✨ Provincial Government Address
OTAGO
PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT GAZETTE
(PUBLISHED BY AUTHORITY.)
Vol. XX. DUNEDIN, WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1876. No. 1826
ADDRESS BY HIS HONOR JAMES MACANDREW TO MEMBERS OF THE PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.
GENTLEMEN,
The late Colonial Parliament having enacted that you shall not as representatives of the people assemble in your collective capacity, I am deprived of the privilege of again addressing you in Council assembled, and you are debarred from exercising those functions with which, by the constitution, the people have been entrusted, and which were conferred upon you by the constitution. I do not know that there is to be found a more reckless, uncalled-for, and tyrannical proceeding in the history of representative institutions.
Proposed Abolition of Provinces.
My belief is that, in so far as Otago is concerned, if the popular voice were taken it would be found to be all but unanimous in demanding that the Provincial Council shall again assemble, and that any question of Constitutional change should be therein discussed and determined: While I am far from saying that the Provincial Council is immaculate, or that its action in the past might not have been improved upon, I assert and maintain that it affords a much more complete reflex of the public mind of Otago than does the Colonial Parliament; and that, as such, it is the proper arena on which to decide all questions affecting the peace, order, and good government of the province. I would say, further, judging from a lengthened experience as a member of the Colonial Parliament, that in proportion to its numbers the Provincial Council of Otago possesses as much ability as does the Colonial House of Representatives; and that while the former is much more capable of dealing with subjects exclusively appertaining to the Province, it is quite as competent to deal with what may be termed colonial questions as is the Colonial Legislature.
I venture to predict that should the Abolition of the Provinces be effected, and all legislative and administrative power be centred at Wellington, it will be the prelude to years of departmental extravagance, political turmoil, and well-founded local discontent which cannot fail to exercise a most baneful influence upon the advancement of the Colony in general and of Otago in particular. Most assuredly New Zealand will yet have cause bitterly to rue the day that Centralism rules supreme, and the different political entities of the Colony shall have been destroyed de jure, but not de facto. From the heterogeneous elements of which the Colonial Legislature is made up it is not impossible that a majority of votes may be found to accomplish the one, although they cannot possibly effect the other.
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Otago Provincial Gazette 1876, No 1026
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🏘️ Address by James Macandrew to Provincial Council
🏘️ Provincial & Local GovernmentProvincial Council, Abolition of Provinces, Otago, Centralism
- James Macandrew (His Honor), Address to Provincial Council