MONTHLY SUMMARY FOR EU R OP E .
POLITICAL— GENERAL. ; The G-eneral Assembly is still in recess, and the date of the opening of the Session is not yet announced. It is expected that it will meet at an early date and the business will be most important. The war cannot be said to be positively ended as signs of a flickering spirit of rebellion is still displayed by some of the disaffected tribes of Maories, and in a few instances the colonial forces have been called into action with signal success. The " Native question " will be a secondary consideration during the next session of Parliament, a reform of the constitution having become of the first importance, and events have occured that surround this subject with circumstances which necessitate its immediate consideration. The G-eneral Government and the Provincial G-overn-ment of Otago have come to loggerheads. The recent election of Mr. Macandrew as Superintendent of Otago, a gentleman who fprmeriy held that office, but was in 1860 dismissed from office for defalcation, was not palatable to the G-eneral Government ; the election (the majority of votes was very large) was not disallowed, but all the " delegated powers " were withheld. Thus the General Government took the entire control of the Gold Reids info its own hands. Otago rebelled and an agitation has been carried on in that Province that must ultimate in a stormy debate when the Assembly meets. The necessity of a change in the constitution is daily assuming more importance throughout New Zealand. Prom nearly every source the opinions of men long resident in the colony, whose opinion is worth having, both from their experience and ability — those too, who were previously strong supporters of the Provincial system — -are gradually verging towards the abolition of the Provinces. A variety of causes have tended to produce this change. Formerly, on the discovery of the goldfields in Otago, out very few of those who were attracted to the shores of New Zealand from the neighboring colony of Victoria, solely intent on business pursuits, cared to investigate the nature of the constitution of the Government— either General or Provincial — and it was only after the lapse of very many years that this subject assumed the importance it now has. To this indifference to public affairs may be attributed a good deal 6f the disasters that have befallen the colony, because most of those who then held the reins of power were absorbed in the consideration of the Maori difficulty from an Exeter Hall point of view, and allowed every Province to get into debt, in many cases, far beyond its capacity, or what sound prudence should dictate. The colony, by this mismanagement, has drifted into debt and difficulty. Possessing greater resources, perhaps, than any other settlement in the South Pacific, until very recently its credit in the English market was below zero. "What led. to this state of things, may naturally be asked ? Simply the Provincial system — the system that permitted each little province to assume -the functions of a sovereign state — that so divided public opinion, upon important colonial subjects, as to render the disgraceful system of " logrolling " almost an institution. Indeed, the power of the -General Government, until very lately, existed in name only. It was only by a system of indirect bribery that measures lor the general utility of the colony were allowed to become law. It was the party advocating the self-reliant policy that first grappled with this state of things. Mr "Weld was one of the foremost m conceiving the idea of controlling the power of the Provinces. Mr Stapfoed has also persistently endeavored to consolidate the central Government, because he well knows that the present disjointed system cannot last, and we believe that in carrying out this project he has borrowed largely from experience gained in Australia. Nearly every act of hie Government tends to demonstrate that sooner or later, when the great battle has to be fought in the Assembly, on the question of Provincialism versus Centralism, that it will be found that the municipal system at present in force in the neighboring colony of Victoria, and which has contributed in a great measure to place that colony far in advance of her neighbors, will . be the one introduced in $Tew Zealand. The three great questions that will likely agitate the public mind during the session of the Assembly, will be— Financial Separation, with Federal union ; Centralism, meaning one strong New Zealand Government, with both islands divided into counties and municipalities; and Provincialism, The latter question has lately chauged its aspect. Instead of Provincialism guaranteeing the integrity of the Provinces as they are at present consti-? • tuted, it now simply is understood to point to the establishment of two -large provinces, viz :— Canterbury and Otago. The Provincial party seek to endow those provinces with much larger powers thau they at present possess, and likewise absorb all the lesser ones, such as Nelson,. Southland $ud Maryborough. It will easily bo seen what importance this question assumes, what vast interests 'are at stake, . and in what a compli* cated stale the general politics of New Zealand are at present, There can bo no stronger argument in favor of j , the abolition of the Provinces than the facts elicited by a report lately., presented to ihs 0-eneral Government. It thus appe<tya that there are upwards of thirteen mn&sd FrminaUl ofiakh in th© eoiojiy ©j: Now Zealand, and tfeei? &ft»u&l ealaries %mmmt t-a the saotmoua mm Of nearly thm b\mfoss thumtid mu%4s> & »ny bs ftggued by tshose m favor or tha £*o* viuQial eytitom thai &U ®\h moaef _» r * ■ '■■ *■ .■■■■■' ■■ ■■ .'"" ■ ~ * i ■ .
and consequently it is beneficial, but we contend that this argument is as specious as it is fallacious. Because the money thus spent- in keeping up mock Provincial "G-overnments, with their expensive paraphanalia, if devoted to; the opening up of the interior byv making roads, railways, and offering inducements to thousands of our fellow-countrymen to emigrate to ,a' country, rich inall-^he s bounteous gifts of, Nature, Vould,really become reproductive,* as being of advantage : to the general welfare and the true i spirit of colonization. m ■■■
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Southland Times, Issue 672, 20 May 1867, Page 2
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1,023MONTHLY SUMMARY FOR EUROPE. Southland Times, Issue 672, 20 May 1867, Page 2
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