Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 9, 1874.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 870, 9 October 1874, Page 2

Lake Wakatip Mail. QUEENSTOWN, FRIDAY. OCTOBER 9, 1874.

We imagine that very few persons, except extreme and ardent Provincialists, are unconvinced that an impending change is on the eve of being accomplished iu the constitutional history of this Colony. We fully believe that, in their inmost hearts, the warmest advocates for the continuance of Provincial Institutions must have sore misgivings that they are but beating the air. Their loud and blatant talk ; their continual begging the question; their desperate onslaughts upon the combine, and the majority in the Assembly upon this questiou, all testify that they are but attempting to avert an impending day of reckoning by procrastinating and postponing it. We can see nothing asserted iu their arguments that Provincialism is a thing that shall not die yet or that it shall live for ever. They protest, with bluster, that the new policy of altering the constitution is without precedent, .and is simply legalised spoliation. We are accepting reports of recent utterances, iu the North as well as in the South Island, as proof of these remarks. They say it is unconstitutional, and that no precedent exists fur the line of action taken by the Vooll Cabinet in so suddenly proposing to abolish the North Island Provinces. Each speaker on the side of another protesting section of the Provincialists assigns some reason or another why the change should bo postponed until the constituencies can express an opinion upon the vital point at issue. Against any such postponement the people, wo think, would offer no objection, provided always that such an opinion could be tested quickly. The speakers that represent this view of the case are the more moderate ones of the party. But there is the other class who consider the abolition of Provinces, as proposed, to be a deed of unparalleled] iniquity in the annals of the Colony, and without precedent. They would continue the present system to the bitter end, or, as they euphoniously put it, " until the existing Provincial Institutions have done the work they were created to do." With this latter class argument is in vain. They depend upon precedent being produced to justify resort to a demanded vigorous action to meet a pressing public malady. Doctors have, ere this, allowed their patients to die while they consulted precedents as to whether a departure from laid down rules was justified or not. Lawyers have driven their clients mad by protracted law-suits, in which the search after precedents played no insignificant a part in the ghastly drama, that they, as in the case of the doctors, observed so cold-blooded and lightly. Experience and examples had blunted feelings. So, also, with these ardent, but coldblooded, Provincialists. The State may perish unless a precedent can be shown to justify so vigorous and unexpected line a of poliey as that proposed in this case. We shall discard the precedent argument as being beside the question. It is only intended to procure delay; to procrastinate j matters so, as it were, that the last shilling

may bo extracted out of the pockets of the unfortunate victims who may then be left to die while the pitiful wrangle continues over their remains. Precedents are being quoted by several of our contemporaries on both sides of the question. Those who delight in this line of argument will find sufficient in the Tress throughout the Colony-. Public maladies of a serious nature demand, !' in our opinion, urgent remedies and forcible measures—not treatment by precedents. The ovil, in other words, produces the cure. Whether it will be advisable or not to meet the views of the more moderate portion of the Provincial party by an appeal to the country, is a matter of consideration, we think, for the constituencies themselves to decide, rather than for the representative members to declare so definitely upou. The latter were elected when this " plank was not laid down in the political platform of the day. So far as we can judge, the various constituencies arc approving of the policy of the majority of the Assembly whenever opportunity occurs. An appeal, therefore, under such circumstances may be a jump from the frying pan into the fire. We ourselves believe that we shall hear a great deal less about this now-much-talked-of question of appeal long previous to the next meeting of the Assemely. More members have yet to meet their constituencies, and this time-honored observance should, at such a tide of public ail'airs be demanded of every representative, be he a member of the Assembly, or of a Provincial Council. We think that by such a line of action the bulk of the constituencies wil. be found endorsing the proposed constitutional changes. If they do so, then an appeal to the country will bo rendered unnecessary, and legislation on the subject need not be delayed or protracted. There is yet another manner by which the voices of some of the constituencies will he more practically ascertained. Several vacancies of seats in the Assembly are rumored as well as several for Provincial Councils. In our own Province, one in the latter bod vis a certainty, as an election for this district is now pending. The question of the desirability of the proposed constitutional change has thus every and full chance by these means of being well ventilated, aud a public decision given thereupon. Accepting therefore, as a fact, that the country is in favor of a change from the present dual government to that of a central one with {localisation of administration, the question arises—and a very large one it is, we admit —upon what basis should that change be effected ? To what extent should local bodies be endowed? How, aud with what class of revenue? And lastly, what shall be their conslitution. The time, we think, has arrived when an examination of theso considerations may uot be without value; but at the end of an article of this nature, which has only dealt with a fundamental conflict of opinion upon a sudden movement, they could receive but scant justice at our hands. We therefore prefer to reserve our remarks, but conceive that we have given some scope for thought upon the problem now before the electors of this district to decide upon.

could yet ask the several tenderers whether they would agree to this increased speed of service. The delivery of the mails an hour earlier would be a public advantage. The roads are much improved to what they were six years ago, aud yet the same old slow-coach time is kept.