THE ABOLITION SCHEME.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 4048, 3 November 1874, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ABOLITION SCHEME.

To the Editor of the Herald. Sir, —As a very raw recruit in the political ranks, I trust it will not be considered presumptuous on my part to repeat what occurred to me after perusing Sir George Grey's able and exhaustive petition touching the proposed so-called Constitutional changes from his point of view. After drawing attention to the fact that Russia, the United States, Germany, andltalyare all adoptingtlie federal or provincial system, as the simplest and most compatible with national progress, Sir George Grey goes 011 to assert that '' indeed so successful had the federal system proved in this colony that it was adopted in Canada." Now, considering the almost official character of the document just quoted from, it would be unfair, I fancy, to Sir George Grev's political reputation to ask his authority for such a statement; but in the absence of direct proof I venture to differ from Sir George Grey upon this point, and for the following reason After having twice visited the United States and Canada, and taken some interest in their political and social institutions, and after many conversations with intelligent citizens of both countries, I have no hesitation in affirming that it was the immense area of each which suggested the federal or state system, and that it was the almost similar circumstances of America which suggested federation at a later period to her Canadian neighbour and cousin. To compare, indeed, Provincialism in New Zealand with Provincialism in the United States, Canada, or even Australia, appears about as feasible to my mind as to endeavour to manceuvre an army of say 10,000 men within the four walls of a barrack square, after having put it through the same movements on an adjoining plain of a mile or two in circumference. I heartily agree, however, with Sir George Grey that the federal system, for the reason already submitted, is the very best that could have been adopted by Russia, Germany, United States, Canada, and assuming there is to be some day, a United Australia; but New Zealand, like Great Biitain, is too limited in area to afford space for the manceuvres (luse the terminitsmilitary,notconventional sense) of nine provincial '' Bombastcs Furioso" armies. In my humble opinion New Zealand is yet destined to become, by her geographical position, her internal resources, and her climate, the prototype of her distinguished mother, and such being the case, I cannot see how we can possibly go far wrong if wo simply imitate Great Britain in her admirable systemof voluntary local self-govern-ment, with an efficient central power at | Wellington. But to do this satisfactorily, and at the same time give the death-blow to I the provincial theory, that the out-districts I would never or scarcely ever be visited by General Government officers, the two islands must combine their resources and complete at once a main trunk line of railway from, let us say, the Bay of Islands in the North to the Bluff in the Sontli, so that Ministers, civil servants, or even barristers of "colonial reputation" could reach almost any given point from the Empire City, we'll say, within twelve hours of their departure therefrom. Then shall we hear of a United Kingdom (or Commonwealth) of New Zealand and Chatham, with one land revenue, one legal code, on# national sentiment, whose watchword shall be "Advance." But this consummation can only be arrived at by totally abolishing the provinces and offering the magnificent landed estate still remaining to us as security for that most necessary, not political line of railway.—l am, &c., F. H. Troup. Auckland, November 2, 1574. P.S. —It is well known that in days gone by peerages and minor honors were procurable at so much a-piece, but I doubt if the ataunchest friend, of Provincialism can cite another instance in ancient or modern history of the Prime Minister of a country numbering some 300,000 souls openly admitting that it cost him one million and a-half sterling to maintain his party in power by bribing the Provincial Cerberus ! But then a statesman who hunts up the musty charters of extinct trading companies and endeavours to adaptthemto the free-trade ideas of the present day, is just the man to have also mediaeval and hazy theories upon the "divine right" of colonial Ctesarism. F. H. T.