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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume II, Issue 11, 14 January 1867, Page 3

_____»_______________ —■■____________■_■ __ __— i TO THE ELECTORS OF WAIMEA. GENTLEMEN— My approaching departure from the colony renders it doubtful that I shall be able to take my seat as your representative during the next session of the General Assembly. I desire, therefore, to inform you that I have placed my resignation in proper hands to be made use of if required ; and I may, perhaps with propriety, at the same time make a few remarks upon the present aspect of public affairs, the results of my experience as a public man. Hardly 1 2 years have elapsed since we have enjoyed representative government, and we are to-day staggering beneath a load of debt and taxation unparalleled throughout the world in proportion to our population and resources. The spectacle of an infant colony thus ground down by excessive burdens is indeed a lamentable one. Our unfortunate position must be attributed partly to the existence of a numerous and powerful race of aborigines living in close quarters with the settlers in the North Island, still more so, in my opinion, to the radical defects of the system of Government established by the Constitution Act. The problem of restraining within the limits of law and order, and applying the complex machinery of civilized government to an intractable race of savages, in itself a most difficult task, and further aggravated by the disloyal conduct of the Home Government and its Representative, Sir George Grey has doubtless contributed a large quota to our burdens. Here lies a weapon ever ready to the hand of the Separationist, but, inasmuch as we of the South cannot get rid of the incubus of debt already incurred, and for which the colony, as a whole, is liable, and as, moreover, the cost of governing the native race and repressing its outrages does not exceed some £70,000 a year, of which the Maoris themselves contribute £50,000 in dutiable merchandize consumed by them, I trust that our southern population will not be induced by so specious a pretence to send up the advocates of Separation to the Assembly. The Native difficulty is essentially temporary, and I believe practically at an end. Our true policy M r as well laid down by a writer in ihe Times, whose sentiments have been echoed by some of our politicians best acquainted with the Maori: — " Our policy towards the natives in New Zealand is comprised in one word, ' Wait.' Temporising expedients, delays, dilatory negotiations, all manner of devices which are of little avail in ordinary cases, are of the greatest use when we have to deal with a race which is continually decreasing. It is easier to grow into the undisturbed sovereignty of New Zealand than to conquer it." One of the most singular provisions of, our most singular Constitution Act, invests the Superintendents of Provinces, although elective officers, with very large executive powers. The compound body thus created is repugnant alike to the genius or logical development of Anglican constitutional principles. That so anomalous a political hybrid should have emanated from a British Parliament is a fact hard to understand, but the distaste exhibited towards this office, and the unqualified condemnation heaped upon it by leading politicians in England, excites one's wonder at the chapter of accidents by virtue of -which an Act, altogether so extraordinary, could have survived the ordeal of its passage through Imperial legislature. The Superintendents of Provinces engaged in electioneering contests for seats in tlie Assembly, exhibit a painful, not to say an unseemly spectacle, because the power and influence derived from their office cannot fail considerably to bias our constituencies, even when that power and influence are not used as a direct engine of coercion and intimidation. Nor can I perceive that the presence of these officials in the colonial Parliament is in any respect conducive to the public welfare. Instigators to "log-rolling" — fomenters of disaffection— the heads and fronts of sectionalism—loyal and discriminating supporters of no possible Executive the two Houses can produce — they, in conjunction with their "tails" of provincial officials (unfortunately allowed by law to sit in the Assembly), sinking into mere delegates, pursue a line of conduct the sole aim of which is to paralyse all attempts at good government, and to embarrass the Ministry of the day, so as to make it a mere puppet powerless to resist their insatiable demands upon the general revenue. Gentlemen, it is high time that you should know at whose door to lay the increase of taxation by which you are ground down, and by which every settler in New Zealand is impoverished and oppressed. It is high time for the country to recognise that the excessive inroads made upon the colonial revenue by the provinces, in order to supply the lavish extravagance of the Provincial Governments, have alone necessitated the increased taxes, and the passing of the Stamp Act. And, most assuredly, as long as the absurd financial scheme remains in operation, by which the General Assembly raises the revenue for the Provinces — or, in otlier words, until the Provinces are taught to " do their own work with their own hands" — so long will such ruinous inroads upon the Colonial Exchequer be continued. The Provincial system is dragging the Colony towards the verge of ruin, having already reduced most of the provinces themselves to a state of bankruptcy ; indeed lam convinced that we can never hope for any reduction in taxation, or improvement in our financial position, until the time arrives when both provinces and Provincial Governments shall have become things of the past ; so that we may be able to live under some simple and inexpensive form of true and real local self-government, in exchange for the present costly, inefficient, and cumbrous sham, the end of which has been to create an army of officials and placemen, to raise up and unduly develope a few small towns scattered up and down the sea-board of these islands, at the expense of the rest of the country. Tlie proposal of an export duty on wool did not come before the House, but, had it been brought forward, I should have voted for it — although I confess very unwillingly, because I consider such a mode of raising revenue to be highly objectionable in many important aspects. The object of such an impost is plain — to tax the wealthy landowners and sheep-farmers, who, it is notorious, under the present fiscal system, escape the share of taxation which they ought to pay. This desirable object would, I believe, be attained by an