The Westport Times. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1873.

Westport Times, Volume VII, Issue 1090, 18 July 1873, Page 2

The Westport Times. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1873.

There is looming in tho political horizon a cloud as yet "no bigger than a man's baud," but which presages approaching conflict of diverse elements. The Superinteudency contest in Auckland has aroused the cry some time prevailing, but for a moment lulled, for tho abolition of provincialism. An influential party there inclining much to favor the candidate who goes in boldly on the abolition ticket. They assert that heavy provincial taxation must ensue if proviucialinstitutions are to be maintained, and that in such maintainance profit only arises to provincial officialdom. They argue that the necessity for nine distinct legislatures playing at a perpetual game of cross purposes with each other, and constituting in each provincial capital a system of centralisation powerful for no good purpose, but on the contrary,eminently obstructive to the work of true colonisation, should be swept away. That Colonial Government and colonial taxation should alone prevail, and that the business of mere local institutions should be entrusted to local boards, endowed with increased power to levy rates for their various purposes, in contradistinction to taxes which should aloue be paid to the Colonial Government. In thus preserving the difference between rating and taxation, it is maintained that the one could be localized, and rates would bo willingly paid by those who would have the direct supervision of expenditure, while taxes would be levied uniformly throughout the whole colony and pressing no more heavily on one province than another. Arguments are of course adduced in favor of the perpetuation of provincialism, but the balance of public opinion in Auckland is evidently adverse to its further existence. Looking southward for political indications, it is plainly apparent that Otago, and to a lewser extent Canterbury aiso, favors a dismemberment of existing forms of governance to the extent of establishing a separate government for each island. At the ensuing elections the party cries of " insular separation," and .-"abolition of provincialism," will, while prevailing much against the feeble wail of " ultra provincialism," scarcely accord with each other, and the conflict of political strife may wage with exceeding bitterness. The men of the north, while anxious to shake off the incubus of a provincial form of government, which only drags out a miserable existence through the reluctant aid afforded by the Colonial Government, would very unwillingly forego tho advantages, direct and indirect, derived from the more flourishing financial condition of the southern provinces. On the other hand the southern men,who persistently declaim against the injustice of their provinces having to bear the brunt and burthen of taxation to meet the unprofitable demands of the Nativo Office, would not consent to any less reform in the governance of the colony than a complete separation, financial and administrative.