THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1868.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 59, 15 February 1868, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 1868.

Some few weeks back an article appeared in our columns stating that Local Self Government was the great political question of the day, and that the necessity of establishing it in some form or other might be considered as accepted by the majority of the people. In such article we endeavored to show the injury and injustice perpetrated on the country districts generally under the present system of Provincial Governments by the expenditure of nearly the whole of the revenues derived from such districts in each Provincial town and on works in its immediate neighborhood. We left the general question and placed before our readers how the Wairarapa stood affected under the present system of Government, and what we might hope for if such system were done away with and we had, in reality, the management of our own affairs and the expenditure of our own revenue, after making a fair deduction therefrom towards the expenses of the General Government. Our contemporary, the “Journal,”in advocating views in opposition to those expressed by us and which, we believe, are also in oposition to the views of the large majority of the inhabitants of this valley, asked us what this district would gain by such a change in our form of Government, and from what sources we should derive our revenue if the electoral district of the Wairarapa were formed into a county with the entire management of, and control over, its own local affairs. That question might be well answered by asking our contemporary another question, namely:—what benefit has this district derived, or is it likely to derive, from the present system of Provincial Governments and from the parental care of Dr. Featherston ? If our contemporary would show the great advantages we have derived under such care and the immense loss we should sustain if we ceased to be under the same, then there might be some arguments adduced in favor of keeping them as they are and against attempting to bring about any change. Does our contemporary mean to maintain that it has been a great advantage to us to have contributed, by the sale of our lands, some quarter of a million sterling to the Provincial chest and to have expended amongst us almost nothing as compared with what we have given ? Is it an advantage to us that the efforts and exertions of our members in the Provincial should be thrown away and of no effect as against the overwhelming majority of the members for the City of Wellington Is it

an advantage to this district that the Executive Council of the Province should be composed entirely of members for the City of Wellington, utterly ignorant of the wants and requirements of the district, and too lazy to take a single step to asertain, what suclx wants and requirements are ? During the two years the present Executive have been in office no member thereof has paid an official visit to tlie Wairarapa; it is true that Dr. Eeatherston about once a year, as an individual, passes through the district on his way to or from his station at Akitio, but no member ofthe Government comes amongst us to see and judge for himself as to what the district requires or what are its urgent wants. If we had a government competent and willing to perform its duty should we have placed on the estimates the sum of £4O 11s. 3d. as an amount to repair and partly construct 25 miles of main road ? If we had a Government deserving the name would the main road between Carterton and Masterton have been in the condition it was last winter ? And what have we to look forward to as to the state of such road during the next winter ? Why that it will be far worse than during the last, as not a single step has been taken towards putting it in repair, and next winter the coaches and waggons will be up to their axle-trees in mud. Is it a benefit to the district to continue under the paternal care of a Government through whose—we might say—criminal negligence our rivers are unbridged, and almost daily, lives are lost through want ofthe slightest provision being made for their protection in crossing our dangerous streams ? The above show the results of our present system of Government, can any change be a change for the worse ? But what would be our position if the Wairarapa district was formed into a County independent ofj and separate from, the Provincial Government of Wellington 1 In the first place an account would have to be taken between the Province and the County of monies received from and expended in the district, which account would show a very large balance as due from the Province to the County. In the next place we should have the expenditure of our land fund, and as there are in the Wairarapa some hundreds of acres still unsold, and only requiring roads to be made to at once to secure purchasers, we should have a large revenue from this source, and we should also receive a certain proportion of our Customs revenue, therefore we should soon be in possession of ample funds to enable us to execute those works and undertakings which are absolutely necessary to increase our population and to develop the resources of the district. Are not these advantages and benefits well worth a struggleon our parts to obtain 'I Will that be a change for the worse which will secure us such results. ? The question for the Wairarapa settlers to consider is whether they will prefer to have the expenditure of the revenue raised in their district and the management of their own affairs or whether they prefer the continuance of the present system of contributing to the Provincial chest the greater portion of its revenue and receiving nothing in return. But we are satisfied, notwithstanding the advocacy of pur contemporary, that the days of Provincial Governments are numbered—they have been weighed in the balance and found wanting—the voice of the majority of the people is agaiijst them—the beginning of the end has commenced and we have only to look at the present position of Auckland, Taranaki, Marlborough and Southland to see that such end will be at no distant day, and the sooner it comes the better. We shall hail with pleasure the day when Provincial Governments are swept away and become a matter of history, and we shall look forward to the increased prosperity and advancement of the country when the anomaly of ten different governments and ten different legislatures are things of tire past, and we have established in their places one strong central Government and one code of laws applicable to the whole country alike.