THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1868.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume II, Issue 60, 22 February 1868, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1868.

The advocates of local self-government and colonial unity as opposed to Provincial centralisation and colonial unity ave frequently * fronted with being- the supporters of bureaucaracy and aristocracy, on .the principle of" giving a dog a bad name," and not because anyone really thinks that it is so. As however one of the commonest tricks of unprincipled politicians is an appeal to classprejudices, it is well occasionally to expose the absurdity of such assei-tions as those to which we have referred. There is probably not a more thorough believer in democracy than Mr Fox in the whole colony, nor one whose political antecedents have been more opposed to a centralised sj'stem of administration of the French type. If therefore we find Mr Fox speaking of the evils of provincialism, in terms at least as strong as have been used by anj r member of the colonial party, it is evident that there is not the slightest connection between opposition to Provincialism and dislike of free institutions and popular power. " Italy," says Mr Fox, " is now no longer a bundle of petty duchies, tyrant kingdoms, and Papal prisons, but a free land —free from the foot of the Alps to the shores of Sicily. * * * There you see none of those petty provincialisms which dismember a country—none of that discreditable haggling of which and where is to be the seat of government; the present capital was fixed and will remain that capital till the last remnant shall have bean won, and then without contention, Florence will render up the claim to that city further south." Now we do not for a moment maintain that because Mr Fox disapproves of" petty provincialisms " in Italy he will do the same in New Zealand, all we say is that it is mere nonsense to talk about the struggle between Provincialism and socalled Centralism, being a contest between democracy and aristocracy, when a man like Mr Fox can use the language we have just quoted. It might as well be argued, that Garibaldi is an aristocrat because he preferred one king to a number of dukes, as it is to argue that a man's tendencies are aristocrctic, because he thinks the General Government are better able to manage many things than the Provincial Governments, and the people better able to manage many other things in their own districts than either. If anything, an excessive fear of innovation is rather characteristic of the aristocratic spirit than otherwise, and no thorough-bred Tory ever sought against any " tinkering of the Constitution" than do some of the Provincialists. But indeed all these clap-trap appeals to that " envy, hatred and malice " which must exist more or less in every community, are but the faint far off echoes of political war cries which may have had a meaning in certain states of society, but which have none here. It is really too obsurd to suppose that any set oi men can seriously contemplate an attack upon constitutional liberty in a country where every man has or may have a vote, and when the sweets of office are not of a kind likely to tempt any " aristocrat" odious by attempting to obtain them at the expense of the rest of the community. In reality :he danger is all the other way. There is some fear that what may be roughly taken to represent the aristocratic section of the community (in the sense of being few in number, comparatively wealthy, and on the whole better educated than any other part) will abandon political life altoand content themselves with devoting their whole energies to making fortunes in this country in order that they may spend them in Europe. Such a result is inevitable if the bulk of the people are taught to regard with suspision the men best able and willing to serve them. But we can quite understand that men who make a trade of politics,regard with extreme jealousy any approach to a state of things which will enable the people to dispense with their services. Under the provincial system, every man who can influence the election of a Superintendent may hope to receive some government appointment, or to obain some other advnntage quite irre-t spective of the general good. Under a system of local administration, men of this stamp would be too well known to ' stand a chance. The people would have a more direct interest in getting the best men to do their work, and would know better who they were. In short, the wind-bags would collapse, and therefore the wind-bags hope things will go on as they have done.

We believe that the inhabitants of the Wairarapa are beginning to see that the time.is coming for “ petty provincialisms ” to bg done away with, and that the persons interested in keeping them np after they had served their purpose, are not the settlers themselves, but people who wish to live upon them.