SUPERINTENDENTS IN PROVINCIAL COUNCILS.

Evening Star, Issue 3011, 12 October 1872, Page 4

SUPERINTENDENTS IN PROVINCIAL COUNCILS.

During the debate on the c uperiutendents’ Scat in Provincial Councils Bill, in the Lords, Dr Draco made the following reference to the Provincial Council of Hawke’s Hay : “He had some experience of the workings of the provisions relating to Superintendents in the new Provinci s, and any further experiments in that direction, particularly with the large Provinces, would be very dangerous. He had read a report of a meeting of the Hawke’s Bay Provincial Council, from which it appeared that when the salary of the Speaker came on for discussion, one of the members said there was but one reason that he could see -why the Spedffir should be paid, and that was, because the gentleman who was then in the chair, when he oci upied a different position, and was in opposition to the Oovarnment, when checked by the Speaker, took up a large hook and threatened to throw it at the Speaker’s head, and solely in order to keep him quiet he had been appointed to the office of Speaker. In the Hawke’s Bay Council gross personal abuse at times prevailed, and what occurred there would be likely to occur to a much greater

extent in the large Provinces, such as Otago and Canterbury, if Superintendents sat with their Councils. He could not see that the Bill would simplify matters, and he thought it would be an exceedingly injurious measure, lie should oppose the second reading.” Mr Hall, in his reply, alluded to this portion of I r Grace’s remarks in tbe.following terras : “The Hon. Dr Grace,” he said “had stated that the proceedings in the Hawke’s Bay Provincial Council were of an exceedingly low and coarse character, andexpresseda fear that other Provincial Councils might by this Bill be dragged down to the same level. He (Mr Hall) could not see any logic in the Iv norable member’s argument. If gross personalities and coarse language were indulged in in that Provincial Council, it was because the electors did not send the proper stamp of representatives to the Council.” The Hawl'f'* Bay Herald is savage with Mr Hall for reflecting on the.electors of that Province, and answers him thus :—Passing over the absurdity of Dr Grace’s argument, which we take to be to the eftect that the fact of Mr Ormond’s simple pre ence in the Council operates on the members as an irritant which, however, singularly enough, produces the result, not of causing them to make attacks upon him, but upon each other ! we must emphatically protest against his promises being accepted as correct. We feel certain that, in spite of the occasional perpetration of suclppleasantries as those to which he has alluded, and which were, of course, no more than pleasantries, the proceedings in our Council would bear .favorable comparison with those in any of the Councils in the Colony, and we can state as a fact that they are characterised by infinitely more decorum and self-respect than those of the House of Representatives. Our electors, thank God, have not yet thought fit to send up to it either broken-down inebriates or disappointed contractors.