The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 3, Issue 245, 22 November 1878, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 22.

The late Session of the General Assembly occupies a peculiar position in its relation to those which have preceded it. Some of the most important questions that can agitate a community were almost exhaustiA-ely debated. For once tho House was asked to cease for a time from the usual scramble for distribution ot money, to lay aside the functions of a parish vestry, even to refrain from spending weeks in ascertaining whether Mr A. or Mr B. were the less worthy of its confidence. Instead of these or similar subjects, honorable members were invited to legislate on questions of the broadest nature, questions on the solution of which the peace of nations has frequently depended, questions whose neglect has sufficed to hurl the oldest dynasties from their thrones, has produced a Great Rebellion, a French Revolution, and an American Independence.

We may be accused of **• high falutin," but we believe all students of history will agree with us that the importance of the subjects debated in the late Session can hardly be (over-estimated. Who shall and who shall not be entitled to a share in the government of the country of which he is a citizen, has had to be decided on many occasions in a deluge of blood, and in what manner and proportions each person living under the protection of the law shall contribute to the necessities of the State has frequently demanded a similar solution. True, there is no danger of any such calamity taking place in our peaceful and prosperous community, for more reasons than one, but the principle remains the same. We have no right to perpetuate injustice if it can be shewn to exist, because its victims do not feel its pressure, or are not able to enforce a demand for its removal.

We are not of the number, therefore, who would be disposed to inscribe diem yerdidi asfc Session, nor should we be disposed to do so had even no actual result been achieved in the shape of legislation. It is of no little moment that public attention has been called to matters which, in the general prosperity that prevails, and the eager race for wealth in which so many are occupied, are too apt to be neglected and overlooked. At the same time we must confess to a feeling of disappointment at the paucity of results, compared with what we anticipated from the circumstances under which the Session opened. We find that this feeling of disappointment is shared by all our contemporaries, though we think that many of them hardly ascribe sufficient importance to what has been done. The Opposition journals are jubilant, though what reasonable ground exists for such rejoicing appears to us somei what mysterious. The utmost they can claim for their party is that they, iv conjunction with certain Government supporters, have prevented certain pi-o-mi6ed reforms from being carried into effect. Even this is too much to say. It would be more correct to say that they have delayed the passing of these measures, probably only to confront them in a more pronounced form on a future occasion. The causes of the comparative failure of the Government to carry into effect the liberal programme whicij* they sketched out during the recess are some-what complex, but they may be resolved into two. One the enormous vis inertiaz which the would-be perpetuators of " things as they are," are always able to oppose to the advocates of any sweeping change. Secondly, the disintegration of parties, or rather their non-existence. Men of all shades of opinion were included in the majority which placed Sir George Grey in office. Their only bond of union was a dislike of the Atkinson Ministry, and that obstacle once removed, this bond became a mere rope of sand. Thus we find men who helped Sir George to his seat on the Treasury Bench have been persistently voting against him ever since he has been' there. In explanation of such apparent inconsistency, these gentlemenmay plead, and some in fact do plead, that Sir George had not promulgated what they #r*e pleased to call his revolutionary programme when they enlisted under his banner. Whatever the reason, however, the fact remains that, though the Government had nominally a considerable majority, yet their own supporters voted against them on several important questions, and joined *wjLth the Opposition in mutilating the Government policy.

We think the Government showed a want of pluck and committed an error of judgment in tolerating these defections. Wegive them credit for the best intentions,, but we believe the spirit running through the whole of their policy was one of compromise. To abandon a por-

tion of a just claim sometimes seems to be the only means of -securing the balance, and we believe that this principle actuated the Government throughout. , Compromises, however, are nearly always unsatisfactory. They serve to irritate the party conceding, without satisfying the other. We believe it would have been far wiser, and fai more satisfying tc{ his real supporters if Sir George Grey! had come down with a compreheus\ve| scheme of reform, nailed his colors to the mast, and said—" Gentlemen, that is what I propose to do ; if you approve, assist me to carry it out; if not, I will put the same question to your_constituencies, and of course their decision will be final." '

We feel confident that if this course had been adopted all the Premier's most " revolutionary" schemes could have been carried into effect, and we believe that it is the course which will yet have to be followed. Meanwhile something has been done. The principle has been affirmed that property is to bear its share of the burdens of the community, and a portion, if only a small one, ot the taxes on necessaries have been remitted, and placed on the shoulders of the landowners. A law granting practically manhood suffrage has also passed the Lower House, and though it came to grief in the Council, it was not on this point that it encountered shipwreck. Considering the number of years in which these matters have been talked about merely, we think we are justified in congratulating the country that at last something has been done, and, in maintaining that the opinion expressed in the opening of this article as to the Session not having been altogether unimportant, is amply borne out by the facts.