THE ABOLITION OF THE PROVINCES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XV, Issue 1934, 17 October 1874, Page 2

THE ABOLITION OF THE PROVINCES.

MR. VOGEL'S OPINIONS IN" 186^. Mr Vogel's speech in introducing his resolutions last session, respecting the abolishment of the. Provinces, . w,as so utterly opposed in every; sense to the : opinions he expressed in 1868, that we think it will be rather instructive to publish a portion of the speech he made during the session of that year. On that occasion Mr Yogel spoke as follows': — "You are asked to make, and told that you ought to make, great organic changes in your institutions. I ask you to consider well before you give up what you have. . . . . . . The cry against the Provinces is in some measure a personal cry. There are men in the Colony who think that New Zealand was made only for them to govern, and whoj ifs they fail to get power through the Provincial Government, feel bound to get it through the General Government. Whilst they are connected with the General Government, they do all they can against the Provinces ; but if they find theoWelyes in 'the cold shade, of opposition^ "they are not indisposed again to throw themselves upon the Provinces from which they came. This cry about the necessity for increasing the power of the Central Government comes simply from the Government in power. Turn them out, and you will hear little more of such a cry. Those men are more likely, when out, to proclaim, as they have dong before; that it is most desirable to limit the power of the General Government. Theythus turn great questions intoa mere game of personal ambition. We must see that this conduct is at th9.bottom of a great deal of the discontent ;in the Colony. ' Abolish, the Provinces,' it is cried ; they have worked out that for which they were designed. In the next breath Jalmost, we are told that the Provinces must be abolished, becauseso many of them are in difficulties. I ask you to agree with me iD this,: Provincial .institutions have stood between the Colony and the frittering away" of an enormous amount of resources. ....•; . .. And what is the local government - system which is to supersede Provincial institutions? .... A local government py tetn will not give a larger revenue than there is now. It implies, and will amount to, only a different form, of government-^ a form which would be much more expensive than, the Provincial form^; because there would be a large army of officials to be maintained. Another thing you must remember is, that in -relinquishing Provincial institutions, we should virtually be relinquishing representative government. We should live under a system of dictatorship, under an arbitrary ' system, carried out by travelling members of the General Government . In fact, that system only means revenue raised by the General Government, to be expended without appriation. We are not to suppose that the few thousand pounds a year spent upon Provincial instioutions— an expenditure which will be very much exceeded if the Provinces are divided into counties and road districts, under the General Government — -we are not to suppose that those few thousand pounds will suffice to enable to be given to the new districts that which they really ask for— a larger . share, for industrial and reproductive^ . purposes, of the revenue of the Colony^c The Provinces have been guilty of faults, no doubt ; but it is not from those faults alone they suffer— nor do Provincial faults constitute the majority of those which they have committed. You cannot" have a greater curse in such a country as : this, than that the General Government should be constantly educating the people to dissatisfaction with Provincial institutions. You may take away the Constitution under which the Colony has proceeded so far, but you 'cannot give to the people another Constitution which will earn so much of their respect and veneration. You will have to deal with a disappointed' people--a people which once reverenced its,O6n» stitution, but which has been. taught to believe that it did so under a mistake, and though you give to the country a new Constitution, the people will be susceptibly open to the idea that it wants a third new charter, and then a fourth, and so on. The present is the time for the people to declare, We have lived under the Constitution ; we love, it j it has, on the whole worked well. We shall never get another which we; can love; as we have loved this one. We will stand by and preserve that which we have. The people will not regret so saying and so doing. . .. .No change in the form of your Government will enable you to [change shillings of revenue into pounds, ] but you may painfully scoop all. the shillings you can command, and place them at the absolute disposal of a Central Government. You may sacrifice your Provincial system for one called local, and you may find as the result one gorgeona | system in the centre, and elsewhere nothing that can be independent, or responsible, or useful."