The Globe. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1874.

Globe, Volume I, Issue 82, 4 September 1874, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1874.

Mit Ltjckie's speech, which is reported at length in this evening's issue, is, as might have been expected, strongly in favour of the abolition of the provinces. Many of the gentlemen who have lately given the country the benefit of their views upon this scheme of Mr Voxel's take credit to themselves for having been, up to a late date, strong pro v racialists. They now, however, agree, with wonderful unanimity, that the time when provincial institutions should be done away with is come, and accordingly they are ready to follow Mr Vogel in his experimental legislation. Mr Luckie speaks, of course, as a Nelson colonist, and claims for Nelson, Marlborough, and Westland that they should be benefited by the spare money of Canterbury and Otago. He particularly instances "Westland, which might have been, if its population had chosen, a part of Canterbury to this day, and contrasts the latter province, with £1,250,000 to spend, whilst Westland is starving. Can any reasonable person say that this is the fault of Canterbury ? Westland toould go, when it had got all it could from us, and thought it was strong enough to walk alone, and now we in Canterbury are called on to pay for the expensive mistakes committed by our neighbours. An argument that is most frequently used by the supporters of Mr Vogel, is that of the number of members who voted against the abolition resolutions there were a large proportion of gentlemen who held Provincial Government offices, and who were therefore personalty interested in the preservation of these offices. This may be so, but may we not imagine that there are amongst the followers of the Government, a number of gentleman, who consider that their support on this question may entitle them to ask for one of the official posts which must be established when the present institutions are swept away, and who are looking forward to the distribution of these offices with a hungry eye. If we are to subject one set of members to the imputation of supporting provincialism, because it supports them, the least we can do is to tar all the remaining members with the same brush, and look at the reasons which have induced so many members to vote for the abolition of a system in which until now they have had such a strong faith. We can entirely go with Mr Luckie when he alludes to the colony of-New Zealand as " the most Act-of Parlia- " ment-ridden colony on the face of " the earth ;" and we cannot understand why he wants immediately after this statement to introduce new legislation, and remodel the Road Boards, simply because some of them happen to have a balance to their credit, whilst others not so well managed are oompnratively poor. To Mr Yogel and his party, the idea of any form of local Government having a surplus, no matter how obtained, whether by the sale of land in the district, or by economy and efficiency in the administration of local affairs, seems to be a heinous crime. Their idea is, that nobody but the General Government should have the spending of any large sum of money, and to this end they will legislate as long as they can see any chance of getting hold of the balance to the credit of any-particular province. How quickly they will spend it everyone knows, and whether we shall derive so much benefit from it after passing through their hands, almost every one in this province doubts.