THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1867. THE COLONIAL TREASURER’S FIXED OPINIONS.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 12, 23 March 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, MARCH 23, 1867. THE COLONIAL TREASURER’S FIXED OPINIONS.

We recently published an article entitled “ Dr Feathersten and Provincialism,” in which we gave the views which Dr Featherston held with regard to the relative positions and powers of the General and Provincial Governments. We purpose in this article to refer briefly to the “ fixed opinions ” held by the present Colonial Treasurer on the same subject. Though both from the first were known as “ ultra-pro vincialiststhough both were in favor of limiting the powers of the General Government to matters of mere federal concern ; and though both advocated the independence of the Provinces within certain limits to be assigned them; they differed as to the mode in which the Constitution Act should be interpreted. In the opinion of Dr Featherston it was the intention of the Imperial Parliament to establish two separate and independent governments —independent each in its own sphere of action—one for local purposes over each Province, the other for general purposes over the whole colony. In the opinion of Mr Fitzherbert, Parliament never intended to put forth a Constitution for New Zealand in any arbitrary and absolutely definite form, but gave mearly the frame-work of a Constitution to the colony, leaving it to the settlers to say by which of the two co-ordinate legislatures the country should virtually be governed, and giving them power to centralize or de-centraiize—to be governed from one centre in the islands, or from several distinct centres, as they themselves might determine. Mr. Fitzherbert’s, to our mind, is the correct interpretation of the Constiution Act. To us it appears quite clear that Parliament left the decision with the colonists whether the Provincial Legislatures should be ultimately absorbed, or whether their powers should be extended at the cost, and with the consent, of the

General Legislature. Parliament, as Mr. Fitzherbert long ago said, never contemplated that these concurrent legislatures should always continue in the unabated exercise and plenitude of their respective power—neither to give place to the other as the genius of the people might wish—but on the contrary left it to us to determine whether we would have a strong Central Government and reduce the Provincial to mere Municipal Governments, or extend the power of the latter by limiting the functions of the General Legislature and Governments to matters of mere federal concern. Which course shall be taken, it is now pretty well understood the next Session of the General Assembly will determine. In the opinion of Mr. Fitzherbert the Colony ought years since to have decided whether it would be governed through a Colonial Parliament or by means of the Provincial Legislatures. When a candidate, therefore, for a seat in the House of Representatives, twelve years ago, he placed before the electors of Wellington in undisguised prominence the two important objects he desired to attain, viz,:—“ A definition of General and Provincial powers: Provincial Independence within the limits assigned.” There is nothing in these “ fixed opinions” of the Colonial Treasurer which differ materially from those held by his honorable colleagues. They both think that it is the colonists through the Central Legislature to whether the powers of the Provincial Councils shall be by it extended or absorbed. They both think that no time should be lost in coming to a decision upon this point. But at this point the “ fixed opinions” of the present Colonial Treasurer and the published opinions of the present Colonial Government diverge in opposite directions. In the opinion of Mr. Fitzherbert the powers of the Provincial Councils should not only be defined but extended, and that tne independence of the Provincial Councils, instead of their absorbition, ought to be the object aimed at by the colonists of New Zealand. These were for a long series of years Mr. Fitzherbert’s “ fixed opinions,” whether they have become unfixed by holding an Executive office in the present Centralizing Administration the next Session of the Colonial Parliament will afford us the means of knowing.