The Press. MONDAY, MAY 3, 1869.

Press, Volume XIV, Issue 1887, 3 May 1869, Page 2

The Press. MONDAY, MAY 3, 1869.

The special session of the Provincial Council, which opens on Friday next, promises to be even more busy and, it is to be hoped, profitable than we had anticipated. Besides the subjects which the Council has been especially summoned to discuss, the Government intend to submit to its consideration a further important instalment of the reform commenced so vigorously a year ago. We published on Friday the text of a measure they propose to bring 1U for reducing the [number of Hne Council to twenty-five.

The change recommends itself on tho score of economy, as it \\i!i iwt j only effect a considerable saving under the head " expenses of members," but will also tend to shorten the sessions, thereby leading in many other ways to a diminution of expenditure. But it will do a great deal more than that. It will be the first step towards a radical reform in the existing system of government. In that report it is an advance on the reforms accomplished in the beginning of 1868, which were directed only to such a decrease of the ordinary expenditure of the province as could be effected by a reduction of salaries, the dismissal of superfluous officials, and generally by a strict attention to economy in departmental administration. All this was good work, so far as it went, and the Executive fully deserve the credit they acquired for their determination in carrying out a disagreeable though necessary duty ; but it was not sufficient. It was not necessarily permanent. Granted that while the present Government are in office the affairs of the province will be economically managed, their successors may prove extravagant, or the vigilance of the Council may be relaxed, and the expenditure may gradually mount up again to something of its former dimensions. What is wanted is a change in the system, in our conception of the purposes which provincial institutions are intended to serve and the manner in which they should be worked. The besetting sin of all Provincial Governments and Councils —notably those of the two great southern provinces — has been an ostentatious rivalry of their superiors. They have formed themselves upon the Parliamentary instead of the Municipal model. They have insisted on conducting their business in exact imitation, of the House of Commons or, at least, of the General Assembly. The ceremonies and the practice ot' great representative bodies have been scrupulously observed. The session has been opened with an address from the throne, duly re-echoed paragraph by paragraph in a reply. His Honor's responsible advisers have been encountered by a set Opposition. The Council has enjoyed its party! struggles, its exciting contests between the Ins and the Outs, its field nights, its adjourned debates, it;votes of want of confidence, its political crises, and ministerial explanations. These expanded ideas of their own dignity have naturally led to a corresponding expansion of their surroundings. From time to time it has been found necessary to enlarge the Council; the enlargement of the Council has been accompanied by an increase in the number of the Executive, which in time has led to a growth and multiplication of departments ; till in- ■ stead of the few gentlemen who were to " meet in a small room and despatch public business very efficiently, without calling themselves by fine names or drawing high salaries," (Vide Mr Godley's speech at the erection of Canterbury into a separate province) we have arrived at the elaborate and costly machinery which is, or has been till very lately, thought indispensible to the existence of provincial institutions. Here then is where amendment is required. This needlessly amplified machinery must be brought within narrower limits. Things must be done on a far less ambitious scale. The Superintendents must come down from their pedestals, and the Councils be content to assume the demeanour and discharge the functions of a commonplace Board. We wish, indeed, that the name of Council, with its ensnaring associations, could be abandoned. It is too replete with reminiscences of the " good old times." The very word Council is apt to be connected, especially in the mind of a Provincialist, with the idea of a certain exalted status which it is supposed to be the first duty of that body to maintain. He regards it as equal in consequence, and only nominally inferior, to the General Assembly; much as an English squire whose pedigree dates from the Conquest holds himself equal in all but titular rank to his neighbour the Peer. "We believe. that, had the County Council of Westland been simply styled the County Board, it j would never have been guilty of those pompous vagaries which distinguished its early sessions. But however this may be, the Provincial Council must learn to moderate its pretensions, and assume an attitude better suited to its circumstances ; and as the first step in the process a reduction of its number seems to us most desirable. It would pave the way to a gradual simplification of the framework of government, and the introduction of a less cumbrous, and therefore less expensive, system of managing the public affairs of the province. The Superintendent might then be brought into closer relationship with the Council; we see no reason why he should not preside over it as chairman. Instead of an Executive and a numerous staff of officials, he might be

assisted by select committees—a Pinanco Committee, a Public Works Committee, and so on—as is done in the Municipal Councils. A short session, of not more than two or three weeks, would probably be found amply sufficient for the transaction of such business as required the attendance ot y the whole body of members. These and other advantages, which would follow in due course, are worth trying for. The universal complaint in New Zealand is that the country is overgoverned, nor can any one deny that the complaint is well-founded. Any attempt to mitigate the evil deserves encouragement. And the present Provincial Government, by beginning boldly with a reform in the constitution of the .Council itself, are in our opinion on the right track, and are pursuing a course which more than any other is likely to lead to satisfactory and lasting results.