The Southland Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1867.

Southland Times, Issue 862, 9 December 1867, Page 2

The Southland Times. MONDAY, DECEMBER 9, 1867.

The power of self-government is one of the most esteemed privileges of the AngloSaxon race. The responsibility of the governor to those governed is as dear to the British people as it is to the citizens of the United States, and as might be expected, it is the strongest aud most plausible argument of the advocates of Provincialism. Q-overn yourselves, badly if you like, but govern yourselves, is a cry which carries a certain amount of popularity. If, however, responsibility, in the true sense of the word, was the desired object under the present Provincial system, it has not been attained. Experince in almost every Province in New Zealand has shown, of all irresponsible Governments, that of a Superintendent is the most irresponsible, and may be the most despotic. Superintendents have expended large sums of public money without appropriation ; have refused their assent to -Ordinances that have been unanimously and for a specific purpose passed „by Provincial Councils ; have refused.; to govern constitutionally ; have misappropriated public funds, yet no punishment has been meted out to them. Nor can it be said that a Provincial Executive is responsible. They may be reviled, their policy condemned; they may be individually and collectively stigmatised as everything that is bad, yet they retain office simply because whether incompetent or not there is none to succeed them ; or if ejected, their successors will probably prove still more iucapable. The smaller the province the more glaringly apparent is this fact ; nor is it surprising that it should be so. The Colony is riot sufficiently peopled to enable a good selection of men to be obtained for the nine different legislatures which at present waste their time and the people's treasure in playing at Government ; nor are the rewards which a province can offer to political aspirants sufficient to induce the best men to neglect their ordinary avocations, and devote their abilities, education, and time to the public. A seat in the Provincial Council is not looked upon by such as either an honor or a boon, and although first-class men are occasionally to be found in Provincial Councils, it is with reluctance they enter them, and do so, as a rule, for the purpose of excluding ambitious ignorance and incapacity. That such a state of feeling exists in this Province is evidenced by the recent election for the Oreti District, where the best educated and wealthiest class in the community have testified their distaste to interfere in Provincial politics and a determination to discountenance the existence of the present form of Government by returning a gentleman, without his knowledge, who is not in anyway identified with their interests. If, while we have the farce of constitutional government we have not the substance, we are inclined to think the public is paying too dearly for the shadow ; that the time has arrived whea the cap an d bells may, with advantage, be laid aside. It has had its day, and will have at any rate accomplished one object — that of acting as a beacon, warning other communities ambitious of framing a constitution against attempting a great work with insufficient material. It has been argued in defence of local self-govern-ment that many of the States in America, while not larger than even the smaller provinces, have a perfect and independent machinery of Government, which has worked well, cheaply, and to the public advantage; so much so, that they are very jealous of any interference with their privileges of self-go-vernment. Such reasoriers, however, forget the population contained in , : the area, not to mention the wealth #hich affords leisure to educated people to divert their attention from private to public affairs. Massachussets is not much larger than Southland, so far as area is concerned, and very much smaller than Otago, but the population in 1719 was 378,717, which in 1860 had increased to 1,231,066. Its products in 1859 amounted to 287,000,000 dollars ; its freight in 1860 was 500,524,201 dollars; the aggregate of its Bank capital in the same year was^

84,610,200 dollars j its impofte and exports for i860, 68,190,816 dollars, atid the value of the property in the state was during that year estimated at 815,237,438 dollars. The number of inhabitants to a square mile was in 1860 for the six New England States 49*55, the six middle State 3 6988, while the aggregate wealth was enormous. Here we have the materials of G-overnment. A large population from which to gather politicians, sufficient wealth to enable them to act independently and devote their entire attention to the proper and efficient Btudy of politics, and admit their bearing gracefully the burdens imposed by its duties. Even with all the immense advantages possessed by America, it is by no means certain that her political problem is worked out. To compare her political resources with our own is simply absurd. "When the colony of New Zealand has a population equal to that of the city of New York, and possesses one-third of its wealth, it will be time enough to talk of five sovereign, free, and independent Provinces. The present system may do very well for the stump orator, but it is not suited to the interests or wants of the people. Its continuance under our present circumstances is about as judicious a procedure as setting a child to play with a box of matches and an open barrel of gunpowder.

Monday, 9 ... H-43 a.m. ... — p.m. Tuesday, 10 ... 0...10 „ ... 0.34 „