The Ashburton Guardian, COUNTY AGRICULTURAL & SPORTING RECORDER. THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1880.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 141, 19 August 1880, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian, COUNTY AGRICULTURAL & SPORTING RECORDER. THURSDAY, AUGUST 19, 1880.

In the House yesterday afternoon Mr. Moss gave notice to move for the institution of a system of local Government with a view to relieve Parliament of -a : great amount of what Mr. Sheehan called the “ parish business ” it is called upon to perform. We have no wish to see the old provincialism returned to, with its mock Parliament of “ honorable members,” sitting in every chief town, and the way Mr. Moss puts his motion makes us feel as if the spirits of the provincial parliaments had begun to “ walk.” But when one sees how much real legislation has to be shelved.each session simply because the House has had its time taken up with matters that could have been just as well attended to by the Counties in the districts which these matters affected, he is inclined to favor some scheme that will relieve Parliament of any “local” duties that help it to fritter away its time without profit to the colony. As it is, there is an element in the House sufficiently prodigal of time in its tendencies, no matter how important to the country the issues of a question may be, and the result of the action of this element is that we find the Legislature, as the session draws to a. close, having a pile of work to get through that it has no hope of accomplishing. This session is no exception, and we fear the Representation Bill lias shown all of itself we will see this year ■, the Licensing Bill we would not be surprised to see held over at the last moment till next year, while the Hospital and Charitable Institutions Bill stands a good chance of sharing the same late. It is aggravating to find a session that opens hopefully and full of promise having to close with its work half done and a large proportion of it done hurridly and therefore less thorough!}' and carefully than it might have been. To remedy this state of affairs in some measure at least is Mr. Moss’s intention in the motion lie wishes the House to consider and adopt. But we fear his reform in this direction has been mooted at too late a period in the session to receive the consideration that, not so much his scheme as his intention, merits. Some thing, however, will have to be done in the direction lie hints at, but as it is hopeless to expect a private member to carry through a reform of this kind, the matter ought to be taken up by Government. We hope that during the recess Government will consider what is best to be done to relieve the House of the pile of purely “ parish business ” it is annually called upon to do, and yet retain some sort of direct control of such bodies as they may relegate it to, or specially create for its transaction.