The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 769, 25 August 1866, Page 11

The Otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, AUGUST 25.

It is not surprising that a resignation of Ministers followed so shortly after Mr Jollies extraordinary announcement last ■week. Previously to that false step, Mr Stafford appeared to have bo large a majority that any measures brought forward were sure to meet acceptance by the House. The elections had been in his favor ; the division on the Separation debate showed the strength of his sup porters, and every thing favor 3d the idea

that be would pass triumphantly through the ordeal of a session, and continue to hold the reins in his handa. True, there were some signs of wilfulness in bis proceedings, and also that he bad not learned rhe value of a majority on a given subject, but eeemed to imagine because the prejudiced, and sentimental, and unreasoning, Save their adherence to the unity of the Colony theory, they would remain united on all or most of the subjects brought under their notice. But Colonial parliamentary majorities are not formed in that way. The factions that divide power in England do not exist in the Colonies. In the Old Country, the Whigs in and the Conservatives out, or vice versa, means only that two opposite schools of politicians alternately take the lead ; that the members of the House of Commons range themselves on one side or the other as matter of tradition, convenience, and profes • «ion, that each party prepares to overthrow the other by out -bidding it in liberality whenever popular reforms are needed, and that the most inconsistent conduct on the part of both leaders and followers is frequently the result, with manifest advantage to the people. But wheaever the stilus of the order from which legislators are chosen is in danger, both sides unite to repel the attack. In the Colonies there are neither Whigs nor Tories. The men called upon to legislate are all of one rank. They do not attach themselves like the Conservatives to traditionary reverence to the Crown ; nor like the Whigs, to traditionary professions of veneration for and identification with the people. Yet in New Zealand there are elements which tend to divide opinion permanently that do not exist in the other Colonies. Young as it is in political history, the unity or separation of the two islands, or different views of native policy, seem good grounds for decided party opinions that may gradually assume fixed form and feature, until, like the Whigs and Tories in England, they become distinguishing party cries.

It ha 3 not been on either of these questions, however, that the Ministry has fallen, but on a matter of pound?, shillings and pence. Seldom — perhaps never — has a financial statement been simpler or clearer. It was not encumbered by figure^ irrelevant to it — the debtor and creditor balance was fairly drawn out — the Treasurer even could not have been held answerable had there beena\ery serious deficiency in the total, or in any of the various elements of revenue on which it was based. Mr Jullie was not the framer of the estimates of last session. They were a legacy left by the previous administration, and accepted by Mr Stafford, as equivalent to the wants of the Colony. Mr Jollie therefore was not responsible for the past. Had there been confusion — inextricable confusion — in the accounts, he must have been held blameless, for he had so recently taken the portfolio that it could •ot have arisen through his

mismanagement. But there was not confusion ; there was deficiencj 7 , but not to so 3erious an amount as to be past remedy. It is even probable that without extraordinary effort, the continually increasing population, and constantly augmenting wealth of the Colony, through its rapid development, would of itself have led to such increase of revenue as would have supplied the deficiency. There are, however, other matters requiring consideration, that gave an excellent opportunity for taking means to add to the revenue. The tariff requires revision, and if done intelligently, there is every reason to believe that it may be so altered, as to yield more than its present amount, by more equitable rates of duty. Then the stamp duties proposed last session, and rejected because the Provinces were denitd appropriating to their own use, threeeighths of their amount, as has been the rule with the Customs duties, might have been tried, and they would have formed a source that there is every reason to believe would have been found productive, without being oppressive. But neither of these courses satisfied Mr Stafford's Administration. The division on Separation seems to have had a misleading effect, and Mr Jollie apparently designed to give the coup de grace to Provincial influence by determining to take the whole of the Customs Revenue, and to appropriate it to general purposes.

The course taken ha 9 given intensity to the inquiry into the prop*? functions of a General Government. Tbs question that must be kept in view by all our representatives is what measures are for the general benefit, and what have merely a local bearing. It will sometimes occur that the boundary line will be difficult of discovery, but mainly only those should be left lor the General Government that apply equally to all the Provinces. There cannot be greater unfairness than to make the Native war a general charge. The South Island has no right to be placed on the same footing as the disturbed provinces with regard to the necessary expenditure. They are as little interested pecuniarily in the Native question as if the Maoris resided in Kamschatka. They have not even the privilege of supplying them in the way of trade, with the few trifliDg imported articles of consumption which they require, and the only claim that the North has to apply their revenue to war purposes is derived from a Conventional Union of the two Islands under one Colonial Government. Had the proposition been made therefore to withhold the threeeighths of the Customs duties from the Provinces on whose special behoof the war expenditure had taken place, there would ' have been at lea°t Bomething plausible in the plea that they owed something to the Colony. It might have been fairly urged that they had not only beeu defended at the public expense, but they had gained in a variety of ways — in commissariat expenditure, increased population and territorial extent ; and that, therefore, the three- eighths Customs Revenue could be fairly claimed as general revenue on their behalf. But the same reasoning cannot apply to the Provinces of the Southern Island. If there has been any advantage whatever from the war expenditure, it has all been reaped by the North ; while the South has - borne the burden of the cost. The proposition to absorb the three-eighths of the Revenue is a fair sample of what may be expected if all the power is absorbed by the Central Government. Give them money and they will spend it in the direction of the greatest pressure, not in proportion to the population, and the eonsequect amount contributed by the various Provinces.