Were this policy adopted, the Provinces in each island would gradually and spontaneously merge into each other, and the apparently iirccoucileable idea of I a great and united Colony, and at the same time practical financial separation between the two islands, would be realised. We should moreover be relieved to a large extent of that enormous departmental expenditure which is yearly assuming more and more gigantic pro | portions, and swallowing up resources which might be more beneficially applied— expenditure which in ?i great measure is at present practically beyond the control of the representatives of the people. It may be said that the^e views are now impracticable, and that it is too late to entertain them. I venture to think, however, that nothing is either too late or impracticable if the people will it. It should not be lost sight of that most of the absolutely necessary and primary functions of Government are now being carried on by the Provinces. _ Surely it is only reasonable that before committing poli cal auhide, and relinquishing the powers which they now possess by means of the existing Provincial organisations, the people of the Colony should know into whose hands those functions are to be hereafter entrusted. If they are to devolve upon the Central Go vernment, t'lll experience goes to prove that they will neither be better nor more economi cally performed than at present. If they are to be tntrnsted to Road Boards, not only will the cost of administration be enormously in creased, but it will end in confusion worse confounded. You may depend upon it that the real question with which the Colony ought to grapple is not Abolition of Pro vinces, 1 but the question of finance — a more equable appropriation of the public "Revenue among those by whom it is contri buted—the reduction of the cost of adiuinistra tion without impairing its efficiency. T am well I assured that under the peculiar circumstances of New Zealand Colonial Administration will give us neither. The great problem which we in the South have to solve is how best to hold our own, which we certainly shall not do by renouncing the local self-government which we now possess. 