The Absorption of Power.

The second danger to a democracy was the absorption of power into the hands of One or a few. Those who had read De Tocqueville and other writers of a similar stamp would know that nothing was more difficult than to fix the limits of central and local authority. This was a problem not yet settled in England, while in France it was still a burning question, and yet people in the colony talked as though all that had to be done was to write a few clauses in a copy book and the whole thing was settled. In France the Central Government had its fingers in everything, and the result was that true liberty was emasculated. The problem had yet to be delat with in New Zealand, and it would be well now to glance back a little at the history of the colony. Here they once had a system of local government, and he said without hesitation that they did wrong in abolishing the provinces, though that it was done with the highest idea of doing what was best he fully believed. But he did not think that abolition was first brought about in 1875. The first nail in the coffin of Provincialism was driven when the New Provinces Act was passed. They had not recognised the fact that for New Zealand a different kind of government was required to that which was adapted for Australia and England. New Zealand was colonised from different centres, and it was a good thing that it should be so for he did not believe in one town dominating and everything else being small. That the mainspring of action in those who passed the New Provinces Act was a desire for the welfare of the colony he willingly conceded and he hoped that he and others would always be averse to asserting that a man must necessarily be a bad one because they differed from him in politics. It was feared that if the Provincial system were continued there would never be any national life in New Zealand, and it was urged that the only way to create that national life was to have one strong Government, but in this he did not believe. There was national life in America in the great civil war, and it had been evoked under the system of State Legislatures; there was national life in Switzerland under the system of cantons, for the [gap — reason: illegible] Swiss thought far more of his country than of his particular canton, and in New Zealand there would have been just as much national life had the provinces continued to exist, but the were abolished, and what was the result? Had the Government been wiser or better since then? Take the last Loan Act and see what the General Government were called upon to do in the matter of roads and bridges. Out of the million and a half authorised there were but £700,000 available for railways, and all the rest was to go for roads and bridges. Nearly £800,000! More than was voted for the purpose by all the Australian colonies put together! How could a little half million of people stand that sort of thing It could not possibly continue, but so long as the General Government borrowed money to be expended by the local bodies there would be no care in the expenditure. They were not to hear of roads and bridges in the General Assembly after the abolition of the provinces except for the purpose of congratulation, but congratulation was scarcely the right word to apply to the tone in which they were spoken of now. This was a great difficulty that had to be met but the papers seemed to think that he ought to have been fully prepared with a remedy, and to have come down with a Bill of some 300 clauses. But the work was a far more serious one than could be undertaken at once. There had been too much demolition, too much abolition, and now they had to begin construction a far more laborious task. There would have to be an aggregation of the various local bodies, which would have to take over much of the work that now was done by the general body, for if they had fourteen, instead of seven Ministers, they could not manage the affairs of the colony and attend to local government as well. (Cheers.) This danger of absorption of power always met them, and it was the same in the days of the provinces, for they, like the General Government, were always endeavoring to get more power. But the people must learn to recognise that without local government there could be no true liberty, and this was one of the first things to be done before they could hope to lay the foundations of a really string democracy. (Loud cheers.)