The Evening Star. SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2873, 4 May 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star. SATURDAY, MAY 4, 1872.

The Provincial Council has been in session a week, and very little has been done. We do not know that the Executive are altogether to blame, for the consideration of the only important measure brought before the House, the Shires Bill, has been postponed in order to secure a full attendance of members : several not having yet put in an appearance. This is really too bad. There is not too much left for Provincial Councils to do, now that Railways and Immigration are taken out ©f their hands. The little real business before them might be dispatched in a fortnight or three weeks were all in their places at the appointed time. They had ample notice beforehand of the time of meeting, and every member might have been in his place at least within a day after opening the session if there had been any conscientious estimate of the value of time. Already some honorable members begin to show signs of impatience when postponement of measures to allow the attendance of absent members is spoken of. We are not surprised at it. When such complaints are put forward as reasons for shortening necessary discussion they become signs merely of a querulous disposition ; but we consider it too much to expect the Province to be put to the expense of a week’s session, and each of the members present to be kept from his private avocation for that period just because it does not suit the convenience of some half-dozen to put in an appearance at the time appointed. We known no reason why one member should be excused being punctual more than another. If one is to be privileged to put a stop to business, each has an equal right; and if every one acted upon it, the Superintendent would have to read his speech to his Executive and empty chairs, and to call the Council together a week or a month earlier than he actually wished them to meet, just as public or committee meetings are now called—half-past seven for eight. The evil effect of this was shewn very markedly yesterday in the discussion respecting the adjournment of the Shires Bill. The subject was not new to the House. It had been discussed last session, an I the Bill introduced by the Government was founded upon resolutions then adopted. It was put into the hands

of the members on Tuesday, read a first time, and the second reading appointed for yesterday. The appearance of the House on the motion for its second reading was something ludicrous. Everybody seemed taken by surprise : nobody was ready to discuss it. The Order Paper seems to have been so rapidly cleared that the Shires Bill had evidently been looked upon as coming unexpectedly into notice. Some seemed to repent of the House having laid down principles last session to be embodied in a Bill this, and wished to see the working of the Roads Ordinance before taking further action. Others started objections which sounded as if suggested by some such soliloquy as, “ I do not like to confess I have not read the Bill ; and as 1 must say something to bide my neglect, I will just throw in a few words as a put off.” The Provincial Secretary evidently felt it necessary to give way to the desire for postponement ; but as in duty bound gave a gentle hint to honorable members that they were called together for the transaction of business, and that there was none on the Order Paper: that two hours ought to suffice to master the details of the Bill, and on that ground, as between Friday at four o’clock, and Monday at two, there were seventy hours for study, refreshment, amusement, and sleep, there could be no reasonable plea for longer delay. On Monday, therefore, possibly the consideration of this really important measure may be undertaken. Reverting again to what after all seemed to be the chief reason for the Government assenting to the adjournment, several members being still absent, we think it a fair subject for their constituents to call them to account upon. The whole revenue for distribution by the Provincial Council does not exceed one-fourth of the annual return of a first-class wholesale grocer in London. The number of persons who efficiently manage such an establishment and conduct it profitably, is seldom more than three, with salaries not exceeding five hundred a year each. But in Otago we have forty-six men as councillors at 19s lid a day each, who waste more time in a week, reckoning that of each member, than the sum of the holidays of such a firm amounts to in seven years. Surely some method could be hit upon for mulcting absentees ; at least their absence should not prevent the transaction of business.