The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1572, 3 May 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MAY 3, 1872.

Fbom a careful examination of the address delivered by His Honor at the opening of the Provincial Council on Tuesday, we have been confirmed in the opinion expressed in our issue of that day —that it is not easy to see any good reason for the existence or deliberations of that body, uuless it be the propriety of complying with the provisions of the Constitution Act, so long as they remain unrepealed. We have searched in vain, from beginning to end of the document, for the promise of a single useful measure. The keynote of the speech is a lamentation over the decline of provincial institutions. The General Government, it seems, insist on keeping the administration of the money borrowed for the Public Works and Immigration scheme in their own hands. Mr Macaitdbew thinks it would have been much better if they had left it to the provinces. He admits, however, that the borrowing is best done by the General Government, and that privilege he is quite willing to leave them, if they would only give him the spending. " He thinks it is very much to be regretted that this principle did not commeud itself to the Legislature." It appears, however, that it did not ; and he does not seem very sanguine about getting it adopted for the future. Further encroachments are even to be feared. A Colonial scheme of education is contemplated ; and as it cannot possibly be better thau the system that has hitherto existed in Otago, he hopes the Council will assist him in resisting all interference with the provincial arrangements. These, however, he somewhat inconsistently goes on to say, may be improved in various respects, and he recommends the Council to take the subject into consideration. He congratulates the Province on the successful establishment of the Californian Mail Service, although what the Provincial Government had to do with it is not so clear. Two facts, however, come out, with the semi-official sanction of a Superintendent's utterances on colonial subjects, — that Port Chalmers is to remain the New Zealand terminus of the line, and that the outward mails are to be carried, on to San Francisco without transhipment. Not a word about the Bluff — as we anticipated. Next cornea the only announcement contained in the speech of a Government measure — a bill for establishing Shire Councils. If these bodies, when established, will undertake the duty of keeping the main roads passing through their districts in repair, the Province will hand over to them, and to the municipalities, the whole of the publicans', auctioneers', and other license fees levied within their respective boundaries. We think the Province would have the best of that bargain. One is reminded of Mr Bell's expression — " the farce of playing at responsible government" — on finding such a proposition not only seriously brought forward, but forming the solitary ministerial measure of the session considered worth announcing in the speech. The state of the revenue, if the figures we have received are correct, must be considered most satisfactory. The income, from all sources, waa £280,000 ; the expenditure, £245,000. There should therefore be a surplus of £41,000 somewhere, and we shall be glad to hear where it is, and what is to be done with it. Of this large sum, £82,000, or exactly one-third of the amount expended, had been laid out on roads and

bridges. Even that amount fell short of the votes by £ 1600, and it is said that nearly all the unexpended votes are for roads in Southland. When MrMiCAWBER satisfied a troublesome creditor by accepting a bill at three months, he used to look up with a si°:h of relief when the last flourish of his flowing signature had been completed, and say, " Thank good? ness, that's done with !" So, we much fear, do the Executive feel, when a pertinacious member for s"ome remote district has succeeded in extracting a vote of some hundreds for his local road or bridge. The vote looks well on the Estimates, and the representative points to it with pride when he meets his constituents ; but, too often, there it all ends. Persistent dunning by personal application if possible, and if not, by letter, seems the only way of securing attention ; and it is astonishing what wonders may be effected by that simple process, if persevered in long enough. It may be the Southland members were not sufficiently alive to its virtue, or to the necessity for employing it, but experientia docet. The reduced work devolving on the provinces by recent legislative changes is recognised, and it is time it should, as a reason for reducing the number of provincial officials. We await, with a little curiosity, the specific proposals- by which the Executive will endeavor to carry out this idea ; — how many officials are likely to be dispensed with, and how much is likely to be saved in this way. We have heard something like this before, but nothing ever came of it. In fact the whole provincial system would disappear if the principle of keeping no more officials than are needed were carried out. One of the first to go would" be the Superintendent himself, and if any one thinks this too sweeping an assertion, we can only recommend a careful study of the speech on which we have been commenting, and the proceedings of the Council which will folio w,and if we are not mistaken, before the end of the session he will come to the conclusion, long ago forced upon ourselves, that provincial institutions are no longer a useful part of our political system.