SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.

Southland Times, Issue 666, 6 May 1867, Page 2

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS.

CENTRALISM v. PROVINCIALISM. (From the " New Zealand Advertiser.") /If the ultra-pro vincialists of this colony have one object more dearly at heart than another, it is that at someTtiine, though indefinitely in the future, there should rise out of the thinly populated and embarrassed Provinces of New Zealand a certain number of powerful federated States, free of each other in many respects, and only linked together by a general bond of union much on the same principle that the States of North America are united. Placing on one side for the moment the seeming impossibility that a country which onty numbers some two hundred thousand inhabitants should so increase in population and wealth that it could form itself into such a federation at any time within the '. range of the present or the next generation, it may be worth while to consider ! ho-rci these aspirants are and ought to be working to attain such an end. How they are working now is the very reverse of how they ought to be. They have been and are lavishing the small resources they possess in laboring for immediate results;, "which, instead of lightening the liability of the future, only add weight bo it. - Tkoy kave been pawning their future wealth for the- benefit of the current hour. They have been neglecting the interior country, from which they should hope for the greatest riches in the future, to bestow their favors on a few isolated towns called capitals. They have been ruining their credit abroad by the wildness of their speculations, and they have been madly rushing into contracts for gigantic works, which, when the time for payment comes, leave them incapable of even satisfying their present creditors. The present embarrassed condition of every Province of New Zealand proves much of this ; the universal outcry from country districts proves more ; and we need not go outside our own doors to prove the remainder. Ther9 is not a Province that has not. hampered itself with loans, and that would not have gone still farther had not the central power intervened to prevent them. Credit abroad was injured by their actions, and if we now find a better state of feeling towards us in the foreign markets, it is more by the contrast with worse securities there than by the full confidence in us which we seek to achieve. "We have the practical proof before us that this is true in the case of Southland, which is even now barely emerging from the state of destitution to which its public revenue was reduced, and if other Provinces have not ran into debt so recklessly as Southland did, they have sinned against the principles which should actuate small federalists in quite as grievous ways. There has been a threat of repudiation of a public debt in Ofcago, and there is at this very moment a threat of repudiation of a private debt held out in this Province — in Wellington, which erstwhile was the hotbed of Provincialism. The Treasurer of Otago not long ago threatened to repudiate the debt of the Colonial Q-overnment, and the Gro-. vernment of Wellington is now threatening contractors with repudiation, or at all events acting in such a way as to lead even journals with the strongest provincial proclivities to stigmatise the action as such. Let us see what the most influential journal in the world says on a subject of a very similar nature. The " Times," commenting recently on the favor with which the securities of the Russian. Empire were looked on in England, in contra-distinction to the distrust that was entertained towards American securities, gives some illustrations of repudiation by States Governments in the great Jftepublic. The old Alabama and Mississippi bonds are brought on the stage again, but ai*e lightly passed over in the more recent action by every State of the Union, with the exception of Massachusetts, in issuing inconvertible paper and declaring it a legal tender. The English capitalist who invested, say a thousand dolors, in these American securities, und^ the expectation of receiving 6 per nt - interest on his money, found whf* h.e applied for it that instead of 60 dollars in good gold, he could only ?** 60 dollars m bad P a P cr > which at onp cime was onl 7 "^osth. about 24 dollar* and never rose above 40. What was *^ c consequence? The U^ian five per cents stood in the marAct at 85, and the investor obtained something less than 6 per cent for his money, while the purchasers of American PiveTventies could get them at 72 with a nominal 6 per cent interest ; yet capitalists fought shy of the latter, and preferred to pay more money for less interest, than risk it where repudiation had caused loss of confidence. "The effect of the conduct of each State on the credit of the nation," is the point .to which the Times would call attention. "If every single State withdraws from a contract, what surety is there that the aggregate of States will .be faituful to their promises?" The effect arhich Has been produced by American marp practice, is just as likely to be produced by similar conduct here. If our Province repudiates, the whole must suffer, and with their credit thus destroyed, what is to become of these embryo states ? " Investors," says the Times, in the sanie article, " are an imitative, a gregarious body; they flock together and inspire each other with confidence at ons season, and suspicion at another. If one has been bitten, all take alarm." And wisely so. What have capitalists id England to rely upon with regard to the trust-, worthiness of foreign Governments, but the experience which others 'of their body have had ? It is well to remark tile interpretation which the Times put 3 apon. the word repudiation. The word is given a very ~ broad significance, iuajmueh as these dollar notes which werj complained of were essentially a legal lender, and could be offered in payment ofj interest by the

States Governments just as legally as a contract by a New Zealand G-overnment could be set aside because it was not ratified. It is the spirit, not the letter of the transaction, that is denounced, and so it must be here. When, therefore, the Government of one of these embryo .Federal States defends an otherwise untenable position by falling back on the letter of the law, it inflicts -an irreparable injury upon all its companions. Extravagance, and, when extravagance lias driven them into a corner, repudiation are very evidently apparent in more than one of the Provincial Governments, and we contend that such conduct is utterly I subversive of any hope that they can I ever attain the position which their most eager supporters hope for them. They have been for a long time drawing up their own death warrants, and the only question that is left to determine is when those warrants shall be signed. ! — ■ . : . .

- (From the "Erening Star," April 30.) Mr 3?. Dillon Bell, meeting his Southland constituents the other day, to render that account of his political stewardship I now so universally demanded from mem- 1 bers of legislative bodies, took the opportunity to explain at considerable length ! his views on the Separation question. It says much for - the growing popularity of this subject that Mr Bell oLoixld. kc^^, found it desirable to give such prominence to it. The occasion was one on which he was naturally at liberty to range over the whole field of the politics of the day. Yet, more than three-fourths of his speech was devoted to an exposition of the difficulties which stand in the way of Separation. "We know few men who have so good an eye for a difficulty as the ex-minister who represents the Mataura electors. As a politician, hia keenness of vision in this respect contrasts somewhat too forcibly with the want of energy to overcome what he so readily espies between him and the objects whose attainment he desiderates. Like many far-seeing men, too, he often allows what passes close before him to pass unnoticed, or does not accord to it its proper importance. Something of this latter failing, which we notice in his speech 'at Invercargill, has evoked our present remarks. The public of Otago will be rather surprised to learn that its own predispositions are amongst the hindering powers which forbid us to hope for Separation. ¥c are represented as being bo attached in this Province to " existing institutions," that our concurrence in a practicable scheme for obtaining Separation cannot be hoped for ! Let Mr Bell speak for himself, lest we "be accused for mis-representing him. In reply to a question, put by Mr .Reynolds, at the close of the meeting, he thus sums up what he said at greater leDgth in his speech. " I have been of opinion that the best form of Government would be one Government for the Middle Island, with legislative powers to constitute it into 'a large Province, with large local municipal self-Grovernment in the various districts. But there is not the most remote chance of obtaining the assent of Canterbury and Otago to that view, and nothing can be done without unanimity." Now if Mr Bell possessed any real acquaintance with the wishes of the. majority of his fellow colonists in this province, he would know that the doctrine which he takes credit to himself for having entertained for the last four years, is exactly that which has the widest adherence amongst us. True, there was a great noise some six months ago about increasing the powers of the Provinces as a substitute ior Separation. But the idea never had any real hold upon the minds of the people. The burst of enthusiasm in favor of Provincialism died away almost as rapidly as it arose, and even whilst it lasted it did not. shake the loyalty of most of those who joined in it to the cause of Separation. Provincial aggrandizement seemed likely to be a step towards the larger end, always kept in view, and when a little sober thought made the folly of this supposition manifest, the favor at first accorded to Provincialism was rapidly withdrawn. Even Mr Yogel, the chief apostle of the heresy, seemed to have returned to his old allegiance,, or at any rate to have greatly modified the ideas he propounded on his return from the Assembly. We would assure Mr Bell that the Separation ardently desired by the major portion of the people of Otago is precisely that which— if we may judge from the nature of his address to them — the people of Southland also want. There is no doubt a section of the community which holds provincial institutions dear, but it is also certain that recent events have greatly broken that party — if party we can call it. Any cohesion which it had has been, roughly destroyed by the late election contest, and " Separation pure and simple " owes to the return of Macandrew no small number of votaries, who were previously inclined to cling to those local institutions under which, and because of which (as they fancied), the province had so rapidly thriven. There are doubtless many difficulties in the way of Separation, but if there were none harder to combat than tiis fancied objection of Otago to yield up its provincial institutions for the sake of it, we should have little fear of delay in its attainment. There is one very useful moral to be learnt from the long array of difficulties of which Mr Bell has given a really able and careful exposition. If Separation is to be gained, it will not be by following in Mr Bell's wake. He has sat and eyed these difficulties, as he tells us, for four years or so, and we never heard of his striking, a stroke towards overcoming them. The Separationists of Otago, with a less clear vision, perhaps, of what stood in their way, have, on the whole, been equally idle. No steps have ever' been taken to obtain that unanimity of sentiment in the Middle Island which must precede any organic change in the Constitution. Even the minor object of uniting the province itself

in favor of some practical scheme, though talked of by two or three succes- ! sive Associations, has never really been attempted. The first great stumblingblock in our way — the fatal hindrance ia our own carelessness about the subject which we pretend to care so much about. As long as we do things in the style of which the recent career of the Otago Association is a sample, we are ourselves the great enemies of the cause of Separation. Whilst men of all classes grudge their time, their pains, and their money ; whilst, in fact, their faith in Separation is like Mr Bell's — just strong enough to enable them to see that, though desirable, it is difficult of attainment-^-so long will they remain" as far off from the object they profess to seek as they are to-day. Nothing short of an energetic agitation earned through the length and breadth of the island will ever gain the victory for Separation. Separation-leagues bankrupt in brains as well as in money (both are wanted) ; squabbling Otago Associations, that commit suicide to satisfy the spite. of one set of members against the other — these will never advance the cause one iota.