LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 38, 23 September 1867, Page 2

LOCAL GOVERNMENT.

It is seldom that we refer to debates which have taken place in the Legislative Council, for the simple reason that there is seldom anything said there demanding comment; but last week a motion was made by Mapr Richardson relative to the above subject which elicited a debate that would, if published, be read with interest by all settlers resident in outlying districts. We now know the reason why the Local Government Bill of the present session was rejected. It was thought it would place the lands of large holders t,oo much under the control of small holders. The former have shirked taxation through the General Assembly and the Provincial Councils, and they feared that they would not be able any longer to do so if outlying districts had powers of Local Government conferred upom them. The Local Government Bill was consequently rejected, though it erred in the very opposite direction to that pointed out by our landed legislators. A measure more favorable to the people, less favorable to land monopolists, and more acceptable to outlying districts, will yet have to bo passed.

On the occasion to which we refer Major Richardson, in effect, proposed, “ that the time had arrived when a large share of Local Self-government with a fixed endowment should be conferred on outlying districts.” He than proceeded to show that anterior to the Constitution Act very liberal provisions had not only been devised bat actually earned into efiect for endowing the outlying districts. He quoted from the Royal Instructions to prove that the Governor had power to authorise the application of any proportion not exceeding one-third of the gross proceeds of the sale of land effect■ed within the limits of a hundred to such purposes as the Wardens of the hundred might direct. By the u Hundred Ordinance” the Wardens had the disposal of the fund raised by assessments on stock depastured within the hundred, and they had also the power of making regulations as to the stock that should be depas~tured. The Constitution Act gave the disposal of the whole land fund to the Legislature, and the Legislature in 1762 •repealed the Hundred Ordinance. Since that time the outlying districts have been left to the tendermercy of the Provincial Councils, which, what with Queens Wharves, Steam Subsides, Reclaimed Land, and Patent Slips, have devoted the funds raised in outlying districts for the benefit of their Provincial capitals.

We have on a former occasion shown ■that in the opinion of Sir George Grey .municipal institutions and Local Sellgovernment were necessary for New Zealand, not as substitutes for Provincial Governments, as Major Richardson would ••■desire us to believe, but as an important element in the constitution of the colony. Sir George Grey evidently believed that the Provinces would quickly be developed into States, as proved by the following extract from one of his despatches, quoted, during the same discussion, by Mr John Johnston; but if Sir George Grey was a Provincialist he did not wish to substitute Provincial Governments for Municipal Institutions. Sir George Grey, writing to Earl Grey, said:—

“In my previous despatches I have generally supposed that the Provincial Councils would eventually merge into a kind of municipal councils. But the rapid growth of these settlements in wealth and prosperity, and the 'turn events are taking, now lead me to think •that they will always remain distinct and separate Provinces, and that provision should he made -for enabling their present form of Government, consisting of one chamber, to be changed by the General Legislature into a form of government composed of a Legislative Council and House of Representatives, whenever the number of inhabitants in any Province, and its wants, might render such a •change in its form of Government practicable and desirable.”

As a further proof that he sever contemplated that the Provincial Councils ■should be substitutes for Municipal Councils, or vice versa, he observes:— “ The Provincial Councils would greatly increase theefficiency of the Municipalities bv forming the proper bond of union between the several boroughs of any one province, which would then all be fitted as it were into one body politic, the action of the several parts and the whole of which would be in entire harmony.” The fact is that the reasons given by Sir George Grey for establishing the Provincial system of Government for a country like New Zealand are almost -identical with those given by De Tocqueville for the establishment of State Governments in America. The latter says—“ It was impossible, at the foundation of the States, and it would still be difficult, to establish a central administration in America, The inhabitants are dispersed over too great a space, and separated by too many natural obstacles for a single Government to undertake to direct the details of their existence. America is therefore permently the country of provincial and municipal government * * * Thus the nature of the country, the manner in -which the British Colonies were founded, the habits of the first emigrants, in short everything united to promote, in an extraordinary degree, municipal and provincial liberties.” To the causes here assigned by De Tocqueville for the absence ofa centralized administration inAmerica, Sir George Grey adds others to prove that such a system is unsuited for New Zealand. Sir George Grey was a provincialist, but unlike the provincialists in the Council he was the advocate of local institutions. Sir George Grey was as stout an advocate of the latter as Major Richardson represents, but, unlike Major Richardson, he believed also as stoutly in the necessity for Provincial Governments. Both parties in the Council appeared anxious to have His Excellency to back them; but, neither of them could Tightly claim his support, as he was opposed alike to General and Provincial centralization.