The New Zealand Herald.

New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1298, 13 January 1868, Page 2

The New Zealand Herald.

SPECTEIITJIt AGENDO. This iliove all — To thine own self De true Andit must follow, as the night the day, canst not theVbefabe_to any man." ATJCKLAimjrOyPAY, JASTTABY 13, 1868. Thebe seems to be an impression both in the Council and out of doors that the Government are desirous of initiating a system ot local rating for educational purposes and that the rates so levied in the several districts shall be gathered into one general fund, and distributed according to the provisions ot the present Act. Now, independently ot Mr. Wynn's positive denial that such is intended we can scarcely believe that the Government eoold he so little aware of the state of pubb'e feeling which exists, so little alive to the real necessities of the Province, and to the value of good government as to intend anything of the"kind. Of one thing m are certain, such a scheme would not be tolerated by the inhabitants of the Province. There is crowing, and growing stronger day by day, a desire on the part of the public for local self-government, but not the spurious scheme offered by Mr. Stafford in the rejected "Shires Bill," which would give country districts a mere nominal measure of self-o-overnment, leaving them hampered by official interference from "Wellington, and subject to the cost of such interference; nor yet the equally deceptive scheme of Mr. Carleton, which would leave the real executive power in the hands of a member of the miuistrv, the nominee of the premier of the day, who might be resident in Auckland as adviser to a Lieutenant-Governor, himself a tool in the hands of the ministry. The local self-government which the people of this Province really desire is one which they may receive, and can only with any real benefit receive from the liande, and administer under the control, of the Province itself. It is not by overthrowing Provincial Institutions, and casting all power, all interference for good or ill in our local concerns, into the hands of the General Government, that we shall attain local self-government worthy of the name. It is rather by decreasing the powers of the General Government and bringing the central power nearer home, that we shall best effect the object desired. But if those who now form the Provincial Government really desire to conserve existing institutions, they must let it be plainlv seen by their policy that Provincialism instead of being antagonistic to local self-government is really its chief conservator, and the form of Government under whick it can best grow and nourish. They musi show, while they express a desire to obtai J." from the General Government some control over the expenditure of onc-balf the Provincial revenue administered now by that Government, that they are williug to afford to sub-districts of the Province the very local self-government which they demand for the Province as a sub-district of the colony.

The party which is led away by Mr. Carleton and others interested, not in the province of Auckland but in the existence and welfare of the General Government as an institution, are taught to believe that it is only by doing away with Provincial Institutions, that local self-government can exist. It should be the duty of those who administer these Provincial Institutions, to practically show the fallacy of this doctrine, and by meeting in every way the desire for local government, to cut the ground from under the feet of those who would have the peopla of this Province believe thai in this particular matter they can only receive just ice from, "Wellington. The truth is, there must, with, the establishment of local self-government, be some centre of authority, some executive to which, in extreme cases of deadlock, the local Boards may appeal, some body which, shall make the laws that it is the duty of the local Boards to carry out. Legislation is the function of the one—administration that of the other. Which then shall the legislative body be ? The Assembly :it Wellington, in which the people of Auckland have fourteen rotes out of seventy, whose executive head is that of the colony, or a Council of men elected from themselves and by themselves, whose head is a Superintendent elected abo by and from themselves. Which of the two bodies can best produce an Education Act, or a Highway Act, or any other Act suited to the particular requirements t>f a particular Province ? if self-government is so desirable in the case of a number of subdivisions or districts of the Province, why does it cease to be desirable when applied to the body which, as legislating for these subdivisions, must: have a most material power in rendering the local self-government aimed at a real benefit or an empty sham ?

In this question of educational rating, we have an example of what local self-govern-ment should be, the way in which it should be devised, carried out, and controlled. "What is applicable to education is applicable to eveiy other species of administration which can possibly be localised, fov there are instances, as we pointed out the other day in the case of the maintenance of the sick and destitute, where local administration, eaimot be applied, and which must be cared fov by the Province. In: the case of- education, however, the measure of local self-govern-ment may proceed from the "Provincial Council, and the fullest power may, by the

Act of that Council, without any interference of the General Assembly, be given to local Boards to tax themselves for the maintenance of the schools within their several districts, to collect and expend these taxes according to their will and necessities without unnecessary interference, while at the same time the provisions of the Act shall provide certain broad principles, from which in their administration of details the local Boards must not depart. This is the fullest measure of local self-government that need be <nven the utmost that the public requires. It would be, in fact, the very counterpart of the American system as alluded to in our last issue. Yet we need not throw ourselves into the arms of a Southern Ministry to effect this. We have already the machinery to do so in our owu Provincial Council, and surely if it is to be debated whether such taxation shall be permissive or compulsory, whether the system of education shall be denominational or otherwise these aud other matters are far more likely to be settled satisfactorily if decided upon bv ourselves than if they are settled for us "by these who have comparatively little interest in the beneficial and harmonious working of the Act, and iu whose deliberations and decisions we have but a voice as of fourteen out of seTenty.