COUNTING CHICKENS TOO SOON.

New Zealander, Volume 13, Issue 1147, 15 April 1857, Page 2

COUNTING CHICKENS TOO SOON.

THE first stone of the new Wellington House of Assembly for the Provincial Council, "and Chamber for the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of New Zealand. was laid on the 9th of March, by the Superintendent of Wellington; and upon the stone was carefully and ostentatiously blazoned the fact that this building was erected "at the cost of the Province of Wellington." That a new Chamber and offices were required for the Provincial Government there can be no doubt—and this being the case, the Province ought to pay. But that the spare rooms w be used as ''also a Chamber for the Legislative Council and House of Representatives of New Zealand," remains to be proved; at present, our friends of the Empire City ***' tainlv " counting their chickens before they l * hatched." Our Imperial, as well as impend* neighbours, however, cannot do anyuM? modestly: with the "bunkum" they haveaW imbibed the -'bounce" of American Stumpism ; and though they must have gone to the same expense—or thereabouts —for a p lUt 9 LWviacial ediflc-e—they could not t» opportunity of setting apart some rooms ajf 1 ' ticipatiou of the Removal of the Seat of W" vernment from Auckland, in order that W might sound a flourish of trumpets that • great work was done for the Colony "» * cost of the Province of Wellington." - !l01 j. the Seat of Government be removed to tw South of the North Island, we trow it ««JJ not be long before the General Assembly called upon to vote a few thousands to imburse this self-sacrificing Province for v great outlay for the general good. The speech delivered by Dr. upon the occasion was good, as almost e jf speech of his is; but it was not equal to mer efforts, for there was too much alter effect perceptible throughout— esp»« V in the passages vaunting of the perfection W which the principle of Self-government been carried in that Province —a vaunt r< unfortunately contradicted by the desire so freely expressed by the Districts °*. ;md Wanganui for an equal share of the vincial expenditure or eise for eonanClpW* from the despotic control of the existing J vincial Government In Ahuriri. a c ". ar £ ) ie partiality is undisgTxisedly preferred agiuns Provincial Government; and m waug while the principle of borrowing money spreading the repayment of it over a nun , ( years, is admitted' to be sound, provided , money so borrowed u expended on rea J 1 manent and productive works, —grave tea . expressed that that money will not be aO out, that it will rather be squandered a

K» the Wawjanui Chronicle says) small thil V viv arise from a forge expenditure. *'* II thit Dr. Featherston said of the T °,H and prosperity of Wellington, we can P n n.nli'd and whatever we .nay &* fthe "Constitutionalism" practised bv thl irud his brother Triumvirs—or lightly as hilllS ' rojrard the hardships so graphically w e fI»V S compared with those which other dwelt upW » h;i<l t() un d er go, —we sincerely I 'T' 1 trust that his remark may ' f tic • that " whether we contemplate 1 "' 1 "° 1 .nt C position or future prospects of this the |" 98 * t not justified in declaring that we afford to" forget all past vicissitudes, enn , lnnli forward to the future with hope ana can **» ~„ "''llTwl.Tcan he said of this paragraph, .was to good taste or accuracy?- • «. fact recorded on ilie Plate just deposited •flare is OB*' honor upou Wellington, and at the same *ticbr6nec Btran „ e jy with the course pursued by . OTOC cor^ nls \ vh i c h claims the right of being the Seat the uc jj anf i has already insisted upon ofGoyemn"-' n C|)]lt] . ibutin ,, not o „i v towards the the fl**. J. House of General Assembly, but also to-jrd-tion"» .j ( | ill(r gf „„ loss than three Residences WiU t i Governors, entailing upon the Colony (for Auck- j for the U° exc iusive benefit) an expenditure of not I laod* %4«ooo. VVellinton on the other hand oilers less than < • ', tt j , ,|j s , K , sa i 0 f the General i i< urepareii w pu»-* j in P \ 8 ntboth a Government House and a House ot i ooVflr TXembly, without asking either Auckland, or | to contribute one single farrting. the oww Tot Dr. Featherston well aware that the //Government House was constructed in "Sand at the expense of the Home Govern- » i.ld merely put together on its arrival f ' and that when that building was deed bv fire the Province of Auckland, not Vcobly of New Zealand, defrayed the cost building the present (tovernment House, alhoaffhthe edifice is clearly a C olonial and not 'provincial one? The third residence is ' l -it begun. VVe can hardly set this of facts down to the score of pfotflllliess . It was. we tear, concocted dellberately and of aforethought, tor the purpose 0 f quotation in English and Colonial journals. and so unfairly exalting Wellington at the ex- ' , se of Auckland, because the latter not only Claims" io be, hut is the Seat of Government, and' because it must remain so unless a separation of the Colony takes ylace. For his own sake, we regret that Dr. Feajherstou should have suffered himself to be y into the utterance of such an untruth—for we cannot but attribute the authorship of this jentence to others, not to himself. _ It is made all the graver, too, by the assertion, that in this way an expenditure of no less than £45,000 has been entailed upon the Colony "for Auckland's sole and exclusive benefit." If the Colony is to continue united, the Seat 0 f Government must be at some one place. Auckland has been selected by the Home Government as that tit and proper place, to the sore zravelment of certain parties at Wellington; and although the latter Province offers its Government House to the Colony as an inducement to transfer the Seat of Government thither from Auckland, its Superintendent ■ wholly omits to say at whose cost that Governmeiit House was built —what the Colony ; has had to pay for its being handed over to the Province of Wellington —what Auckland has had to pay most unfairly on account of the ! New Zealand Company's Debt —and what would he the cost to the Colony of making that building suitable for the residence of the Governor of the Colony. Above all. Dr. Featherston has forgotten to say one word | about the extent of the Loans which just now I enable the Wellington Government to be so | very liberal in their expenditure, their promises, j and their professions.