CENTRALIST SAYINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XII, Issue 4290, 13 August 1875, Page 4

CENTRALIST SAYINGS.

To tho Editor of tho Herald. Sir,—One hundred and twenty legislators are sitting at Wellington, each of them (Jrawing £150 for his services during the session, and, with one thing or the other, spending at least £250 a-day out of the taxes raised from tho people. Looking at this morning's paper I sco that this ponderous and costly machine took up tho following purely local things yesterday: — 1. Dunedin Waterworks Bill. 2. Christchurch District Drainage Bill. 3. Incorporation of Wellington Athena?um Bill. 4. Oamaru Waterworks Borrowing Bill. 5. Bill to elect the Mayor of Blenheim by tho Ratepayers. G. Bill to Elect tho Mayor of Auckland by the Ratepayers. 7. Bill to Amend the Friendly Societies Act. S. New River Harbour Board and Land Bill. 0. Invcrcargill Gas Loan Amendment Bill. These nine bills, if properly considered, will take at least a fortnight before they become law. By that time they will have cost the country £'3500 —nearly £400 a piese. Now I should like to know why the Assembly should have to deal with these purely local matters at all ? The above are only from one day's report. Any one who chooses to watch will be sure to find thirty or fcrty similar cases before tho session is over — cases which might be better and more cheaply dealt with by Provincial Councils. . Give to tho latter all local matters, and even all land legislation and gold Held legislation, it will be better for the provinces and better for the colony. The Assembly need only trouble itself with outside matters and others atTecting the whole colony. Let the Upper House be elected by the Provincial Councils. Depend upon it they will look after the interests of their provinces, and see that the Lower House does not sweep them into what Mr. Maeandrew calls the Maelstrom of colonial finance. This was Sir George Grey's original Constitution, before it was altered by the Imperial Parliament. To return to it would be an easy and a natural step, and the sooner we do so the better.—l am, &c, A Provincia u.st.