The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, MAY 2, 1868.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XVI, Issue 823, 2 May 1868, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. NEW PLYMOUTH, MAY 2, 1868.

The public meeting called by the Superintendent for the purpose of discussing whether it was desirable to alter the form of Government in this Province, has had the effect of at least eliciting the opinions of two of our members of the House of Representatives on the great question of the day — '* Retrenchment, and how to effect it," and while Mr. Brown hopes to achieve that object by means of nominated Superintendents, Mr. H. Atkinson cannot sco it accomplished without abolishing Provincial institutions, or so legislate in that direction that their existence would be practically impossible for wanfc of revenue to carry on the government. It is a singular circumstance that a community of provincialisfcs (which we believe the people of this Province to be, and which the views taken by the meeting on Thursday confirms), should send as their representatives to the Assembly men holding the doctrines of centralism ; yet such is the case, and it is an anomaly which we cannot reconcile with the avowed opinions of the electors. Mr. H. Atkinson would throw the onus of direct taxation on the Provinces— that we consider would

defeat the object of direct taxation, which is, as we understand it, to make tho people take a greater interest in tho manner in which the income of the Colony is expended, beside the effect which ft would have of adjusting the burden of the Colony according to the capacity of the several classes of the communit}' to bear it. Tho heavy taxation of the Colony has been and is alleged by centralists as due to the influence of Provincialism in the House of Representatives, which augments the taxes for Provincial purposes; we allow that Provincialism has been deeply tainted by the same spirit of extravagance, and want of prudence which has animated the Government and people of | this Colony for some years past ; but it is a j most unfair conclusion, and one entirely unsupported by facts to attribute it entirely to the existing form of Provincial institutions. In tho race of extravagance the Colonial Government has won with ease, without having the same excuse which the Provinces had for their expenditure. If they ran into debfc^ beyond their reasonable requirements, they had the sanction of the Colonial Government for so doing, and have produced something to show for it, they have peopled the country and made it habitable, but, on the other hand, if we look for some evidence of the benefits which the country has derived from the expenditure of the money which now forms the Colonial debt ; we look in vain, we see nothing at all commensurate to such an outlay. If, like nations of old, New Zealand's history became a tradition of the past, and her people and institutors perished, and after the lapse of ages, some profound antiquarian should visit the sites of her former thi'iving settlements, for the purpose of examining her ruins, and deducingtherefrom the condition, charactei', and government of the people which formerly inhabited them. From the works of which Government would he be enabled to trace a history of the past, and thus afford an instructive lesson to his contemporaries ? Not from the central Government of the Colony, not a trace of its history would remain, not a single ruin would tell the future ages that such a thing existed, even its debt would have vanished, Government and people would be judged by him to have been a mythical story, a creation of men's imaginations. Not ro Provincial Governments, they have writtpn their names indelibly on tho face of the country, their roads, railways, and harbours would enable him to l'elate their story, and give some just conception of the people whose history had been lost. We should therefore be careful that before we destroy the form of Government which has practically been the one of most use to the Colony, the requirements of the people, should be most anxiously investigated, and the endeavour made to snit the Government so as to fulfil the conditions which are most likely to have the best practical results. Mr.H. Atkinson argued that he could not see in the nature of things, any reason why this Province should bo better able to govern the Pa tea district than the people of Patea, or why the Auckland Government should govern the Bay of Islands better, than the people of that district, and stated that when Sir George Grey created the Provinces, he drew arbitrary lines regardless of these circumstances. Mr. H. Atkinson must be aware that Sir George Grey's proposal that municipalities should be created from time to time, and one-third of the gross proceeds of the sale of the waste lands of the Crown within their respective districts placed under their control, would have provided a sufficient remedy for the arbitrary character of Provincial boundaries. But this recommendation has not been carried out, and in the large Provinces the want of it has been a defective distribution of the Land Revenue in many instances. Centralism, as it at present exists, is radically wrong, aud its tendencies are incompatible with local self-go vernment, its aim is despotism, it is the government not of a free people, but of a clique who are interested, to a wide extent, in a large public expenditure, and one reason why the expenditure is so large, is that so many of the class who have the Government of New Zealand in their hands, live by it. It has creatad a huge civil service out of all proportion to the wants of the community : its ramifications extend in all directions, it is a fungus on the body politic, luxuriating on its decay, and nothing but the actual cautery of a reformed House of Representatives will tend to effect a cure. In order to show our readers the tendency of Centralism to inordinate departmental expenditure, we will compare some of the iteni3 of the Appropriation Act of 1858, with those of 1867.

The above comparison shows the practical tendency of Centralism more clearly than any words of ours, however eloquently expressed. Itdiscloses the political progress of Central ism, under the control oftheablest financiers of New Zealand, from a state of solvency in 1858, to that slough of despond in which we are now hopelessly entangled, and from which, if we escape without loss of reputation as a people, it will not be through the exertions of our able politicians, but rather will be by the efforts of an awakened people roused to the dangers which threaten their liberties and honour, through the gross mismanagement of their business by the persons whom they trusted.

Sxeontive ... £5,2G9 5 0 rudicial ... 12,631 6 o Jegislatire... 3,995 0 3 3usom3 ... 17,312 5 0 ?ostal ... 19,300 0 0 Hilitia&Vol. 6,500 0 0 Natives ... Miscellaneous 7,548 15 0 £31,902 16 69,148 19 • 14,974 14 i 44,471 7 i 148,579 9 24,538 8 1 23,544 5 li 43,083 0 ; £72,626 10 3 £400,333