ABOLITION OF THE NORTH ISLAND PROVINCES. No. 111.

Otago Witness, Issue 1191, 26 September 1874, Page 17

ABOLITION OF THE NORTH ISLAND PROVINCES. No. 111.

I will not pay you the hollow compliment of apologising to you and to your readers for occupying a portion of your columns on two former occasions, and now seeking a third I and last opportunity, for the interests at stake are too important to admit of a public j vote on such a question as the abolition of the Northern Provinces without due reflection and ample argument. I showed in my last letter how, under the Land Revenue Appropriation Act of 1858, each of the seven Provinces became invested with a landed estate — how the Northern Provinces, by rebellion, were unable to purchase land from Native owners, and thus for a time were unable to carry on their colonising operations. As a part of the financial scheme of the StaffordRichmond Government, the Surplus Revenues Act of 1858 was of great importance, for by it was secured a provision for the Provinces beyond and in addition to that obtained from the disposal of the waste land of the Crown, thus adopting the 66th clause of the Constitution Act, which was thus confirmed and completed by an Act of the General Assembly. And, moreover, the expenditure of the General Government was confined to certain departments mentioned in the schedule, viz., Courts of Justice, Custoim Postal Services, Registrars, Sheriffs, and Coroners. The expenses connected with which were made, in accordance with the Constitution Act, a rateable charge on the Beveral Provinces, together with a proportionate share of moneys expended by law in conducting the Government. These sums were carried to the debtor side of the account of each Province, i and the sums received from all sources, ex- | cept land, were carried to the credit side of the account. The difference between the two forming the ordinary revenue of a Province, and applicable for colonizing purposes, and Hospitals, Gaols, Lunatic Asylums, Police, and such like. To the Provinces were entrusted the "heroic" work of colonisation, and right well did they perform their mission while funds were available ; if, in some Provinces there was, and is," a partial failure, it arises from the fact that this sur- ! plus revenue has disappeared chiefly under I the influence of General Government expenditure. Were the millions now expending by that Government available, or a fractional part of them, for Provincial adnrinistrafcion, we should find the Provinces instinct with life and vigour. It is vain, I nay unjust, to contrast the two Governments in their colonising efforts ; we might just as well pit the famished < villager against the opulent citizen — the millionaire against the penniless. This Surplus Revenue Act is Known in history — for it exists no longer— • as the Partnership Account. It has .been if 9m &w> to to> t&tonA, until at lwsh m ,

have instead of it a capitation grant to the Provinces of some fifteen shillings per head, which is, in some cases, entirely absorbed in paying the interest on debts contracted by the General and Provincial Governments, leaving but a few crumbs wherewith to supply the wants of the Provinces, still charged with settling people on the land, and the administration of Government. The Partnership system was so far vicious in principle that it had a tendency to induce an undesirable pressure on the Government — to increase the number and salaries of the officers of the Civil Service at the caprice of members representing districts ; and, moreover, it left an uncertain and fluctuating amount to the Provinces, to whom were confided the duty of colonisation. In order more effectually to perform this obligation, Mr Fitzherbert, when Treasurer, fixed the share of the revenue payable to the Provinces at one-half the Customs. By a gradual but progressive process, the whole system has been changed, j The Provinces have been starved into mac- j tion, and the Central Government, with borrowed money, has seized the reins, and, while the money lasts, and no longer, will it go on multiplying and increasing liabilities till the whole of the ordinary revenue will be required for the payment of interest, leaving the Provinces to perform their duties, but without funds. What does all this mean? Additional taxation is unavoidable, though, because unpopular, it will be postponed as long as possible ; and a direct abstraction of the Provincial land funds, as a person relieves a neighbour of his purae. The whole country being governed from an almost inaccessible centre, and the Parliament in almost perpetual session, the members receiving from £300 to £400 each. In flying from, instead of attempting to remedy evils which we know of, we are entering further and further, and more and more hurriedly, into a new system which will most assuredly fail when strained — as strained it must be when loans cease to supply our wants, and the Central Government assumes, as under such circumstances it must, the management of Education, the Police, Gaols, Hospitals, Harbours, Lunatic Asylums, &c. Let there be no shams. If it be desired to alter the system of Government under which we have hitherto lived, lei it be done openly, boldly, and at once ; let not the Central Government create for itself a. territorial estate, contrary to the Constitution Act, by absorb ing forest lands, and by illegal leases from Natives. Let the Colonial Government take the whole debt — approaching to twenty millions — and with it the Provincial estates * let it undertake to impose taxes to meet the consequent obligations ; but before enacting any new law, and before an appeal to the constituencies, let us take stock — let us minutely ascertain our assets and liabilities, our income and expenditure — and when subverting the old foundations tell the people that they shall have power ami taxes ; that the Crown lands — the people's inheritance — shall not be peopled, but Bold in large blocks of tens of thousands of acres, to meet the necessities of a lavish expenditure no longer provided for by confiding British moneylenders. I commend these considerations to the attention of the colonists of New Zealand. I ask for them a fair and honest investigation. If the people desire that the whole system should be changed, let it be so. But let it not be done in the dark, "by surprise, by arraying North against South, by throwing down without building up ; and if having once for all unmistakeably declared for the change, let all combine loyally and earnestly to make that change final and perfect.