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New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4262, 17 November 1874, Page 2

We refrain from commenting upon Sir Donald McLean's speech at the Napior banquet, until we have an accurate report before us, and this, we regret to say, we do not at present possess, although tho Hawke's Pay Times contains, we understand, a pretty full and reliablo summary of it. But we cannot do better, at this stage, than reprint a leading article which appeared in tho Otac/o Daily Times of the 13th instant, founded upon tho telegraphic summary. The Daily Times says : The remarks made by Sir Donald McLean, at tho dinner given to him at Kapler, on tho subject of tho Abolition of the Provinces, will havo been read with 1 groat Interest throughout the colony. In tho rest of his speech he dealt chieily with the past. Mado interesting by tho manner in which it was told, as we might have expected of any story from Sir Donald's lips, his account of things accomplished or In course of execution under tho regime of the Ministry to "which bo belongs, contained nothing now or unexpected. Of tho groat measure of the future, what ho had to say possesses a different intorost. Tho public mind throughout the colony in gradually being aroused

to the conviction that the Constitutional Reforms which will give the coup de grace to the existing system of double government are tho most important subjects of tho day. An utterance on this topic like that with which Sir Donald McLean favored his audience must be looked upon as a semi-official announcement of the intentions of the Government. To those who are already prepared to support the proposal to abolish the Provincial Governments and Legislatures, this utterance must have given unqualified pleasure. To the small but highly influential party amongst the politicians of tho colony which warmly opposes this scheme of reform, the calm assumption on Sir Donald's part that this groat change is a near certainty will be very exasperating. We think the announcement itself a wise and timely one. Over this question there must be a great battle both in Parliament and out of it. So long as the cry can be kept up that the reforming party are very ready to pull down, but have nothing suitablo to propose as substitutes for what they wish to destroy, tho ultra-provincialists will find it a vory useful weapon. If the inferences we draw from the short summary of Sir Donald McLean's remarks which the wire has furnished to us, be correct, wo may take it for granted that when the proposals of the Government are before the country in the form of a Bill, this cry will be taken out of tho mouths of their opponents, and it will be evident that thorough and useful re-construction, and not destruction, is aimed at. The references made by Sir Donald to the despatches of ex-Secretaries of State for the Colonies show, that to men who look upon our institutions from without, the anomaly of our doublo Government presents itself rather as an excrescence, which must vanish with vigorous growth, than a system possessing inherent tendencies to permanency. Earl Grey and Sir John Pakington, both shrewd and experienced men, are quoted as looking upon our Provincial Councils as " doomed to merge into municipal institutions." Such independent testimony to the rational character of the present movement towards constitutional reform is of great valuo. The number of men who have had to confess themselves converts from provincialist doctrine, as the result of a short career in tho General Assembly, is a proof that a wider range of experience removes impressions gathered in tho narrow arena of local politics. Tho testimony of such men in favor of the abolition of the provinces is of the highest value, and is at tho same time much more convincing to the popular mind than a hundred arguments of a theoretical character. Still more convincing should be the testimony of men who have been called upon to study our institutions in the light of the wide experience which falls to the lot. of men/like thoso whoso opinions Sir Donald McLean lias called our attention to. Beyond these references to outside opinion, the Native Minister does not appear to have deemed it necessary to trouble ids audienee with any arguments in favor of tho Government project. He speaks of it as if its success were a settled matter. After all we have heard insinuated as to the vagueness of tho Ministerial ideas on the subject, and of the hesitation with which proposals to carry out the resolutions of last session will bo brought down, it is refreshing to hear Sir Donald's clear arid confident tone. The manner in which our provincial institutions aro to be replaced, as shadowed forth by Sir Donald, is precisely that which we have consistently advocated. In this province the public mind has long been prepared for such a change. Although the chief political personages of Otago arrayed together in the short rank of the Opposition last session, it is impossible to forget that these men have been parties to the passing of Ordinance after Ordinance tending towards that localisation of authority and expenditure which is to be the fundamental principle of the Government measure for the abolition of the provinces. They have themselves, each in bis way, helped to promote the changes which are advancing upon us, and they only hesitate to follow their principles to their legitimate conclusions, because it is impossible for men in oliicc to believe that any one can administer the affairs they have in charge as well as they themselves can. "That local receipts should, as far as possible, be devoted to local purposes ; that Road Boards or Shire Councils, or whatever name might bo given to them, should have the control of local expenditure," is a programme which few will have tho hardihood to oppose when it comes to the point of a plain "yea" or "nay" to it. With Sir Donald we say emphatically, that "when the provinces are abolished no one will miss thorn."