The Press. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1867.

Press, Volume XII, Issue 11575, 23 November 1867, Page 2

The Press. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1867.

We have not advocated the abolition of the provincial system principally, or indeed to any considerable extent, under the idea that any very large reduction would be thereby effected in the Governmental expenditure of the colony. There would be some saving of course. A system which within so limited an area as /that of New Zealand establishes nine different centres of G-overnment, each with its own sepai rate machinery, is on the face of it unnecessarily expensive. By doing 'away with all Governments and all Legislatures but one we should at least save the country the cost of the Provincial Executives and heads of departments and the expenses of the Provincial Councils, with all that pretentious imitation of the forms of the Governments of great States, which has been one of the besetting sins of Provincial administration and has led in many ways to so much needless expenditure. This is something ; still it is not on that ground only that we are desirous of seeing the system at an end. We should support its abolition just as warmly if the change were attended with no pecuniary advantage whatever. Our great object is to get rid at once and for ever of the sectional differences between the several parts of the colony, and the provincial combinations in the General Assembly to which they inevitably lead. "That we believe to be the first indispensable step towards the accomplishment of what' the welfare of the colony urgently demands, a lightening of the taxation. And iv order to put an end to these combinations we would remove the chief incentive to them, by constituting a single Treasury and a common revenue for the whole colony. This is the cardinal point in the reform we advocate. So long as the provinces exist, and depend almost wholly, as some of them do, upon the ainouut allotted to them year by year from the colonial revenue, it is at variance with their interests that any steps should be taken by the Assemby which may tend to diminish that revenue. But when the partnership between the General and Provincial Governments has been altogether abolished; when there are no more " provincial institutions " to be maintained out of the Colonial chest ; then the Assembly will be able to consider fiuaucial questions unbiassed by provincial influences, and determine them, not aa may suit the convenience of this part of the colony or that, but as may be best for the interests of the j people as a whole.

There never has been a time when tbe public affairs of New Zealand, political or provincial, have been conducted, or when it has been possible

!to conduct them, on any principles of colonial policy. Mr. Weld attc-mpted it, but was farced to succumb. The Wellington members, lor example, supported him heartily up to a certain point, as long as his measures happened to suit the interests of Wellington, but when they had got all they wanted for their province they deserted him. Dr. Featherston did not scruple to declare that he was strongly opposed to Mr. Weld from the .very first, but could not consent to assist in ousting him from his Premiership until he had removed" the seat of Government to Wellington and confirmed the Panama contract. In order to secure these advantages to hia province, lie supported, or at all events intentionally refrained from opposing, a Minister whose policy he believed to be disastrous to the colony. It is to provincialism again that we owe the war policy of 1863-4 and its results ; for though the original scheme of confiscation and settlement was introduced with large professions of benefits to accrue to the colony, and was acquiesced in on the strength of those promises, in the hands of those who were charged with carrying it into effect it was converted into a mere scheme for provincial aggrandisement. Instead of a colonial, it became solely an Auckland policy. The log-rolling in the Assembly, of which we have such incessant complaints, the Auckland block-voting, and the attempts of a party in Otago to force a similar unanimity in the Otago members, are all fruits of the same system. The same principle, leading to the same practice, holds good also in financial matters. The task of supplying the wants of the provinces is the stumbling block of all Colonial Treasurers. Mr. Jollie, who looked askant at the business, and candidly recommended the provinces to depend more upon their own resources, was incontinently turned out of office. During the last two years the provinces, insisting on being paid three-eighths of the Customs, irrespective of whether such was their lawful share or not, have forced from the General Government no less than £183,000, to which they had no shadow of a claim, and have actually compelled the Government to borrow money —that is to add to the permanent debt, and therefore the taxation, of the colony— for the satisfaction of their necessities. There can be no financial reform while this state of things lasts. How cau there be, while there exists a powerful interest in the Legislature apart from, and even opposed to, that of the colony —a party which has a direct interest iv keeping matters as they are, and doing nothing that may lessen the gross returns of a taxation of which they receive one-half the proceeds ? They cannot be expected to do otherwise. As long as the provinces exist the provincial establishments must be maintained, and to maintain them a sufficient sum must be extracted from the Colonial Treasury. But if the provinces were no longer subsidised from the Colonial chest —if, that is, the provincial system were abandoned, and there were but one common revenue for the whole colony—then the method and adjustment of the taxation would be considered by the Assembly with no other thought than how to arrange it so as to be least burdensome on the colony and least calculated to check its material progress; for then the Assembly would represent, not the Provincial Governments, as it does at present, but the people of New Zealand.