New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1875. WANTED A POLICY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 133, 19 November 1875, Page 10

New Zealand Tablet. Fiat Justitia. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1875. WANTED A POLICY.

The patrons of Abolition are loud in the expression of their disappointment at the reticence of provincialists. This reticence has been written down as a serious fsiult, and the advocates of provincialism, have been censured for not putting forth a scheme of government to take the place of the provincial form. This is extraordinary. In spite of the determined opposition of provincialists, the present Government and their supporters have carried a Bill to aboli«h provinces at the end of the next session of Parliament ; and having done this, they turn round on their opponents and blame them for not suggesting something to take the place of provincialism, forgetting, or ac all events acting as if they had forgotten, that the Abolition Act of last session may be repealed in the • next, and that it was with a view to the possibility, nay probability, of such a repeal, that the Abolition Act itself provided that it should not take effect till another session had elapsed. Logically, therefore, provincialists, had they been foolish enough to do what abolitionists affect to have expected them to do, would have relinquished their legitimate position and abandoned their vantage ground. In a word, had they done as their adversaries seemed to wish them to do, they would have weakly given up their policy, and become the dupes of their- political enemies. The opposition of last session has its policy, which may be summed up in Ihese words: — Provincialism modified to meet the exigencies of the present.

This, however, does not appear reasonable to abolitionists; these seem to think that it is peculiarly the duty of those who opposed the Government scheme, "and who intend, if possible, to repeal the obnoxious Abolition Act next session, to propound a policy in lieu of that which they are determined to uphold. Why? Is it that they are themselves .unable. to devise a satisfactory scheme of government to take the place of the provinces they would abolish? It would seenfso ; hardly any other conclusion appears possible under the circumstance?. Their political powers, therefore, are entirely destructive, without any admixture of the constructive or reparative elements. But provincialists may justly ask abolitionists why they themselves do not propound a scheme of government, and why they wait for windfalls from their opponents. The Government party is bound to propose a satisfactory measure for local government, but as yet all their attempts in this directiqn have proved utter failures and mere delusions. What have they proposed to give us in place of provinces ? Municipalities, road boards, and shires, and endowments— nothing more. We have all these things already, and under more satisfactory conditions than those offered by abolitionists. We have municipalities, road boards, and endowments, and the people of this province of Otago have a shire law, of which they can avail themselves whenever and wherever they please. Abolitionists, then, after having, so far as they cnuld, deprived the people of the management of their own affairs, magnanimously propose to compensate them with that species of local government which they already possess, minus, however, some very liberal provisions of our Shire Act, and the control of a large portion of the land fund ! It is wonderful ! Provincial governments are to be utterly destroyed, and oar compensation, which it is said will be a vast improvement on the present order of things, is to consist in a part, and a part only, of the rights and endowments the people enjoy at this moment. Tue attempt of the abolitionists is. then, a barefaced attempt to curtail the rights, of the provinces by diminishing their liberties and pilfering from them a portion, of their revenues by a process of law. ■ This is how the matter appears to us, and to many others, and our surprise is great to find that up to the present, notwithstanding frequent assurances that New Zealand should have more efficient local self government than heretofore, not one member of the Cabinet, not one writer or speaker on the abolition side has ventured even to hint as to what this local self government is to be. It would be worse than idle to introduce again the Local Government Bill of last session. It would be scouted out of the House amidst the laughter and jeers of hon. members, because it would give, in place of the control over our own affairs which we now possess through provincial governments, actually less local government than we have already under and side by side with provincial governments. Yet, so far as appearances go, the abolition party is incapable of devising "any other scheme. In s fact, they have admitted as much, for have not their leaders affirmed again and again that nothing could be definitely settled till time and experience had developed our wants and their remedies ? The Abolition Act, therefore, is a leap in the dark, and the Government forces the people, or endeavours to do so, out of the well-beaten track in which they have advanced to an almost unparalleled pitch of prosperity, in order to launch them on an untrodden way which leads no one knows where. The abolitionists want a policy : being puzzled on the subject, they fall foul of •provincialists for not providing them with what they are so sorely in need of, and abuse them roundly for not providing them with the necessary article.