LEANING ON THE STATE.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1063, 28 February 1911, Page 5

LEANING ON THE STATE.

BEMARKABLE SPEECH'BY A ~•• . MINISTER. . Some interesting statements'were made by tho'Hbri., G.'Fowids'in" a speech .at . Cbristchiirch on Friday night to a "citiiienship meeting". arranged by the Mcth- < qdist Church Qonforence.. Coming from i ti member of the Government, thtf opinions expressed are of uncommon interest.; "•' Mr. Fowlds was mainly, concerned with : "local, or civic citizenship,": and he said: "I amtempted also to lay special,,emjihasis on civic citizenship at the present •'time," Mr. Fowlds continued, "because I frelthat in N«w* Zealand''wo'have'been '■;■ aiore successful in developing tho national ' and Imperial'spirit than.we havo been ; an developing the civic, spirit.. Perhaps .bom© of you might sngeost' that if look- ■ ing to-the Sttito or-to the national Government to do everything for you is an ovidence of the national spirit then we . jaro been too successful in its cultivation. In that conclusion I would entirely agree with you. Whenever I have made : a mild suggestion that localities should do something for themselves, for example' in the matter of education, I have been met with a perfect storm of abuse and denunciation. People in this ,' country havo acquired a marvellous hal- . lucination that everything they can wring from the coffers of the State is paid, for by somebody other thanthemV selves. \ All this goes to prove my con'tention that we.have failed in a great ' 'measure to develop a rational civic consciousness and citizenship. ■■'.■■ \ ■■ "Some.people would contend that'this • lack of a true civio spirit comes ontirely from the. imperfect condition of our local government hv, Imm frco to admit that our. local government law is imperfect and defective, but I think I am justified in holding that tho converse of the contention I havo mentioned is quite as true, namely, that, the imperfect eon; dilion; of our local, government law is the rcsnlt of nn undeveloped or a wrongly developed ideal of citizenship. , Some , peoples idea of local government reform fecms to bo limited to. what. they call an assured finance,' and when you inmiiro more fully what they mean by assured finance' yon find that they mean a steady stream of revenue drawn from the coffers of the national Government. i.TTnlil we set rid of that idea we cannot expectmuoh salutary reform of the law . governing local government in this coun-