The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1868.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2345, 29 June 1868, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1868.

Tie man who had used an implement for a dozen years or more in his ordinary daily work, who had found it generally satisfactory though not altogether faultless, and who, in some temporary fit of displeasure threw it aside for another "highly recommeuded " by the inventors, would be universally regarded as having committed an act of extreme folly. This is precisely the position in which a portion of our fellow colonists seem bent on placing themselves. The institutions under which they have lived, and by which, in spite of abuses, they have grown and prospered, they appear willing to cast away for a nostrum concocted by Mr Stafford and his frieuda, cunningly labelled to suit the prevailiog political .epidemic, and industriously puffed as a cure for that and all other ills to which the body politic is subject from time to time. Professor Holloway invites suffering humanity to use medicines which experience has shewn to be at least harmless. Mr Stafford advertises a remedy which, on trial, has engendered maladies ten times worse thau those it professes to cure. Like the Yankee doctor, who knew nothing of pustules but was a " stuuner" on fits, he adopts the circular mode of treatment, and administers a dose which drives his patient into convulsions. This accomplished, the rest is easy. The Neiv Provinces Act prepared the system for the reception of a second dose, locally applied in the shape of the Tiraaru and Westland Bills. This, Mr Stafford proposes to follow up by the general administration of the remedy called Local Government. That, he has reason to believe, will be followed by disorganization ; and, the circle thus completed, he will step in trumphantly with the air of a man who is fully master of the -situation. Mr Stafford is decidedly at home in fits. r . When we are offered local self;gc veV&meot in lieu of Provincial iustiitutions, our first duty is to inquire mt the phrase really means, and then 'fo the new machine

isadaptedto ourrequirements. MrStafford, like other politicians of the same stamp, is fully alive to the advantages of a good " cry." He obtained office at a time when the people were complaining of extravagance in the Colonial Government, by holding out the very tempting bait of retrenchment and economy. How he fulfilled promises then given, we leave the public to judge. And so it is with local self-government. A long period of depression had given birth to a spirit of discontent with existing institutions, Abuses which undoubtedly existed were industriously magnified; wrongs which no one denied, and which called loudly for redress, were seized on with avidity in order to foment discord; and the cry of Provincial abolition was raised when the people had become politically demoralised. But it is well to pause before we go further, and to consider whether it would not be more prudent to take the task of reform into our own hands; whether, by inviting the General Government to step in, we are not steering directly for Scylla in order to escape from a fancied Charybdis. We possess a form of local self-government which, even its bitterest enemies admit, has worked well in the past. Is it wise, is it ordinarily prudent, to give it up before we have tried whether we can ourselves adapt it to our altered circumstances P Is it not the height of folly to rush madly after an invention which the only persons who have tried it pronounce a failure ? The Westland County Council is now in session, and the daily record of its proceedings contains little more than a series of bitter complaints against the Act under which it is constituted. The members of the County Council find that they are fettered in every direction, and that their proposals for self-government, however trifling, must first receive the approval of the Central authority. And this is what Mr Stafford would give us in exchange for the local government which we have the means of effectually influencing in any direction we may think best tor the interests of the community.

In a former article, we reviewed that portion of Major Kichardson's speech to the Clutha settlers in which he endeavoured to prove that the framers of the Constitution Act contemplated the abolition of Provincial institutions. We shewed that, even if such abolition were foreseen and provided for, certain conditions were also laid down. The extension of telegraphs, and improved means of communication between the provinces are not the only things which must precede the change advocated by the Centralists. It is also essentially necessary that we should avoid the great danger of placing our liberties in I the hands of a few leading politicians before we possessasufficiently large body of leasured men qualified to undertake the duty of representing all classes of the community. Major Richardson, in the second part of his speech, advocates the entire abolition of Provincial institutions as the first step towards local self-government. In other words, he tells us to throw away the machinery of government which we now possess, in order that we may receive what has been proved to be worse.' Major Richardson has discovered, by what means we know not, that it is utterly unnecessary to have nine Provincial Councils in the colony. He considers this one of the most extraordinary political phenomena that has ever appeared on the surface of the world. It is not out of place to inquire how long Major Richardson has held these opinions, or whether, when he was Superintendent of Otago, he looked upon the nine Provincial Councils as an extraordinary political phenomenon. Extraordinary as the existing system may be, Major Richardson—such is the absurd inconsistency of political tinkers—absolutely proposes to make it more wonderful. He would give us nominated instead of elected Superintendents, and " a Council of twelve, elected for two years." The gallant Major must have been reading up ancient and medieval history; for " a Council of twelve" could only have been suggested by " the Council of ten," so painfully familiar to those who have read Q-eorge Eliot's "Roraola," even if they should not have perused more solid works. It is difficult to conceive by what mental process Major Richardson convinced himself that the form of government he was proposing would get rid of the political phenomenon he had been deploring not five minutes previously. there is a further proposal, involving the creation of another set of Councils. The provinces, says Major Richardson, should be divided into Counties and Road Board districts. The County Councils would be composed of delegates from the road districts, and would elect their own chairman. To the former would be entrusted the administration of what is called the trunk road fund, while the latter WQuld take charge of the district roads. This is the system of Government which Major Richardson, nurtured for the last three or four years on a diet prescribed according to the circular treatment, offers to the electors of Otago-three distinct ' powers in each province, controlled by , the Central Government at Welling- i ton, involving an endless train of petty > local jealousies, aud laying a founda- i tion from which would spring innumer- , able conflicting interests. We are not i told what the cost of this scheme would ' be, as compared with the Provincial 1 institutions it is intended to supersede; ! that, of course, we must find out by experience. ' i

Crude as are Major Richardson's proposals for administrative reform, they are excelled by his scheme of finance. It is enough to say that lie proposes to continue the vicious system under which the General and Provincial Governments dip their hands into a common purse, fighting meanwhile about the division of the contents. The evils of this system are twofold—it perpetuates the financial dependence of the provinces, and effectually prevents any reduction in the taxation. Major, Richardson makes no attempt to conceal the latter; he

frankly says that, for the present at least, the taxpayer must not expect relief. _ To this we have no hesitation in adding that, if the people accept Major Richardson's proposals, the day of relief will be indefinitely postponed. That portion of the consolidated revenue which Major Richardson would still hand over to the provinces is to be applied to the maintenance of gaols, police, and harbours, "the balance, if any, to go towards the liquidation of Provincial debts." The land revenue, after a portion has been taken off for the payment of Provincial debts where the share of consolidated revenue yields no surplus for that purpose, Major Richardson proposes allocate in the proportion of onethird for immigration, one-third for trunk roads, and one-third to district Road Boards. It never occurs to him, apparently, that he has made no provision whatever for the expenses of the nine nominated Superintendents and their Councils of twelve," or that provinces which have little or 110 laud revenue can have no immigration, no trunk roads, and no extension of internal communication.

It is humiliating—we say it with regret—to be called on to discuss such childish proposals. It is still more humiliating to think that thej should have been gravely enunciated by one who was, till very recently, a member of the Colonial Government. The people must, indeed, be sadly demoralised who listen to such miserable trash, or so fearfully indifferent as to know nothing of the privileges they enjoy. If, notwithstanding Major Richardson's anxiety to be considered the sole parent of the scheme he laid before the Clutha settlers, it should turn out that he haß been foreshadowing tbe intentions of his late colleagues, there can be little doubt as to the fate ot Mr Stafford's promised Local Government Bill—the people will indignantly reject it, and insist upon their right to adapt the institutions thev now possess to their altered circumstances. If, by local self-government, Mr Stafford means the complete ascendancy of the Central authority, as in Westland, he will find that he has made a grave mistake. The people are not prepared to accept the political slavery he would offer them in lieu of free institutions which they can themselves reform.