The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1875-11-03

A great change has recently taken place IN
the government of New Zealand, by the pas
sage Of what is there known as the e Abolition
Bill IA law to abolish the provincial govern
lnents. and transfer the power heretofore held
by them to the central government. The
measure is a very popular one with all classes,
although small party in the Legislative As
sembly. headed by Sir George Grey, formerly
governor Of the colony, has opposed 1t very
warmly. In the Auckland Herald. We find a
full statement OF the radical changes made in
this measure, which viii interest our readers
The early Constitution Of New Zealand
divided the colony into provinces and gave to
each Council elected by tile fullest suffrage.
Il placed at the head of each province Super
intendent, elected every four years by the
whole body of the people. The powers of
these Provincial Governments were Of the
wisest character, enabling them to deal order,
aud good government Of their respective pro
vinces SO far as all local affairs were concern
ed. Certain subjects affecting the colony as a
whole, such as Customs revenue, postal ser
vices, bankruptcy laws, currency, &c, were
excepted and were under the exclusive juris-
diction Of the General Assembly. The As
sembly consists Of two Houses. The House Of
Representatives is elected from the people in
the usual way. The Legislative Council or sec
ond Chambers is nominated by the Crown for
life. For many years after the Constitution
was mt into operation in 1858 the Provincial
Governments did all the work of the colony
The meetings and proceedings of the Assembly
were but little regarded and it quietly added
to its numbers, created new sufrages-s
as those Of the miners and Maoris divided the
country into districts and allocated the repre-
sentatiOn as, from tine TO time, it thought
best. The introduction Of the system Of Re
sponsible Government also effected great
change, for it placed in the hands Of the Min
istry the powers hitherto used by the Cover
nor as the representative of the Crown The
Constitution originally contemplated the cleo
ton of the Upper House by the Provincial
Councils, and the draft sent home contained
provision TO that effect. In view of this ar
rangement the powers of the Assembly were
made in all things supreme, and It's laws on
any subject were to supersede those of Pro-
vircial Councils. Unfortunately, in final deal
ing with the Constitution Act, the Imperial
Parliament altered this and made the Upper
House to consist Of nominees The balance Of
the Constitution was thus destroyed The
Upper House, instead of the guardians of Pro
vincial rights and privileges, gradually ac-
quired an exclusive character. The members
were appointed for qualities and attributes
that rendered them acceptable to those in
power, and without the least reference to the
likelihood OF their being acceptable to the
Provincial Councils or the people whom they
were originally designed to represent. Grad
ually party arose in the Assembly desipOus
of concentrating power in that body. The
Provincial Councils were regarded by this
party with feeling Of hostility and no opportu-
nifty was lost of depriving them of privileges,
taking away their revenue aud lowering them
in the eyes Of the people. The Councils re-
sisted at first, hut the most severe blow was
dealt by the London Stock Exchange when it
refused in 1855 to recognise their Provincial
debentures or TO quote them on its lists The
necessity Of raising money to provide for the
sudden demands of a gold country with its
great sudden accession of population made it
indispensable to support the public credit.
There were two ways of doing this The one
was to give TO the Provincial Governments an
assured and independent revenue on the seen
rity Of which their loans could be based. The
other WAS to use the opportunity of further
humiliating them and of bringing them still
more under the control of the General Assem-
bly,. The latter course was adopted. The
whole of the loans, Colouiai and Provincial,
were consolidated and the opportunity taken
to prohibit the Provincial Governments from
again borrowing except through the Assem-
bly,. The next step was taken in the initia-
ton of the public works policy of the General
Government All the expenditure and all the
patronage thus fell into their lands, and by
their side the Provincial Government were
poor, peuniless, and despised.
At this juncture the proposal was made last
session to abolish the provinces in the North
Island. The proposal was regarded through
out the North as insulting as well as injuri-
Gus, and this session the Ministry suddenly
came out with proposal to abolish all the pro
vinces instead. The proposal at once tested
the strength of the old Provincialisis. They
had the wisdom to see their system had fallen
into contempt and the patriotism 10 abandon it /
at once and work with any that they could
centralist OF ProriDcialist-for the formation 1
Of new party. The design of this party is to !
reform the whole Constitution. They see that
while the Assembly had been so little regard 4
ed by the public many abuses had sprung up /
in its Constitution. This is the position of
parties, regarding the broad features and the
distinctions of principle alone The fear of /
abuses springing up-the certainty of class
feeling being created-and the utter insult
ability of the system to our peculiar circum-
stances and conditions, have raised power
i'll opposition to the Government headed by
Sir George Grey, so well known as Governor
II New Zealand. Sir George has long lived
n comparative seelusion In his beautiful Is
and Of KaEau; but the Constitution was his
making twenty years ago and he came forth at
he first sound of change to vindicate the prin-