PROVINCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3308, 2 October 1871, Page 3

PROVINCIAL INSTITUTIONS.

(From the New Zealand Mail.) All principles are immutable and etevnal ; but all human institutions are subject to change ; and, from their very nature, contain within themselves the seeds of their own dissolution. However vigorous they may appear, and however beneficial they may prove, they will, in course of time, become feeble and useless, On the other hand, however effete, or mischievous an institution may have grown, it had, at one time, its uses, having for its basis the wants and necessities of the hour. The antiquity of an institution is prim a facie evidence in its favor. It is a proof that it embodies a living principle. When an institution is no longer wanted, it will generally, if let alone, abolish itself. This was notably the case with negro slaseryin the Northern States of America, which had long ceased to exist before it got itself legally abolished. It was the case with feudalism, and innumerable other institutions, which once ruled supreme in the world. On the other hand, municipal institutions have maintained their existence, in spite of their age and corruption, because they are

needed. They have been changed, but not abolished, So with the House of Commons. This lias shown many alterations during the different stages of its growth, but it has always been the Commons. It is in many outward aspects a very different institution to what it was when it registered the edicts of Henry and Elizabeth ; when it resisted those of Charles ; when it had become a corrupt oligarchy in the reign cf George the Second ; but there is reason to believe that in each of these reigns it really rep represented the opinion and will of the nation. The principle of representative Government which it embodied, as the principle of local self-government embodied in Municipal Institutions, though it may be clothed at different periods in different costumes' to suit the altered tastes, wants, or circumstances of the times, always remains unchanged. The recognition of these two principles by distinct institutions, and varied organisms, is essential to Anglican freedom, and fatal to bureaucratic Government. For these among other reasons we would not abolish Provincial Institutions. It would be no more wise to do so than it would have been to J abolish the House of Commons in the reign of George 11, or Municipal Corporations in the reign of William IV. If they are not self sustaining, and are no longer wanted ; if they do not embody a living j principle capable of self evolution, they will abolish themselves. If they supply a felt want, and are animated liy a living principle, they may assume a new shape, but they cannot safely be dispensed with. Admitting, as we are disposed to do, that some of their fiitictious could be better exercised by the central authority, and others by local bodies, there will si ill remain matters which Provincial Councils can better attend to than cither the General Government on the one hand or mere Road Boards on the other. lv creating, abolishing, or adapting institutions for a country like New Zealand, we should rid ourselves of old world prejudices and new world ideas. What may be suitable for England, America, or Australia may not be suitable for this colony. The character and genius of the people are the same ; but the physicul and geographical features of the country are widely different. We must at the same time bear in mind the fact which has been well pointed out by Hepwurth Dixon, that society is held together by the poise and balance of two radical powers in man, akin to those centrifugal and centripetal forces which compel the planets to revolve round the sun — the separating spirit of freedom and the combining spirit of union. Always acting in opposite ways these forces hold each other in chock ; that shaking masses into mists, this drawing mists into masses. It is not by ignoring either, but by the wise adjustment of both that the two great • principles of unity and liberty can be maintained. This nice adjustment is at present secured here by the division of this long and straggling country into provinces. Their separate parts constitute a united whole. As in language two negatives make an affirmative, so with political institutions. When mixed together one modifies the other, and a result is obtained which neither separately would he capable of yielding. Abolish the Provincial Governments and there is danger that the two islands will fly off into two separate colonies ; the balance which now exists between the centrifugal and centripetal forces being then destroyed. It is not wise to probe even an ulcer until it has reached a head. We distrust surgical operations by inexperienced men. The necessity of a thing being done, and the mode of doing it, are two matters widely different. It is even prudent to "let well alone." It is more easy to make a hole than to mend one, though it be only in a tin kettle. (^aillllHlHilllw ■—fm^— a^»— «mm— »»