The Southland Times. INVERCARGILL: TUESDAY, SEPT. 2

Southland Times, Issue 1788, 2 September 1873, Page 2

The Southland Times. INVERCARGILL : TUESDAY, SEPT. 2

Hating upon the introduction of the Budget expressed our views briefly as to that part of its proposal recommending the renewal to the Provincial Councils of New Zealand of the power of borrowing which previous legislation had taken away, the recommendations urged by the Premier on moving the second reading 1 of the Provincial Councils Empowering Bill have not disposed us to look upon the measure with any further degree of favor. The principle has been already affirmed that it is not desirable that the gonorol indobtodnoeo of the Oolony should be at any time liable to increase to the detriment of the whole by entrusting to a number of separate responsibilities the power of contracting obligations which, arrange them as we may, cannot fail to be regarded as Colonial obligations. The Bill is not needed to secure the firgt object which it sets forth, namely, "to secure local approval of certain classes of public works, {and thus to free the House from the necessity of considering works as to the expediency of constructing which it was impossible for honorable members to have an adequate knowledge," and is inadequate to effect the second, namely, "to guard against such undertakings interfering with the credit of the Colony in carrying out the great works it bad undertaken." No legislation whatever is sufficient to effect this latter object as long as the whole of New Zealand is under a General Government, the division of it into provinces or counties being regarded simply as a matter of local convenience. There is perhaps but little reason to doubt that at present such of the provinces as may be disposed to borrow upon merely Provincial security, will be able to obtain what they require, but there is a certainty connected with it that the rate of interest to be paid for the accommodation will be in each case in excess of the rate at which a loan could have been obtained covering the respective amounts of Provincial indebtedness upon Colonial secmrity. If this be admitted, it must be granted that the multiplication of these instances must tend very materially to retard the progresß of the Colony, if not to place it in a position of jeopardy, of long-continued suffering, and distress. The former object of the Bill is after the experience of Southland in byegone years but little of a recommendation, as we know to our cost the readiness with which debt was contracted, as well as the difficulty and humiliation which its contraction ultimately entailed upon us. There is probably no power more dangerous to be entrusted to local bodies than that of an unlimited borrowing power, and in asserting this we do not in the least question the soundness of the general principle of the desirability of borrowing as a whole to the full extent of our borrowing capabilities for reproductive works and works of general utility. Ib is in the diminution of the check upon the disposition to borrow unnecessarily and extravagantly that the evil lies. The system of Provincial Government has been admitted by even its strongest supporters to have many evils connected with it, and the oversight of the General Government haa been regarded as the safety- valve or regulating principle to prevent any alarmingly serious mischief. We do not need now to be told of the facility with which, under local circumstances, it ia often possible to effect such a combination as that the general good is sacrificed either to the fancies or the personal interests of a few. Persons altogether outside of the

matter under consideration are generally most competent to give an unprejudiced judgment, while they are often more able to form a better conclusion aa to the true utility of a project than those even by whom it has been set on foot, even where there is no reason to suspect the existence of any unworthy motive to warp or bias. This Provincial readiness to get into debt is admitted by the Premier when he says, " the Act might not satisfy all the cravings for Provincial borrowing." We do not however apprehend that any one will be disposed to find fault with the Bill, because it does not go far enough, or is not sufficiently comprehensive, almost every conceivable description of public work coming within the scope including the objects for which borrowing may be had recourse to. We do not doubt but that it is easy enough to secure a loan or loans upon provincial security alone, nor that the lender may be readily , enough made to understand that it is to the Province alone that he is to look for repayment, but we contend that under such circumstances a loan cannot be obtained advantageously, while it is dangerous to shut our eyes to the possibility, or rather to the great probability, of some one or more of the Provinces plunging into a difficulty "requiring special legislation to meet, and spreading disaster over the remainder. With the foregoing tendency admitted by the Premier, the wonder will be, if the Bill should become law, if a number of the Provinces are not simultaneously plunged into the same difficulty, in which case the result to the Colony may be easily foreseen. The argument for the necessity for the Bill is based upon this admitted tendency, or rather upon the fact that representatives of Provinces had recently been demanding powers to borrow, even to the extent of a million sterling in some cases. The original public works' scheme of the Premier, sinks into utter insignificance when contrasted with the alarmingly gigantic proportions, to which by the Bill now under consideration, it is proposed to extend it. We confess that we are utterly unable to discover a single point of advantage conferred on the Provinces by the Bill, beyond tliat which arises out of the admitted necessity for the prosecution of public works with all reasonable despatch, but this has its limits, and we are far more Lkely to suffer by precipitation than by extreme caution. We have been living for so long under the influence of a growing desire for the extinction of provincial institutions, that we are somewhat startled at a proposal which aims at increasing their functions to an extent only limited by the value of their area, and which may place any Province in a position of detriment to others while maintaining its separate existence. To the class of speculators to whom the permanent interest of the Colony is a matter of no concern, the Bill is a boon, as offering inducements for the wildest enterprises which a local excitement may be able to carry. We trust, however, with the strong feeliug in the House against the Bill, the G-overn-mftnt will not press it to a division. Aa regards the Government proposal " that authority should be given to borrow £500,000 for the purchase of Native lands in the North Island, to be handed over to the several Provinces, we hold this to be an arrangement which few if any will be disposed to object to.