THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, JULY 15, 1867. TOWN EDITION. OPENING OF THE SESSION.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 28, 15 July 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. MONDAY, JULY 15, 1867. TOWN EDITION. OPENING OF THE SESSION.

The Parliament of New Zealand is nowin session. The speech from the viceregal throne has been uttered. An opposition, numerically stronger than ever a Ministry had to contend with, is comparatively powerless from the fact that it is not organised, not united, and in almost every other respect deficient in those elements which are necesary for success. Divide and govern is the all but avowed policy of the Ministry, and the probability is that both in the House and. in the country that policy will triumph. The Otago question is their chief difficulty. They can assign no reason that will prove satisfactory to the Provincird party that the administration of the Otago Gold Fields ought to he withheld from the Otago Provincial Government, Let it be granted, as we expect it will be, that the delegated powers under the Act could not have been wisely conferred upon the Otago Superintendent they will still have to show that there was no other course open to them but that of exercising those powers themselves. The Ministry may say what they please, but it is plain on the face of it that they intended when aiming a blow at M'Andrew to follow it up by successive blows at other Superintendent, and other Provincial Governments besides those ot Otago. It is useless for them to deny this, and if the House uphold them in the course they adopted on this particular occasion it will virtually assent to the destruction of Provincial Institutions. This is evidently what the Ministry are driving at, but they object to be called destructive and revolutionary, and would rather effect their object covertly and leisurely than by a “ coup d’etat.” The sappers and miners and not the artillery, is the force on which they rely to secure a victory. “ To be, or not to he,”—that is the question to be decided this session with reference to the Provincial system of Government which has been established under the Constitution Act, and if the House decide that the Ministry did right relative to the Otago question, it will virtually decide the fate of Provincial institutions. “Tyranny,” says a great statesman, always selects in the first instance, for the accomplishment oi its designs, a single victim ; and it generally selects a weak one.” This is precisely what the Ministry supposed they were doing when they withheld the delegated powers from'iPAndrew. They expected that the Provincial party would never support the cause of a man like M‘Andrew, and they consequently concluded that the Provincial Governments, while witnessing his overthrow, would be so blind as not to see that their turn would come next. Judging from present appearances this conclusion was a hasty and it may prove a fallacious one. Is New Zealand to have its internal affairs administered iu future by ono General or by a number of Provincial Governments/ This is the question which requires the decision of Parliament, but it is not on this issue that the case will he tried. If the present costly machinery established by the General Assembly for the Government of the colony is to be maintained, the Provincial Legislatures and Executives must be compelled to be merged into Town and Shire Councils. There will be nothing for the former to do, and from the necessity of the case, they will prove more expensive than profit. If, on the other hand the Provincial system is to he maintained, a much larger proportion of those powers and revenues which tha General Government has usurped and enjoys must be transferred to the Provincial Governments. Local self-govern-ment, which His Excellency talks about in his speech can be secured under either system, and, with an’ Anglo-Saxon race, is absolutely required by,both. With Town and Shire Councils, New Zealand might dispense with Provincial Governments, but. if Provincial Governments aro to be maintained thev must be so at the cost

of the General Government, and not, as heretofore, at the cost of the outlying' districts. We have said that to divide and conquer is all hut the avowed policy of the ministry, and that it will probably be successful both in the House and out o doors. The conversion of Provincial Loans into Colonial Stocks will, it effected, do more to undermine the provincial system than any other measure that could he introduced. We cannot see how the members from the Middle Island can object to the payment of such stock being secured on tiie territorial revenue. They will, perhaps, not admit that it was a great mistake to cause the colonial land revenue to be looked upon as purely provincial revenue, but they require tohereminded that not only was such revenue, under the Constitution Act, rendered liable tor the cost of the extinguishment of Native Title, and was subject, equally with the Custom’s revenues, to the appropriation of the General Assembly, but that their own territorial revenue has already been pledged for the re-payment of the very loans which it is now proposed to consolidate.

We must pass over the allusion to the Native difficulty, as we, and also our readers, are heartily sick of the subject, and our Auckland friends may rest assured no outcry that they can raise will ever bring back the Imperial troops. The whole colony feels the loss of the money which was circulated by their means, and sympathises consequently with Auckland members and Auckland contractors in the sorrows and distress thereby occasioned. The Native Land Courts’, if allowed to do so, will settle the native difficulty; and even Sir '-George Grey himself, in a short time, will not be able to make tbe subject interesting. The complicated and unsatisfactory state of the accounts between the Imperial and Colonial Governments, resulting in part from the presence of the troops is a matter of much more importance, and we wish that the Colony will refuse to recognise any claims on the part of the Imperial authorities arising from a war of their own making. The correspondence and the report on this subject by the Colonial Commissioner, will, we believe, excite considerable interest. Commissary General Jones proved himselt, we understand, no match for our Commissioner. The reference in His Excellency’s speech to a Bill for extending the benefits of the colonial credit to enterprises calculated to foster ajid extend the important industry of the gold-fields, would make the Provincial party wince;; •but we do not see why the operation of the measure should be extended to that industry only. The Ministry seek for a justification of the measure in the special •character of tbe taxation rf the goldfields, but special taxation is surely not the only reason why the Legislature should endeavour to foster and extend a local industry. In a new country there are many works required which are too great for individual and private enterprise alone to accomplish. But the measure of by far the most importance to outlying districts, in comparison to which indeed the others are little and insignificant, is the Shire -Council’s Bill. We now learn authoratively that the public funds of outlying districts are not to be administered by Town Boards, but are to be expended on works of local improvement under tbe management and in accordance with the wishes of those immediately interested in their construction. Such a measure has our most cordial approval, and we do not think we can ever forgive the Provincial partv if they should be the means of preventing this great boon to the outlying districts being conferred upon them. From what we have above said, as Veil as from the Governor’s speech, it will be gathered that the Session just 'opened must necessarily he a most important one, and we do not intend to leave any means untried to place its proceedings and results, not its spoutings and palavers, before our readers.