The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1870.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2304, 24 September 1870, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24, 1870.

This community of ours is a curious one : difficult to know, difficult to serve, difficult to please when served. It is hard to say why these difficulties should crop up so prominently; but they do. It would be a very bad state of affairs were there such a profound indifference to passing events, as to lead to a complete handing over of all care and interest in them to our representatives. No man’s judgment should be implicitly relied on ; and especially should it be watched when even the soundest intellect is apt to be warped in its conclusions, by the prospect of gaining some political advantage for those who have entrusted their interests to his advocacy. But, unfortunately for our public men, the public judgment is very frequently more unreliable than their own. This may naturally be the case from the nature of things; but from the very mode of the settlement of New Zealand, legislation is more difficult than in other Colonies. There is not one Australian Colony that we know of that has not spread out from one central point. In each, therefore, one government Avas a natural consequence of its position. But in New Zealand some half score settlements were planted at Avide distances from each other, Avith different vieAvs, social and religious, and with diverse and often conflicting interests. Hence the necessity for Provincialism,

or, at least, territorial division ; hence “ the antagonism between the North and Middle Islands ; hence the diversity in e political objects to be attained ; hence j the necessity for frequent compromise of parties in Parliament : hence the r difficulty of prosecuting a straightfor- | ward course ; hence the liability to be ( condemned by constituencies tor not , doing what was impossible. These circumstances multiply immeasurably the perplexities of every member of the House of Representatives. Sometimes, after days of anxious investigation and nights of toil, they find their best efforts foiled, and return to their constituents to encounter blame, where they ought to have had sympathy, if not thanks. This is bad enough ; but it is immeasurably worse when efforts are made, and successfully made too, which have a tendency to forward the | best interests of a constituency, but which are treated lightly by those who are benefited by them. We do not remember any session of Parliament in which so much has been done by our representatives ; but, on the other hand, we do not remember a single session in which so divided an appreciation of their efforts has been evinced. “Envy,” says Livy, “is blind, and “ she has no other quality than that of “ detracting flfom virtue.” Envy has been especially busy amongst ns during the last few days. It has blinded , some of onr leading men to the state of public feeling, and has caused divisions and heartburnings where thcie ought to have been unanimity. What puerility has been shown in attempting to detract from the merit due to those who have worked so well for Otago during the last three months ! And it is to°be regretted that many of our representatives have allowed themselves r to be influenced by a few bilious men, and have tried to oppose the good feell ing which prompted the people of Port Chalmers and Dunedin to acknowledge the services of the Superintendent in Parliament. They too strongly remembered that he could not have done what } he has done without their help ; and > forgot that a compliment paid to him was equally an expression of approval 1 of their own actions. They should have remembered that to detract from ’ the value of his services was to condemn their own work, and that to identify themselves even in spirit with a class who habitually decry every effort at progress, is suicidal to their * own political reputation. We arc not 1 of the class who treat legislation as an , expensive farce. There is, no doubt, much projected even in legislation which may never be achieved ; but that is nob the question for our representatives. Take, for instance, the j postal arrangements. There are those who seek to gain credit for foresight, who laugh at the idea of Port Clial- - mers being the terminus for New Zealand, because they say those arrangej ments will never he carried into , execution. Of this we know nothing. They may be gifted with prescience, or they may be like the lying prophets of old. It was not for our members to say whether they would or would not - take place. A proposition was before Parliament, and therefore the presumption was that there was something - serious in it; and, if so, thet e was an obvious duty before them, which they - have well performed. It was on Mr Macandrew’s motion that the House agreed to make Port Oha liters the [ terminus—the other members helped him, and they fij’6 entitled to the : thanks that both Port Chalmers and Dunedin have tendered him, and them * through him, and must alike condemn that petty spirit that cannot see they - have done well, whether the scheme is ever carried into effect or not. It * would be well to remember the words 5 of the play, “ Black detraction will > “ find faults Avhere they were not.”