The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1882. PROVINCIALISM.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1245, 2 December 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1882. PROVINCIALISM.

That faded beauty, Provincialism, is still occasionally toasted in this district and thero are a few people who believe that she may again becomo a reigning belle. The vast majority of settlers have long ago either given Provincialism up as effete or. else their memory hardly carries tliein back to tlio time when it existed. Our own. impression has always been that many of tlio Provincial years in the Wellington district were periods of famine and stagnation. It is true that towards their close there was a stirring up of the old dry bones. Sir William Fjtziierbert assisted by Mr Bunny, infused for a short time a considerable amount of vitality into itpriorto its extinction, but this was done by begging, borrowing, and logrolling—by pawning every available security, and by recklessly forcing | land into the .market.'to supply a conI stantly hungry exchequer, Our own experience of Provincial Government jxtended over ten years, and striking an average of this period wo are satislied that the good old times were not to be compared with the present days. In all parts of the Provincial district, country settlers have made more rapid progress since the abolition of Provincialism than they made prior to its extinction. This fact applies not only to the portions of the district served by railways, but to the West' Coast where until very recently the public works or railway expenditure has been absolutely nil. It will be a bad day for New Zealand if local legislation, is again, conceded, to either Provincial or County bodies. The General Government Legislation is absolutely more efficient than tlio old Provincial Acts, and it also goes more in the. direction of. providing for the welfare of the colony as a whole. Of course when New Zealand was colonised, and communication by rail, steamer, or telegraph was unknown Provincial Governments,were.a neces-. sity, but in those days when every part of the colonyis in constant communication with ministers and heads of departments the necessity for exercising local legislative powers is altogether ((one away. with. It follows from time to time when, as in the late ainalgama? don discussion, there is a" little -political excitementmanifested thatit is not unreasonable to expect some old Provincial whips to recur to the times when they took-a more active pavfc in politics than they,can possibly do under. our present torni of Government, 1 but : there is not the slightest chance of this lament for Provincialism growing into a demand for its resuscitation,