ABOLITION OF PROVINCES.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1204, 21 August 1874, Page 3

ABOLITION OF PROVINCES.

[nelson mail.] We are inclined to wish Mr Vogel good luck in his campaign against Provincialism. Just now we are looking at the matter from a Nelson point of view, and we are unable to see that our experiences of Provincial institutions are such as to render them very dear to us. In clays gone by they may have proved useful, but for some years past their attractions have been gradually fading away, and even now, under our new government, we can sec nothing that is lovcable, but much that is repugnant, iu them. For several years we have been existing—and that is all, and now we are economising—and that is all. We can reduce the Jiurnber of Wardens on the goldfields, and confine the supply of tin teapots to the immigrants in the depot within very narrow limits, but beyond that we seem unable to stir. Nothing is doing, nothing is likely to be done that could not be just as well done without that costly piece of machinery entitled the Provincial Government. look at our Provincial Council. It meets, it talks, it passes resolutions, and it annually makes two or three new laws, but can anybody who takes up and studies the Blue Book in which are recorded the proceedings of six or seven weeks, refrain from wondering how the members have passed that time, or from asking himself whether the game is worth the candle ? In some respects, indeed, wo are disposed to go still further, and to assert that we are positively injured by our present mode of Provincial Government, because, in carrying it out, differences in local matters arise between our members of Parliament which become so bitter and so serious that they cannot be left behind, hut are carried over to Wellington and there give rise to such pitiable exhibitions as that which recently amused the Houso and was characterised by one of tho Otago members as a " Nelson free fight." And in this way cur power and influence in the General Assembly is materially weakened. We really shall feel deeply indebted to Mr Vogel if he can show us how to get rid of our present system of Provincial Government. We have Municipal Corporations iu tho towns, and Eoad Boards in tho country, we are well able to look after local interests, and we believe that the work of legislation may be safely left to the General Assembly.