The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 15.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 173, 15 March 1878, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, MARCH 15.

There cannot be any manner of doubt but that things political, at the present moment, wear a somewhat troubled and unsatisfactory aspect. That wonderful word, Abolition, now belongs, body and soul, to the New Zealand vocabulary ; and the New Zealander " of the future," when tracing back his political raison d'etre, will find that, from the days in which the old traditional era of Provincialism became " abolishionised," a totally new atmosphere enveloped the adopted land of his forefathers. But while it is now more than two years since the parliamentary mountain gave birth to the present constitutional state of things, we must admit that, for all practical purposes of a character such as the majority of the taxpayers could understand with ease, the outcome of this constitutional convulsion has not been found very palatable by the major part of the people. To a very great extent, perhaps, this result was not caused by the mode of parturition selected at the time by those political leaders who managed to carry their anti-Provincial-istic views successfully through the Legislature. Their theory, as applicable at least to the general average—in point of number and of vested interests— of the population of the colony, might have been sound enough, and have borne upon ity very face signs that its practice Avould be conducive to the general welfare. But we have already had—and paid dearly for, by-the-bye— two meetings of Parliament, and it may be truly said that both the Government of the day and the newly constructed public bodies, are as much in a fog as to the financial position in which the latter are placed, as that perplexed officer, the Law officer of the Crown, or his departmental office boy. One of the most glaring instances of the many on record, which have come to light of late, of this unfortunate state of administrative confusion, visible at times upon the official horizon, came to our notice not many days ago. That departmental " ghost in the cupboard," the ComptrollerGeneral, Mr J, E. Fitzgerald, he; who is authoritatively asserted to have pulled the Ministerial strings during the late administration, was interviewed during his late visit to Canterbury, by the Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Ashburton Comity Council, who, anxious as his committee was to know what the real position of that wealthy Council was in relation to its local Road Boards, asked the Comptroller—who is Commissioner of Audit as well—to inform him of the manner it was intended the surplus of the Land Fund in Canterbury should be disposed of. The Ashburton Council's reading of the Act led them to conclude that this surplus would be paid to the Road Boards. Mr Fitzgerald's interpretation of the law, however, was, he replied, a totaliy different one, and he expressed himself to the effect .that " he would write to his colleague in audit, Knight, to act accordingly." We do not intend, just now, to discuss the pros and cons of this misunderstanding between the Ashburton County Council and the Commissioners of Audit. But what we would point out is, the singular fact that, when lately addressing his constituency up North, a leading member of the Cabinet took it as a matter of course, that this surplus of the Land Revenue did belong to the Road Boards. And as a matter of fact, such apportionment has generally been understood to be carried out in the manner indicated by.' our Ashburton friends. This case of —let us call it legal difference of opinion—upon one of

the most important questions which can possibly arise in the practical administration of affairs is only one out of many scores. And. yet, two sessions of the the Assembly have come and gone, wherein a mass of half-digested legislation of a more or less crude and impossible character was shovelled out through committee, while the powers of endurance of the representatives of the people, both as regard their loquaciousness and the natural effervescence of their temper, have been put to the severest test. What little faith the present Ministers of the Crown themselves have in the present state of things may be easily judged by the utterances of Sir George Grey and some of his colleagues. Mr Macandrew, for one, when prophetically inclined, some two or three days ago, absolutely told an Otago audience, who swallowed his words, gaping and a-hun-gared " for more," that there were strong indications in the air that modified Provincialism would have yet to be resorted to. So far as we can judge too, of the amalgamation of parliamentary units during this recess, the next sitting of the House of Assembly bids fair to once more bring to sight as vivacious a representation of " Donnybrook Fair, " in Parliament, as was, unfortunately, witnessed a few months ago. Lnst session lasted over five months, and its nightly proceedings were more characterised by personal vindictiveness, torrential flows of agonised souls, and displays of tortured reason, than by steady dignified and unselfish endeavours to attend to the immediate wants of the country. From the inauspicious tokens now flitting here and there across the political heavens, we cannot help thinking that the next meeting, which is not far distant, will prove as stormy, if not more so, than was the last, and that if there ever was a time when the Parliamentary platform was likely to be ensanguined by factions blindly wrestling for the consummation of their own pet and selfish schemes, it will be next session. Sir George Grey, able, well-meaning, and eminent as he is, is unfortunately disseminating in his travels, the seeds of what must certainly prove a bone of contention over which Legislators will mangle one another terribly. We allude to the manhood suffrage doctrine, which he is unfortunately propounding in so uncompromising a manner whenever enthusiastic audiences gather around him. After trundling that popular hoop in every quarter of the colony, with a vigor and brilliancy of style which recall that able veteran's most wonderful days, we cannot see how it is possible for the Premier and his Cabinet to withold it from Parliament next session. In the natural course of things, it must form one of the items of the bill of fare. Few, however, if even a round " baker's dozen," will be found rallying under so revolutionary a flag, and the consequences, we foresee, must be that a dissolution of the House and appeal to the country will inevitably follow.