The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1874.

Thames Star, Volume VI, Issue 1824, 6 November 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1874.

These is something very unsatisfactory in the relations existing between the Provincial Government and the Thames Borough Council. Which is to blame in the course which primarily brought about this state of things we cannot say. No doubt there are faults on both sides. The Superintendent took alarm at the promise of the Premier to hand over the Thames foreshore to the Borough Council as an endowment, and so successfully opposed the grant that it has never been completed. The position assumed by the Superintendent has given the General Government an excuse for withholding tke foreshore from .both parties. We can understand that the Government are necessarily compelled to pay some attention to the objections of the Superintendent against granting the endowment; but it must be remembered that the Premier gave a distinct pledge that the Council should get it; and if the objections urged by the Superintendent are of any weight an effort should be made to meet them, so that the questionmaybesettledonewayortheother. The opposition of the Superintendent on this foreshore question is one of the chief causes of the antagonism which now exists between the Provincial Government and the Borough Council, and which is decidedly impairing the usefulness of the latter. The vacillation which has been exhibited, too, by our Provincial rulers

over the waterworks is another source of grievance to the Borough Councillors. But we believe the most serious cause of complaint against the Superintendent and Executive is the position they have taken i with regard to the grants voted to assist the Borough Council during the last session of the Provincial Council. Although a sum of money nearly equal to that so voted has been spent on purely goldfields work«, not one penny has been paid over to the Counci 1, who have been compelled to incur a heavy overdraft at the bank to construct goldfields roads and tramways, the interest on whic,h overdraft will be a charge on the Borough rates. This is a matter in which eveiy ratepayer is interested, more especially those whose properties are being continually damaged by high tides and want of drainage—who find themselves deprived of the smallest benefit from rates, and are denied even the most trifling expenditure to render the approaches to their properties even moderately safe. Here the ratepayers see expensive roads made in one or two directions at the cost of hundreds of pound*, and, as if that were not entmgh, hundreds more are sunk in building a tramway alongside such roads —and the moaey for this expenditure is obtained by overdraft, although months have elapsed since the Provincial Council passed the votes on the promise of which these works were undertaken. A spirit of economy has seized some of the Borough Councillors lately, and they have commenced with salaries. As soon as they hare come to a decision on this point, let them see to this matter, and economise by saving the interest on that portion of the overdraft which has accrued from goldfields expenditure, and in the future decline to undertake any work on the strength of the Provincial Government's promises, but insist upon having the money placed to their credit before initiating any new expenditure. They will then be in a position to do more justice to the general body of ratepayers, without in any way interfering with their obligations towards the goldfields portion of the Borough ; while their relations with the Provincial Government will be placed on a footing more satisfactory to both parties and to the public.

Ex-Govebnok Gbey has again emerged from his obscurity with a petition. This time it is addressed to the Superintendent of Auckland, and reviews the position of the land fund of the colony. No doubt this latest manifesto is intended to give weight to the former petition, but it will, if we mistake not, weaken the impression left by j Sir George's opinion on the abolition resolution, as set forth in his petition to the Governor. In that document we were prepared to see the experienced views of an able statesman —an astute politician; one who had been content to leave the work of government to others, but whose dormant sympathies and abilities were called suddenly into activity by a threatened subversion of a form of government to which the author was attached. Had Sir George Grey confined himself to that question—the abolition of Provinces and consequent change in the Constitution— j his famous petition would have been respectfully treated, but the subsequent emanation will neutralise the effect produced throughout the colony by the first. Sir George Grey comes forward now to instruct the Superiutendent of Auckland and the people of New Zealand on the political history of the Colony, and, in doing so, acknowledges that his acquaintance with the nature and origin of the compact of 1856 dates from a perusal of an article in the Lyttelton Times of the 11th October of this year. There are men in Parliament who were parties j to that famous compact, amd who have remained at their posts ever since, performing almost uninten aptedly ftte duties of legislators. Some of these same gentlemen voted for the compact of '56 and for the abolition resolution, and should therefore be credited with some degree of political honesty. Sir George Grey, however, appears to look upon this famous compact—with the details of which we should have imagined him to be imtimately acquainted years ago—as an additional argument against any alteration in the Constitution, and takes this principle as a text on which to ground a homily on the wrongs of Auckland. He did not make out a very strong case for Provincialism in his first attempt, and he has failed altogether in his second. If Sir George Grey has in view the welfare of the Worth Island and the maintenance of the Constitution, let him come forth from his voluntary seclusion and combat the views of leading men of the day in our legislative halls. If to prevent the abolition of the Provincial system of Government be a work of patriotism, why does not Sir George come forth and take a leading part in politics. He would undoubtedly be a great acquisition to any legislative assembly, and he would certainly accomplish more by

such a course than by firing blank cartridges in the shape of petitions from tho Island of Kawau.