PROVINCIALISM.

Westport Times, Volume VIII, Issue 1232, 27 November 1874, Page 2

PROVINCIALISM.

[west coast times.] A serious fault inherent ia the Provincial system of government, as it has been established in New Zealand, is the undefined position of Superinten dents and Executives. It has a fault from the beginning; it lias been fraught with evil in different directions under whatever system Provincial institutions have been established ; and it will eventually contribute to their downfall as much as any other and outward circumstances, unless a material change be made in the re» lationships of Superintendents, Executives, Councils, and the people. With a purely official Executive, nominated and appointed by himself, a Superintendent has the* power, provided ho has the will, to become an autocrat. With an Executive nominated by the Council, a Superintendent runs the risk, if the Executive have the will, of being reduced to a cipher—" a character which, by standing itself, expresses nothing." These are the horns of the dilemma in which Provincial Government, as it at present exists, is placed • and it is a dilemma whicli it is by no means desirable to perpetuate. Autocracy, however good a thing it may be. in particular situations, is an inevitable and insufferable anomaly in the midst of institutions the essence of which is popular repiesentation. And the reductkn of a Superinteneent to the value of a cipher is equally repugnant to the public sense, unless the public are pleased to pay for Lilliputian imitations of monarchy or for a corps of purposeless pensioners. In the absence of any radical change for the better, or until the time comes when Provincial institutions shall be replaced by some other system how is this disagreeable

find unprofitable alternative to be obviated ? . Much depends upon the man who is placed in the position of Superintendent —more upon him than upon those who are, with or without his approval, selected as his advisers and aides-de-camp, and, fortunately, in a majority of instances, a resolute and firm man has been found. Especially has this been the case in the Province of Otago. There Mr Macandrew, though deprecating the continuance of a system which has made his position one of much difficulty and anxiety, has displayed sufricien 1 ; of the suaviter to enable him to work with his Executives as a rule, but there have been excep-

tiwns in which he also exhibited the i fort iter by simply dismissing an obstructive Executive and appealing to the Council. Other kindred examples mi»nt be quoted. Here, in Westland, so °far the public know, the Superintendent and Executive have, in boating parlance, been able to keep stroke with their oars. Deposed from the autocratic position, it has not transpired that our Superintendent has as yet developed into a cipher, and it is to be hoped that that contingency will be averted by the continuance of that common sense, spirit of discipline, and innate modesty which are presumed to be, or ought to be the predominant virtues of our Provincial Executive. What a pitiful picture, in illustration of an opposite condition of things, is represented by existing circumstances in the contiguous Province of Nelson ! There, since the Province was a Province,' there was, until very recently, full opportunity for the Superintendent to be the sole administrator, and there have been instances in which a disposition was shown to despise the Council, and to assume autocratic powers. With a convulsion, there came "a change ; and what a change! Not without purpose- and, perhaps, for a wise purpose in the end, but with evil consequences in the interval —the Superintendent has accepted the position of a cipher, and tacitly permitted the

sham of responsible government to work out its own destiny. Believing, probably, the axiom that if certain persons are allowed a sufficiency of rope they will eventually become their own hangmen, lie has permitted an ambitious and avaricious Executive to exhibit their natural tendencies, and they are doing it to the best of their ability, while he looks on with seeming, but, we fear, with weasel like indifference. Upon no principle that is apparent, unless it is that of personal affinities or animosities, the civil service of the Province has been disorganised under the pretence of being re-organised, local government has been stifled at its birth, personal liberty has been outraged, and finally—though the end is evidently not yet —the trusted servant of several Governments, the Superintendent's own clerk, and indirectly through him the Superintendent himself, have been insulted and libelled with a license of lauguage which is not usual even in these days of rare enforcement of the law of libel. We refer particularly to two cases which have occupied some attention in the columns of contemporaries—that of Mr Knyvett, from whom a voucher was illegally taken, who was given into custody, and against whom the insinuation of forgery was made by Mr O'Conor, and that of Mr Hodgson, who has been by the same person accused — without a tittle of evidence to support the accusation—of perjury, of complicity in wrongfully obtaining money from the Treasury, of opening private letters, and of breaches of confluence ; the said Mr Hodgson, as it appears, haying givon evidence in Court in accordance with the truth, but not with the wishes of the Provincial Secretary. Space will not permit us, as some of the Provincial papers have done, to quote the details of the cases referred to, but there may be another opportunity of doing so. Our purpose in the meantime is to illustrate how the Provincial system of Government may be prostituted, so long ns the relationship of Superintendents and Executives continue undefined, and how necessary it is that, there should be some, radical modification in the ele merits of the institution. The Superintendent of ISTelson is himself an advocate or the system, but it certainly cannot he of that system which he is permitting to develop itself to its inevitable destruction. If it is not, his course may be a correct one, pro vided there were hut one object to serve—that of showing the inutility or absolute evil, of responsible Executives associated with popularly elected Superintendents j but there are other and greater interests affected the immediate and important interests of the people of the Province, to say nothing of his own personal and official dignity. It may be, moreover, that the fault is not so much in the system as in the men whom its introduction has brought into inglorious prominence, and, regardless of party inettings in Nelson, he should, if he shares a very common conviction, have the spirit to say so to his Council. Delays are dangerous, and the danger in this instance is that the next conviction may be in the direction of dispensing altogether with the office of Superintendent.