SPIRIT OF THE PRESS ON COLONIAL PLITICS.

Southland Times, Issue 673, 22 May 1867, Page 2

SPIRIT OF THE PRESS ON COLONIAL PLITICS.

: -^(B^romjthe slgnl. 27.^ O "We have spoken of the work done by Provincial Institutions during the time they^ha/e^been,; in .^operatipn colony, and also of the changes in thejr; position, apparent jit the 'present time! From the short survey we nave made f we gather r &e' result that'ttie*aigerofjHtofit-ableT-e^ercifle.^for^-.th^^powe^-jhi^hg^fco committed io the provinces '^manifestly; lessening' while,! attthe isameStinie^^e duties still devolving, upon them are very important, and 'are " perhaps well performed by?fchem 'xra : the whole. "W"e have nowrtoj-jeal .with the provinces, as we liave &ea£t 'with, the, Colonial Government, and to inquire Jtow -far they are economical in their'discharge of pubHc business. It- is not possible r ior us tof r deal-wSN;h l^be provincial expenditure in .the same minMe way- in which we have followed out thafe of the .(*entral;Gqv,erament.Y We cannot take-the.departments - to-pieces and~mquire minutely iwhy; so muchjgoes to this item: and. so ; ymuch; -to ; that, because^ ; in Ihej case f ; : ofr -nine, i; : provinces, ihei tasfc would 'prove an endless - This-maj^ however, be said for the provindeS,'tha^ ; ag a rule, - their. ; expenditure- over ~and above the 'cost '■ oo r eSt^Blishnaents, is v all of Off r . reproductive :■ nature^ .Tfidads, bridges, ferries, hospitals, gaols, harboirlj" and a hundred dthOT works of generally acknowledge^. ,\ralue, tp. the .people ;form the.' staple* of provincial expenditure. And this of course :iSf,well,Tbut it is after hay^i^ovincM Instii^sionß'fen^i«l^br the purpose of attending to these things, and to say that theyHJo so is not very ex. ceptioiiatjpraiso" after all. r We i Jiaye been at some painsy.lipweyer,- to^ascertain cost of v keeping up Provincial establisiimeh'tsj 'and for - this ? pu'r|iose we have,leis. out^the salary of ; eyeryf ; official who^appearedt'o hold an appointment in* pendent of Provincialism. "We have left o,u^ spoj^ce, asylums^ and some other things which go to swell the price of Provincial Institutions an^paper,. but which, qughtrj^rly to be left out as things necessary under any institutions wnatevet. What is left is the cost of purely provincial establish* ments j,i|; is .what the people, pay the Superintdnderita} Prbvincial Secretaries, Treasurers, law advisers, clerks, engineers, survey pw^ and, nxany pther^ officers YfWk manage provincial matter for us. These united, salatiea.amount to fully £93,000 a. year, or nearly oue-half of what th§ Qem& Qvtmmx& staf o| oflldftli

/It is no unreasonable question to ask, whether the efficient management of our /roads, harbors, and public works generally, which we obtain from the Governments of the provinces, is or is not dearly purchased at an annual cost of nearly £100,000? This question has, in fact, often been asked, and it is looked upon as rather a puzzling question with which to floor a Provincialist. But it is so rather in appearance than reality. £100,000 a year is a very large sum, as it amounts to about ten shillings a head on the entire population ; and if we could see our way to keeping this money in our pockets, instead of letting it go into the pockets of Government officials, no doubt it would be worthy of the most serious consideration. A great deal can be done in the way of public works with £100,000, if only it is possible to spend the money directly upon these purposes; It would not be possible to do so if the Provincial system were at an end now, or were to an end at any time within the next five years. Some one must do much of the work which is now done by these Provincial officials, and must be paid, moreover, for doing it. It 4? true some offices would cease of themselves, such as Provincial Law Officers, Treasnrers, and Superintendents ; but for all the others, even >if called by new names, substitutes would require to be found, and whether under these other names they would sound as august and imposing or not, our experience of General Government management gives no great ground for thinking they would cost much less. It would.be a very enticing prospect that promised us a reduction in the number of onr officials and in the vast sum we now have .to pay in salaries ; bnt we must not on that account conjure up fancy pictures of this kind. "No such thing would arise to any very startling extent, we cannot but fear by the destruction of the present system. - There is, however, another vargument of considerable importance in the matter. When we consider what our present system costs, it is not unfair to take into account the advantages of some other systems of which we are deprived so long as this lasts. Now if that other system were merely the exchange of Provincial Governments, for the General Government, there would probably be little to say in favor of change. It would then be urged that, if Provincial Governments are costly, at all events Colonial Governments have proved vastly more so. If we have paid a great many officials under the r provinces, the General Government has been far more inexcusably extravagant. Such an argument as this would be irresistible were the General Government proposed as that to succeed the Provincial Governments in the management of local works. This, however^ is not the case. The question is not; whether a Provincial or a General, Gb T vernment is to manage pur roads ia-nd public works generally, but whether the control of these matters is to be yet more localized than it now is. The ]New Zealand Constitution was fraihed dis T ianctly upon the known fitness of local self-government for the genius of our race, and the proposed change of administration ■ points to a greater development of this in the same direction. We haye often, of late, heard the term Municipal Jjistitutions applied to something^which a large class. of our politicians prefer,, at least in theory, to Provincial .lnstitutions such as now exist. The term is a vague one, and may mean several things, but the general idea is tolerably plain: f> fit means that whereas under the present system the i towns and most populous country districts have an almost absolute power of dealing with the Provincial re/? venues partlyraised from the settlers in the less populous districts, a system of local boards should be constituted, with power to deal with all these local revenues, for local purposes. It is undeniable that thiß would remove a grievance which has been complained of and severely felt in many cases ; but it would be rash to say that on the whole things would be much "better managed. Under Provincial Institutions districts have been neglected and injured, but under Municipal Institutions the settlers would not unfrequently so act as to injure themselves, owing to the ultra-Idealization of their interests. The genius of thti Anglo-Saxon race is, no doubt; adapted to local self-government, but it would be a great mistake to run away with the notion that the' more intensely local we make our. Institutions, > the more wisely they will be administered. In the new Btate of things, which must and will arise without any effort on the part of our politicians before very many years, there will be a great many evils, just as there are in our present system j end, for own part, we fail to see the enormous benefits in the way of wise' and cheap administration for which some politicians look, and to which .* they point - us good grounds for demolishing Provinces by any means. We believe Provincial Institutions must go before long, and that it will be for 'the good of the colony that they should go,lmt we rest our ©pinion on" a broader and sounder basia $feft&e chimerical idea, that a/parish* Vestrj*, op Bomethmg equivalent, w&fo bo •rbe? &m ft ftwWW %mss