The Southland Times. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1584, 28 May 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, MAY 28, 1872.

" Behold, my son, with how little wisdom the world is governed !" So said the wise Oxiensteen, who had never read the debates of the Otago Provincial Council, and we, w no have enjoyed that privilege, see no reason why the same thing should Dot be said again. That deliberative assembly, representing the collective wisdom of the province, has now been in session for three weeks, and still shows no symptoms of impaired vitality. On the contrary, the Order Paper is more crowded with motions than ever, and the subjects which still remain to be discussed are numerous and varied enough to require three weeks more. The industry of our representatives certainly deserves the highest commendation. It may be from a becoming sense of delicacy that they have, up to the present time, tacitly avoided any mention of the honorarium which is to reward their services — an omission the more conspicuous when we consider the very varied range of questions they have seen it their duty to discuss. But it seems to us that this modesty is quite uncalled for. The laborer is certainly worthy of his hire, and if we are to maintain a debating club in Dunedin for the purpose of enlightening the public mind, we must expect to pay something for the luxury. Such an institution we possess in the Provincial Council, and it cannot be denied that, as such, it performs its functions with remarkable zeal, and a reasonable amount of ability. Viewed in this light, the Council is really a very respectable institution, and the contemptuous tone in which its proceedings are usually criticised is altogether unjustifiable. But this is precisely .the position which the Council refuses to accept, though the public, and many of the members themeelvea, have long been aware that its real value, as a component part of our State machinery, amounts to nothing more, i To speak the truth about such an august '

assembly may, for aught we know, amount to a " breach of privilege," and draw down the wrath of the representatives of the people in parliament assembled. We venture to say, nevertheless, in the plainest terms, that the Provincial Council, as at present constituted, is an : absurdity and a sham, its pretence of legislation a farce, and its financial arrangements a tissue of chile! ish folly. The fault lies less with the members I themselves than in the false position in i which they are placed. The Councilclaims the right of legislation/ and ex: ercises Jkatrig.ht^;in, Jthe, most , elaborate . and punctilious, siyle, but it has not the . power needful forsecuring the- adoption of a single measure it may, pass.- jlfc claims the right of. administering the ! public lands, but it has no means of enforcing the conclusions at which it may - arrive. It deals with public funds which it does not provide, and the amount of Which it doe 3 not know, and cannot even estimate. This is the simple truth, and nothing more. The Executive and the private members are alike aware of the fact. But the system exists, the machinery is there, and the farce must be gone through. The knowledge that its decisions do not necessarily involve any practical results, affects the whole tone of the Council's deliberations. An air of unreality pervades them all. We have a Land Bill prepared, in which the /vnr>fo>.ofa «f'inrJ{«rtHrial mpinberß are freely incorporated with a mass of elaborate details, brought, down from the House of Eepresentatives. Whether they will work or not, is, of no consequence. : The Executive and the CJounqil. „adopt them without scruple,' 'sometimes 'altnost without discussion. All must be revised' again in the Assembly, arid' any little absurdities will be set right there. The danger is however that they may not be set right, at least at first, and serious evil may be done in the meantime. We have an estimate of Provincial revenue and expenditure, in which the outlay is unblushingly set down in excess of the income, and the Council, in spite of remonstrances from the Executive themselves, insist on voting more. The estimates of income are furnished on assumptions of the vaguest kind, which the Treasurer himself admits may never be realised, though at the. same time he ventures to hope that they may be greatly exceeded. He sets down Crown lands at £70,000, but does, not Bay) what reasons he has for expecting they w^ll realise that sum.. He puts down £20,000 for- General Government grant, but ddes not know whether he will get it or not. He got £13,000 last year, though he thinks he ought to have had £3£,000. Perhaps the Government will make up the balance this year. But on the other hand, they may not. There may even be a claim on the Province of £15,000 or £20,000, instead of money to receive. As to the little amount, £44,000 on 31st March, and slightly increased since, which the Province owes the Bank of New Zealand, he seems to think the less said the better, and accordingly nothing is said. The Bank may insist on being paid, or it may allow the claim to stand over. Nobody knows. Meanwhile the Council go on night after night, voting thousands and tens of thousands at a time. Half of these votes, every one ;believes ? will never be expended, and as soon as the Council rises, the Executive are free to pick and choose their own pet objects , out of the ample list placed in their hands, and to spend whatever funds may actually be available, in any way that may seem best to themselves. This is Parliamentary government with a vengeance! The fault, as we have said, does not lie with the members, but with the anomalous system of which they form a part. A representative assembly without the power to enforce its decisions, or the means of estimating the revenue it has to distribute, is an absurdity the existence of which can only be accounted for by the fact that the political condition of the country is in a state of transition, and that it represents all that is now left of an institution which has been . useful in its day, but of which the form without the substance now alone remains.