The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prævalebit TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1888. THE RECENT SESSION.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1730, 3 January 1888, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas Et Prævalebit TUESDAY, JANUARY 3, 1888. THE RECENT SESSION.

Now that the holidays m which we all indulge at Christmas and New Year are over, and which for the nonce obliterated from the public mind such pro s y and svork-a-day matters as general politic?, there is time to take a retrospective glance at the proceedings of the recent lemarkable session of Parliament and to sum up its results. That it was a remarkable session will be generally admitted. It placed m the forefront m the person of Major Atkinson, the man whom three years before the country rejected by an overwhelming majority, and relegated to a position of absolute impotence the man whom three years ago the country regarded as its.political saviour. Not that this was because m Major Atkinson and his policy the country generally reposed a renewed faith and confidence, but because Sir Julius Yogel on his re-entry into power had with an over-sanguine estimate of the possibilities of the situation promised more than he could perform, and bad encouraged hopes the disappointment of which rendered him less trusted than his chief political adversary. It is proverbial that "nothing succeeds like success" and the converse proportion that " there is nothing so disastrous as failure \ is an equally obvious truth. People do not stay to enquire into the why and wherefore, the result is the touch-stone of the matter, and as the result of progrecs and prosperity which was looked for as the consequence ot a new Vogelian Administration was not forthcoming, there was a sharp re-action and Sir Julius has paid the penalty by the loss of power and prestige. The wheel of political fortune may yet take another turn, and once more bring him to the top, but m the meantime it is not to be denied that he is for tbe present powerless and that Major Aikin6o>n is wholly master of the situation. Indeed, the majorities he commanded during the recent session were something phenoniinal and almost unprecedented. Then, again, the session was almo«t unique for the large amount of solid work accomplished within a period that can scarcely be reckoned by weeks, but rather must be counted by days, for nearly all the legislation was carried through towards the very end, and begun and completed m less than twenty sitting days. In that very short period of time both I Houses dealt with many la'ge and [ important questions, and dealt with jyitji them on the whole, we are hotfntj fo pay, satisfactorily. A gcod deal u/a» accomplished towards carrying into cftect tfce policy of retrenchment and economy whjcb we have talked about beginning for years past, but which until now we naye never yet begun, a broad-spirited compiehen6ij/£ and highly necessary liberalisation of our J?n/3 laws has been elected,, the entire system of. fajlway administration has been remodetfea jn ob,<ji ence to t h e public wish—with wnat results of course remains to be feen«~ibe j^g j, aye en

for the definite termination of the borrowing policy, all the remaining difficulties m the way of the completion of that great enterprise the Midland Railway have been successfully surmounted, and, for good or ill, we have cas tin our lot with the other Australasian colonies and with the Imperial authorities m the Australasian Naval Defence Scheme. That is surely a big record for a single session, not to say for less than a month's work of Parliament. We are not sanguine enough to predict that the result of all these new departures will be satisfactory — it may indeed m some respects be very much the reverse, but this at least is certain that the action of Pailiament has been a true reflex cf the public desire. The remodelling of the representation is also | what the public has demanded, and j Parliament has here also faithfully acted up to the wishes of the country, but we have grave doubts as to the results of the experiment which will be made at the next re distribution of seats among 74 instead of 95 members. Unless a much larger percentage allowance is made to the country constituencies than at present, the electorates will become so large that none but leisured men can afford to become candidates, and as leisured men m this colony are almost exclusively men of wealth, it follows that if none but these can be candidates wealth will have altogether an undue influence upon our future legislation. In this, as m the matter of the Railway Board, we have entered upon the region of experiment — let us hope that the experiment may result satisfactorily. However that may be, there can be no doubt that the work of last sessision fraught with great potentialities, and that the legislation of 1887 will be for good or (or evil a landmark m the history of the colony.