THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, JULY 1 1867. TOWN EDITION THE TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 26, 1 July 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, JULY 1 1867. TOWN EDITION THE TOWN AND COUNTRY.

Do we grow wiser as we grow older ? This question would furnish a fertile subject for discussion to a debating society, and a great deal might be said to .prove that the axiom, that experience was a dear school in which fools were taught wisdom, is nothing, ;but an assumption after all. Whether true or false when applied to individuals, it is .certainly not true when applied to Governments, and is to all intents and purposes false when applied to the Provincial Government of Wellington. It has hot grown wiser by growing older; it has not been taught wisdom by experience ; past lessons have been totally lost on it; and this we think we can forcibly demonstrate. It is just ten years ago since the settlers of Ahuriri petitioned the Wellington Provincial Council for justice. Stafford then as now was in power, and then as now he was aiming a blow at Provincial Governments. Featherston then as now was the Superintendent of the Province, and then as now he was looked up to as the champion of ultra-provincialism. The petition of the Ahuriri settlers was fhen, treated with contempt, as the just complaints of the Wairarapa settlers have now been by the Provincial Council. The Stafford Ministry was then proposing their New Provinces Bill, by means of which they hoped to weaken the power of the Provincial Governments, and to dismember the Province of Wellington. The Stafford Ministry are now preparing their Municipal Districts Bill to still, further effect what by their former Bill was left unaccomplished. The present writer, then as now, anxious to see the Constitution Act carried out in its integrity, and the rights of the Provinces maintained, had again and again, and. as ineffectually as now, called npon the Provincial Government to decentralize its powers and do justice to. the outlying districts. In vain then as now did we remind them that local self-government ought to be the basis of true Provincialism; and that the arguments employed by them in support of their, demand for the decentralization of the General Government, and to compel it to, hand oyer many of its functions to the. Provincial Governments, were not any stronger, because precisely similar, to those which might be' employed to induce the Provincial Governments in their turn to divest themselves of certain powers in order that the. outlying, districts might have the expenditure of a portion of their own revenue and the entire management of their purely local affairs. In 1857, the Ahuriri- settlers finding that Provincialism meant Pro T vincial centralization, appealed from the Provincial Council to the General Go 7 vernment for redress; and in 1867, the Wairarapa settlers, under precisely the same circumstances, will be reduced to the disagreeable necessity of doing precisely the same thing. This would not have been the case if the Provincial Government had profitted by the lessons which it had received in the school in whiclvit is said even fools are taught wisdom.

If .the reader will turn.-to His Honor’s speech, which we published in our last issue, he will find that the very name of Wairarapa is not mentioned. He again and again refers to “ Wanganui and the country districts.” Why is this large district lumped in with “ Wanganui and the country districts ?” Would it have been so had justice been, done to it ? If a fair share of the surplus revenue had been devoted to this district what careful paragraphs would , have been written—what elaborate calculations made—to show the justice of Wellington to the Wairarapa. We are .told that all the ordinary revenue has not been needed and is not. needed for the machinery of Government ; but we have made, a present of the surplus of the ordinary revenue to Wellington, and have based our claim to justice on our contributions to the territorial revenue. Now if Wellington has not absorbed the greater part of our land fund what has become of it ? The Blue Books show how much the Wairarapa has received of the amount. His Honor, it will be seen, in his review of the justice done to the country, limits himself to last year, and the present year’s estimates, and has entered into

details just as far as suited his purpose and no farther. But the Provincial Treasurer;did not labor to prove what ha felt°to be' impossible. Why did he express sympathy for the Wairarapa people, and regret that no larger sums could be devoted to this .'district f His expression of sympathy was an acknowledgement of our wrongs, and afforded an excellent opportunity for bringing the whole subject before: the Council on the part of our members of which they should have availed themselves. We cannot: flatter, .ourselves, that Has Honor’s remarks were intended to answer the facts and arguments which have from time to time .appeared in the Mercury. As in 1857, so in 1867 the views of country settlers or country journals are disregarded. The allmsion to “ Wanganui and the country districts ” was .made ’for another purpose. It was intended as a reply, not to this journal, but, by anticipation, to the,arguments which the Ministry will employ in favor of their Municipal Districts Bill. His Honor would rather hunt Tor arguments to prevent that measure .being passed, than so administer the Government as to render such a measure in this 1 ■Province uncalled for and unnecessary. We agree with His .Honor that the Native Land’s Act abrogated the so-called financial compact of 1856. We agree with him that it is likely to imperil the territorial revenue ; but we do not see why means might not have been token by the Government during the last session of the Provincial Council to increase the Provincial revenue; why means should not be taken during the ensuing session of the General Assembly to effect the same object by a different process; or why, consequently much larger sums should not have been appropriated for this district. Again, we repeat, is an outlying district of the Province of Wellington compelled to appeal to the General Assembly for that justice which has been denied to it by the Wellington Provincial Council.