The Evening Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1871.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2710, 24 October 1871, Page 2

The Evening Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1871.

The Parliamentary tactics of the session form a complete study to those interested in party warfare. The Government, with a strong majority at their backs, have yet had to abandon many very promising schemes, much to the discomfiture of the Opposition, who saw in them the germs of strong points of attack. If attention be given to the mode of harrassiug the Government adopted by Mr Stafford, it will be seen that it resembles the snarling of a cm*, too weak to grapple with the mastiff, who lies gnawing the bone he would like to snatch from his grasp. He finds fault with everything : contrives to damage everything : but proposes nothing. The little yelping brood behind follow in his lead. They growl and snarl, and show their teeth, but beyond demonstrations of hostility, they have no policy in common. However satisfactory to themselves, this manifestation of obstructiveness may be, it cannot be so to the country; and moreover to find fault with everything and propose nothing is a very undignified position for any statesman to be placed in. We are quite prepared to believe the Government have imposed upon themselves a Herculean task. When they took office, they found all departments in an unsatisfactory condition. There was no identification of interest between the Government and the people. The long dragging war had raised up a host of persons dependent upon its continuance for their subsistence, and the transition from a state of war to one of peace is always a time of difficulty for a Ministry. The Fox Ministry have virtually undertaken to reorganise society. They propose a scheme of government based upon development, and to take the lead in devising the necessary machinery, The framers of the Constitution evidently did not contemplate this as one of the functions of the Central Government. Apparently the General Assembly was intended to be more of a legislative than an administrative body. The Provinces were supposed to be the administrators, and to attend to industrial and social development. The experiment has been tried, and has only partially succeeded, JJvcn in Otago, where so much has been done, experience has shewn that it might hav.e been much more cheaply executed by the Colonial Government. It was found that no Provincial security was considered equally valuable with a Colonial one in the money market, and that money could only be raised by Provinces at a ruinous rate of interest; while the General Government could command it on fair and reasonable terms. But, more than that, in order to efficient plans of development, there must be nothing partial in them. A Provincial Government would fritter away funds voted by the Colony to form a line of railway from the Waitaki to Oamaru, or, if log-rolling could do it, to terminate at a jetty at Walkouaiti. This would render these great works, which ought to be for general benefit, purely matters of local interest. They would enhance the value of property in hamlets A, B, C, but leave all the rest of the Colony no better than before, This has been the tendency of Provincial legislation, and could scarcely be otherwise from the nature of the case ; and just on that very ground the time has arrived when general, and not partial legislation should be adopted, wherever possible. I

A careful and learned writer, DiHearn, says:

If all the members of the community be directly interested in any act, the State should unde: take the performance of that act. If a portion only of the community be concerned, the matter should be left to the parties interested.

Accepting this as an axiom, it is plain that the present Government has marked out for itself great schemes of general utility. Instead of confining their attention to one special object, which a few years ago was amusingly and annoyingly set up as the chief training of a statesman, the governing and subjecting a savage race, they have widened their sphere of labor. They propose to improve internal means of communication, so as to render wider areas of country available for settlement, to promote immigration and to provide means of education for every child in the Colony. These are obviously acts iu which the whole community is interested ; but a moment’s thought will convince anyone that they involve changes of vast importance : changes which should not be rashlv entered into. Many, therefore, of the plans of the present Government are necessarily tentative. They involve principles which have not yet commended themselves to the community as true, and measures have been withdrawn for the present until discussion, inquiry, and investigation have prepared the country to carry them out successfully. The Opposition may crow over these apparent instances of indecision, but there is true political wisdom in not pressing a measure before its time. It is a wellknown feet that a Government that is in advance of the people is sure to fell. In order, therefore, to rule Avisely, -it is necessary to prepare the public mind and then follow. A Government must follow, not precede public opinion.