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Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 865, 23 September 1871, Page 2

The Provincial system is an outrage of common sense, and, therefore, must fall. Opposition to such a change as propriety dictates will only precipitate its fall, as surely as the trickling rill becomes, by damming back a flood. The only singularity in connection with it is that the form of government should have been maintained so long after the necessity for it should have passed. The fact ia nobody would, dream of originating such a system now—it exists only because it exists. It is an evil that hitherto has been endured, because the majority of those representing constituencies in the General Assembly have been interested iu the maintenance of the evil, and also a large proportion of the people themselves. It is among the eight or nine centres of population,

which formed the settlement of New Zealand in the earlier days, will be found the strenuous advocates of provincialism. To these the system embodies all that is perfection; they contend that colonisation has been advanced by the fostering aid of the Provincial Governments in a manner that could not have been achieved by any other system'; that the legislative functions of their respective Councils have been performed in a spirit which accommodated itself to the condition of the various communities which elected them ; that the expenditure upon public works has been directed beneficially, and that the management of police, gaols, hospitals, &c, has been such as to combine efficiency with economy. It is not a little singular, however, that while in the immediate vicinity of the capitals of provinces are found numbers ever ready to laud the excellency of these institutions ; public opinion expresses itself totally otherwise, on reaching the outlying districts. In the populous and highly fertile district of Oamaru the inhabitants complain that they have been deprived of their due share of the land fund, which would have supplied the means of providing suitable harbour accommodation, as also, increased facilities for connecting the grain districts with the seaboard. In Otago, therefore, the system is not generally popular ; and in the adjoining province of Canterbury, similar dissatisfaction prevails in the districts further removed from the capital; in fact, so strongly do the people desire the abolilition of Provincialism, that Mr Stafford's consistent opposition to the system formed a leading recommendation to his constituents, at Timaru, to elect him as their representative. In our own province of Nelson, the inhabitants of the Goldfields have constantly protested against the injustice that neglected the requirements of these distant settlements, and applied the revenue to purposes least calculated to serve the publci interest. Mr Curtis in his place in the Assembly stated a few days back, that the province of Nelson, i.e , that portion of it outside the Goldfields had expended a larger sum upon the latter than they had ever contributed. Of the correctness of this statement we leave our readers to judge. It will be familiar to them how that gentleman on his last visit to the Goldfields in his official capacity of Superintendent of the Province exhausted his ingenuity in demonstrating that the Goldfields had enjoyed an expenditure very nearly equal to the amount of their contributions. But he now goes further, and boldly asserts that their administration has been a burden to the finances of the settled districts. If Mr Curtis's exposition of the financial condition of the Goldfields were correct, it would be difficult to reconcile it with the opposition he offered to a proposal having for its object the disseverance of the Province. What we, in common with other portions of the colony, complain of in Provincialism is its expensiveness, and the undue preponderance in the respective Councils enjoyed by certain districts. As a form of local government, the system of Provinces is completely defective. In this Province it places the agricultural districts in direct antagonism with the Goldfields, as the latter contribute fully two-tbirds of the revenue without any corresponding influence in directing the expenditure. It is in order to reverse such a policy that the decay of the provincial power is welcome to the goldfields and outlying districts. Although it is very improbable that Mr Macandrew's resolutions will pass, they will bring before the House the necessity of substituting, for the present a simple and workable form of local Government. We fail to see any great advantage that would accrue from the establishment of a government in each of the islands. The most, perhaps, that can be advanced by its advocates is that it would substitute two Provincial and one General Government, making three against nine, and consequently a simplication, and a step in the right direction. We should imagine that its supporters would do well to avoid the financial embarrassments that must crop up in endeavouring to adjust the revenues of the two islands ; and going a step further, decide for one Central Government, with powers to district boards and municipalities for the raising aud expenditure of local revenue.