TAXATION.—(No. 15.)

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XXIII, Issue 3120, 17 July 1867, Page 4

TAXATION.— (No. 15.)

We have now concluded our investigation of the various heads of colonial expenditure. We nave found that our central Government has been guilty of great extravagance in its administration, both in the work it attempted to do, and in the way it tried to do it. Hardly a single branch of colonial expenditure seems to be free from the very serious charge of unduly extended patronage, and a very objectionable amount of red-tapism. In every direction we see Govern*ment becoming dearer instead of cheaper as the population increases; officials multiplied in a greater ratio than revenue ; taxes to a greater extent than the resources of the colony can bear Without serious injury. We have not, however, in this survey exhausted all our Governments by any means. The General Government is found, to be a heavy burden, and a hard taskmaster ; but in New Zealand it is only one of many Governments, each of which imposes its own burdens on the people. The Provincial system of this colony has been the subject of more praise and heavier blame than almost any other form of Government we have ever heard of. Its friends have been unable to see a flaw in its fair proportions from the first; its enemies have almost from the first, seen no good thing about it. It has never been difficult for the friends of Provincialism to point to the roads, bridges, and public works which are maintained by the Provincial Government out of funds at their disposal, and to compare these results so tangible and gratifying with those of the Colonial Government expenditure. On the other hand the retort has never failed the centralist that these public works, of which the provinces are so proud, have been done by means of large loans which have sunk the country into debt, and in some measure at least with money which they have found the Colonial Government to raise whilst they threw on it the blame of excessive taxation. Such are the invectives rather than arguments which have marked the controversy between the Provincial and central parties in New Zealand, and we believe them to be most unprofitable. In all such controversies there is too much tendency to look back and dwell on the past, too little to examine impartially the position of the matter at present. It is easier to < point triumphantly to our own good deeds and our adversaries' failures in the past than to prove that our own scheme holds out any great promise of future excellence.

The origin of our Provincial Governments was a very simple one. When powers of self-govern-ment were first entrusted to the colonists, itwas felt that, divided as they were into a number of ! distinct communities having little communication with one another, nothing of the nature of a cenral government could attend to matters of purely local concern. The roads, bridges, immigration, surveys, &c, had to be placed under the control of local bodies acquainted with the circumstances of the cases, and the needs and resources of the various districts. This was the intention with which provinces were mado a part of our original constitution, and there can be no doubt that in this way they have, for the most part, been of very great use. The question for consideration now is, however, not so much one of | the past as of the future— not so much what | they have doae, but what they are now doing, or about to do, for the country. This must be considered exactly on the same principle on which we have considered the former part of our subject under the heads of Colonial Government expenditure, and we must ask ourselves what Provincial Governments do for us, and what we pay for their services. It is by an examination of this kind, after all, that any popular institution such as Pro- n vincialism or Centralism, must stand or fall. It is quite vain to think of trading upon former virtues, when the question is one of the present; it is equally useless to speculate upon how a condition of things yet undeveloped will affect any given institutions if they are felt to be economical and effective in the meantime. We have said that Provincialism has done good service to the colony, but the question that we have now to discuss is, What is it doing now ? The management of waste lands, of immigration and of public works may be considered the esspecial functions of the Provincial Governments of New Zealand. First, then, of the wastelands. The Forth and South are very differently situated in this respect and must be separately considered. In the North, till within the last* two years, the Government was the sole manager of waste lands. All the lands in the island not in European hands were waste lands of the Crown so far as the European purchaser was concerned, because he could only buy from the Government, now the Provincial Governments of the North, have but little land, and are not likely to get more. There will soon be no waste lands to administer, because all that the European has not yet got will be in the hands of the native seller, who will sell to any one rather than to Government, it is hardly too much to say that, in the Northern Island of New Zealand, a very few years will probably see the last of Government administration of waste lands, and that even now that admistration has sunk into a matter of second or third-rate importance. In the South it is different to a considerable extent; and yet, if we may trust the accounts given of the position of the landed estates of the various provinces by the press, we cannet fail to see that the importance of the waste lands is on the decline. It is said that in a few years more the magnificent landed estates in Canterbury will have been alienated almost entirely ; while in Nelson the proposal to alienate at one blow nearly all we have left of it, has met with, universal approbation. If this is the case, the provinces' occupation is gone, so far as the waste lands are concerned. But there is still immigration to be considered and this is work which has been, on the whole, well done by the provinces ; while we believe it would not be well done, and, in fact, had better not be attempted, by a General Government o£ the colony. To this the reply may be made that henceforth our immigration will require to be unforced and natural. The gold-helds have done much to force this conviction on the people of this island, and other things have combined to make the Provincial Governments of the North come to the conclusion that no extensive scheme of immigration can be pursued with any benefit. The main point, however, is that of public works. Every one knows what has been done in this way by the Provincial Governments in the different provinces. In some cases the lcsalta lxayc Tjoon. moxo gratifying than in Others but in all they have been, and still are tangible. We can use our roads and bridges ; and even the costly harbour and railway works which have been confessedly beyond the means of some provinces that have undertaken them, are substantial, though, it may be, costly bene« fit. It is useless to say that these things are trifles, or to leave them unnoticed, for every one knows their importance to himself, and feels that he has in them a tangible return for his money, which he has not always, not perhaps often, in the expenditure of the General Government. The cost may be great, and not only heavy debts may have resulted from them, but a heavy share of taxation may go to their account ; yet the public will not, and ought not to believe that this is an expenditure that can be got rid of. Eailway loans indeed may have been mistakes, but even railways increase the wealth of the people and may eventually pay. In any case roads and bridges, wharves and harbours, are necessary to the prosperity of the country, and if the money does not come from the Customs three-eighths it must come from some kind of taxation, so the saving will be scarcely appreciable. In fact the public must see this, that so far as economy and efficiency go it is only a question of one sort of administration against another. The money must be spent on roads, therefore the money must be raised by taxation — and it matters little by what particular form of taxation it may be. Thus we consider it evident that in the state of things now existing the question of Provincialism or Centralism simply amounts to this. .Are the evils of the present mode of administering our provincial expenditure such as to override the very considerable benefits we have experienced and still do experience from it ? And to this question we hope to return in our next issue. — Nelson Examiner.

The Wae Spibit in Eubope.— We find the following in the San Francisco Bulletin of the 4th May :— -" New York, April 27.— The lribune's special says the Department of State has received, by mail, a voluminous despatch from the Ministers of France and England, showing conclusively that a general European war can scarcely be avoided. Napoleon, for a month, has been making large military preparations. The war feeling, it is alleged of the French, is almost beyond Napoleon's control. • Malakoff writes to the Times, from Paris, under date of April 12th, that the people are excited to such a point that all serious business transactions were arrested, no houses were sold, no long leases given, and no large orders are gi\ en to manufacturing houses. The exasperation extends further back than the Luxembourg question. The anti-French spirit was pervading Germany, it is understood by the French, throughout and before the late war. They are enraged at the Government's failure to take timely action. The opposition members of the French Chamber are humiliated at the position of .trance, and while they are willing to fight their way out, they are at the same time organizing for a revolution. They think the republic could fight Europe combined." New Zealand Agbictotitbai. Society.— l will be seen by an advertisement which appears elsewhere that the above Society will hold their annual ploughing match on Friday, the 19th instant, the prizes for the first-class being £3, £2t2 t and £1 respectively, and for the second, £2 and £1. There will also be a prize of £3 for turn* wrist ploughs, and an extra prize of £3 for the best ploughing in the field. The first and second prizes are open only to boys under 18 years of age. A draining match is also advertised to take place, there being three prizes offered, of £3, £2, and £1 respectively. } Should the weather prove favourable a good, muster is anticipated, m which case there will doubtless be a good exhibition ., of skill in these pajrticuliw branches of agriculture,