stream of immigration that had been flowing thitherward for so many years, correspondents have sneered at the idea, and pointed out tho insignificance of New Zealand, when compared with that Empire of Democracy. Others have pointed to the narrowness of the interests of the Provinces compared with the Colony, to shew that there is a pettiness in the Provincial requirements that induces an expense in Provincial Lagislation altogether disproportionate to them. It is very probable that it never struck these objectors, that not more than a hundred years ago, the United States bad only about one-fifteenth of their present population, although they^ had then been Colonies for upwards of one hundred and fifty years ; nor that the present general revenue of New Zealand, although a colony of about thirty years' standing, is one-fifteenth cf that of the United States some ten years ago. Had these facts entered the minds of those objectors, they might have been led to reflect, that small as New. Zealand is compared with America, when two hundred and fifty years are past, this infant Colony may have reached an importance in the world' 3 history far exceeding that held even now by the United States ; and that, viewed in that light, the beginnings of a mighty Empire are worthy of the profoundest and most earnest effort of tbe highest and noblest minds, in order that its institutions shall be so free and just as to foster progress, and to encourage development, in wealth, influence, science, and art. Neither must it be forgotten that commercial and social measures that have been found to induce these results in other lands, so far as they are based upon sound economic principles, will most assuredly produce a like effect here. It is not the small Colony compared with the powerful Federation that" is under consideration. It is what steps are likely to raise the small Colony into a rich, populous, and thriving State. A machinery now exists that appears eminently calculated to secure tnat object. While a central Government possesses advantages in organising and dispensing measures that are necessary for the Colony as a whole, Provincial Governments form an admirable means for simultaneously developing the resources of the component parts. It is no disadvantage to New Zealand that separate and independent settlements have been founded at great distances from each other, completely round the coasts of the two Islands. Bach of these has become a centre of trade and of certain benefits to be derived from adopting the Victorian system on the Goldfields, it does not appear to be remembered that the tendency in that Colony, for tbe last nine years, has been towards the diffusion, rather than the centralisation of power, and that the best effects have resulted from the adoption of that principle. For years, it has been a fixed object in Victoria to develope the Municipal system, in order that the evils found to be inherent in centralization of power might be avoided ; and had Victoria been possessed of a Provincial system, many difficulties that have obstructed tbe carrying out of this object would have been avoided. A favorite argument against Provincialism has hitherto been that tbe number of Provincial establishments necessarily increases the expense of Government as a whole. The statement seems feasible, but it is doubtful. It is very easy to build up a theory, when the materials are not at hand to sbow its fallacy, and since the expense of the one system is known, and the other unknown, the assertion being capable of neither proof nor disproof, may possibly be true. There is every reason, however, to doubt it. Tbe present crisis, traced to its first movements, has been the consequence of a systematic attempt at crushing tbe Provincial system, and appropriating part of tbe Provincial revenues to be disposed of at the w T ill of tbe General (3-ovemment. That some one or two Provinces might profit by such a change is quite possible, if tbe rest apathetically abandon the portion of tbe general revenue hitherto considered their own, to be spent how and wbere tbe Central Government think fit. But if the Provinces are true to themselves, they will aid their representatives in restraining the limite within which the General Government shall possess jurisdiction, and they will find safety, advantage, and development, under Provincial Institutions.