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New Zealand Herald, Volume V, Issue 1309, 27 January 1868, Page 3

At the present writing the conflict betvreen " Greneralism" and " Provincialism" is being spiritedly carried on in our Provincial Council. A glance at the marshals of the insurgents —Messrs. Carleton, Creighton, and 33uckland—would convince the most ordinary observer that the contest is waged on their side either for the purpose of retrieving a lost position, or for ulterior objects. The tactics have been those of the guerillas, or more correetly analogous to those pursued by the Maoris —the Government was to be harrassed —now it is an assault on-the left flank held by Mr. Dignan —then upon the right of Mr. GilfilLin—while Mr. Wynu, the Alcibiades of Provincial debate, deploys ■with a regiment of legal sequences upon a position, that has been abandoned. The interval of exhaustion is differently occupied by the assailants of authority. Mr. Carleton buries himself in a bush of literature in the library ; Mr. Creighton hunts up recruits in Bellamy's; while Mr. Buekland plunges into the " journals of the 'ouse," and rises up strearuiug with hyperbolic platitudes. The Government has occupied a position of defence, and its strength does not appear to have been greatly reduced by the unscrupulous mode of attack adopted, which is becomiag more and more destitute of sympathy. Messrs. Davy, Carleton, and Eowe

have made good speeches, the last more especially would appear to have turned the stroke of the Opposition. Mr. Carletou evidently holds a brief for the General Government. Indeed with a salary of ;£4OO per annum for three months' work during session, as Chairman of Committees, and with auother £100 per annum as a honorarium, lie may be considered as having ceived a very handsome retaining fee. Mr. Davy and Mr. Eowe insist upon the distinction of being independent members. According to Mr. Carletou the charges whicn Auckland at present has to raiso will, under the General Government, cotno out of the consolidated revenue. But the counter argument is that in everything with which the General Government has had to do in this Province they have tailed, and the cost of their failure has been triple that of any loss incurred by the Provincial Government, whose sympathies, to say the least, must of necessity be local. Mr. Carleton and Mr. Buckland adduced what they conceived to be a triumphant argument in the assertion that the General Government were willing to reduce the expenditure £50,000, .if tho"Provinecs also reduced expenditure to an equal amount. But this argument has a double edge, the converse being partially true, for the Provinces, as witness the present estimates, must reduce whether they will or no. But the profession of willingness to reduce the expenditure includes" the ability to effect such reduction, and if the ability is not followed by tho result it points to, then willingness is" put out of court, cither because of its insincerity or its existence being doubtful. Xo one denies that the fall of the Provinces would give enormous strength to the central Government. jS'o one doubts either that its power to borrow would be facilitated if not increased, but the past history of General Government reveals the inveterate tendencies of its constitution, and points to a perpetuity of nepotism, corruption, extravagance which, though it might feed the belly, yet. would at the same time, contribute to cover the whole body politic with sores, until financial atrophy absorbed the life that was in it. If the General Government could reduce the colonial expenditure, why did they not do it ? The answer is because tlicy were not willing. If they were willing and did not, it must have been because they could not. To say they did not because tho provinces would not, is to [ say that they were charging the colony £50,000 more than was, upon their own confession, necessary. To say tli.it the provinces caused a loss of £J 00,000 to tho colony because they would not or could not reduce £50,000. is a disgraceful -non Ucquincr, of which a third form boy in a public school would not be guiltv. "It was truly said the question is a money questijii : whether it is cheaper to be governed by onc'sclf or to bo governed by another ? * But the question also includes two other conditions. Whether the business might be more cheaply done in Auckland, than in "Wellington or elsewhere ? Whether anybody above the state of an idiot would not do his own business as cheaply, certainly more satisfactorily, than he could get a person interested in his ruin to do it for him ? Since writing the above, the Council have agreed that the present form of Government ought not to continue, by a majority of two. But what is to succeed the Council has not provided. The issue, like Mahomet's coffin, hangs between uncertain spheres—the General Government absorption and Provincial Government reform.— Weekly Herald.