Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, 23rd JULY, 1867.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2548, 23 July 1867, Page 3

Wellington Independent. "NOTHING EXTENUATE; NOR SET DOWN AUGHT IN MALICE." TUESDAY, 23rd JULY, 1867.

The House of Representatives has now mustered nearly the whole of its members, and to-morrow we understand ' that a motion will be submitted which is likely to test the question of centralism versus provincialism ; the substance of the motion being that a Select Committee be appointed, to comprise a ■ member ofthe Executive and a Representative man from from each province — to enquire into and report as to the besfc means of relieving the Middle Island from further indefinite liability in respect of the military expenditure still going on in the Northern Island, and also to consider aijid report as to the expediency of transferring the management of native affairs from the General Government to the respective Provincial Governments. "We feel assured' that if the friends of the Provinces are all true to themselves, and to \ theprinciples they profess to advocate — if , they will but sink minor differences and ; act together — they are sufficiently strong ■ to carry this resolution by a sweeping | majority. We have said the friends of the pro- ! Yuice., but we might with more correct-

ness have said, the friends of the colony, for we are convinced that the latter has at this moment infinitely more to fear from those who profess to be its friends, than from those who are stigmatised as its enemies ; that is to say, it has infinitely more to fear from a centralising than from a provincial party. No one who calmly reviews the present aspect of affairs both north and south, or who reflects upon the position into which the colony has drifted under the influence of a centralising policy, can possibly shut his eyes to the fact that New Zealand is not at the present time in the condition in which it ought to be, and in which we believe, it might and would have been, had the provinces been left more to themselves — had they been allowed each to workout its own destiny without undue intermeddling on the part of the Central Government. If there is any one thing more than another which is apparent in the New Zealand Constitution Act, it is, that the framers of that Act never contemplated that they were creating a General Gro vernment to stroke the t's and dot the i's for j the provinces, and yet, in point of fact, that , is the position which the Greneral Government has gradually assumed. Instead of confining itself to the thirteen federal questions, and leaving the provinces to manage the rest, it has gone far beyond — ' the practical result being, that each province has got two governments and two distinct sets of governmental machinery where one would have sufficed, and to I perform functions for which one single government was intended. It appears to us that if, instead of extending its? action beyond the thirteen subjects enumerated in the clause of the Consti- j tution Act, the General Assembly had' reserved the powers and empowered the provinces to deal with several of these subjects for themselves, the colony would now have been in a vastly more prosperous condition. "We feel persuaded, that had the management of native affairs in the North Island been left in the hands of the respective Provincial Governments, there would have been no prolonged or widespread native war, and the colony would have been spared an unproductive expenditure, to make provision for which, it is now being taxed to an extent which seriously affects every man, woman and child from the North Cape to the Bluff; taxation which is greatly calculated to deter, and which we fear is actually deterring both labor and capital from seeking investment in New Zealand — taxation which, but for the gold discoveries in the Middle Island, would have involved the colony in absolute and irretrievable bankruptcy. tfhen, as regards the Middle Island, or rather that portion of it which comprises the large and important province of Otago. What has been the effect of a centralising policy there? A chronic state of dissatisfaction with the rest of the colony has been engendered in the minds of nearly the whole body of the people — dissatisfaction which, but for the restraining influence to the contrary of its leading public men, might have resulted in revolution. A desire for separation from the Northern Island has been evoked, which can only be allayed by I leaving the province to manage its own local affairs. The Provincial Council of Otago, which has just been elected, has almost unanimously petitioned the Queen for a separation of the two islands, and we understand that a petition from 8000 of the settlers in that province is now dn its way to her Majesty to the same effect. Such are some of the fruits of a centralising policy — a poiiey which has involved the country in a worse than unproductive expenditure — little if any — short of five millions of money ; and which, if persisted in, must inevitably lead to the breaking up ofthe unity ofthe colony. This latter feature of the case is one which it behoves the representatives of Wellington especially to keep in view. If Wellington is to maintain its fitting position, as the political and maritime centre of New Zealand, 'it must be as the capital of a great and united colony. And we repeat our conviction that a great and united colony can only be built up by leaving the nrovinces unfettered and untrammelled m carrying out the great colonising work which has been assigned to them, and which they alone can successfully accomplish.