The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1873.

Evening Star, Issue 3227, 24 June 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, JUNE 24, 1873.

The excitement and turmoil of election proceedings are about over, we hope, for the next four years) it therefore becomes those who are defeated to accept the rejection of their services with a good grace, and it devolves upon the successful candidates to turn their attention to those measures which, in the fulfilment of their representative duties, they will be called upon to consider. We should like to believe that party will be thrown overboard, and that we shall no longer witness measures rejected by one set of politicians merely because they have been proposed by another. With some that is government by party. But in these democratic Colonies the word party bears a different meaning from that associated with it at Home. There it has a definite signification. It is clearly understood that Conservatism proposes to maintain institutions that havegrown with the dust of ages; that have been diverted from their original intention and become associated with Church and State with all their abuses. We suppose we ought in deference to those venerable mementos of the past, to use an euphonius expression, Conservatism proposes to maintain in tact their acquired right—no matter how acquired. On the other hand Liberalism professes for its aim, divesting every public institution of the abuses that have grown up within it, and adapting it to the requirements of the present age. It is from this enlightened standpoint that the Colonies should take their start; and because of the absence of those impediments which age and prescription have placed in the way of creating perfect institutions at Home, their progress should be rapid. This is the main reason why in most matters the Australian Colonies have advanced more rapidly in freedom and in equitable laws than the Mother Country. This is chiefly why those safe-guards to liberty, extended suffrage and the ballot, were adopted here so many years before they found favor with the majority in Great Britain, This is the reason why in these Colonies we enjoy comparative immunity from ecclesiastical domination : why no superiority of ope religious sect is allowed above the rest. But yet we have parties in our Leglsla.tures whose political creeds are so close that it seems a mere splitting of straws that they disagree about. It was very amusing at the elections to hear the pretty way in which the members of the late Opposition put matters to their constituents. They said “we are termed obstructives, we are no obstructives. We quite agree with the measures proposed in his Honor’s Address. 'Prey are very good indeed. The Executive propose railways : we quite agree

jbhat railways are good things. The Executive propose a re-organisation of our School system; we cpiite agree with them that it requires re-organising. They think that money should be bor? rowed for this purpose: so do we. They think that a bridge should be placed over River A : so do we, only it should be six inches or six chains or so, nearer to neighbor B’s fence; ip will be more convenient to him for watering his pattle,” and so on, in that style. Of course, all went down very well; not so much because their hearers thought them right, but simply because they did not think at all whether they were right or wrong. Had they been really anxious about the matter, they would have asked — “ Well, since you and tfy e Executive so thoroughly agree with what should be done, why did you oppose them?” The answer would have been grave enough—(i Oh, they were the minority, and all good measures should originate with the majority.” Hprp, then, comes our difficulty : since all agree on what is best to be done, what common ground is there on which two parties can honorably combine ? In other words, what does “ party” mean in the Australian legislatures ? Jt generally

merely means the “ ins” and the “ outs”—not the “ rights” and tht “ wrongs.” It did once mean, iu the Provincial Council, the “do nothings” and the “do somethings.” Last session it was openly avowed to be a personal question: it was the supporters of Mr Reid v. the Superintendent. The decided majority of purely voluntary votes in his Honor’s favor this election, must tend to prevent his being made the subject of the game of “in and out ” in the coming Council. But yet there will be “party.” In fact it is right that an Executive should know on whom they can depend for support, otherwise government would be a mere matter of caprice; and it is this tendency to capriciousness that renders it sometimes difficult to induce able men to accept or continue in office. Months of labor and investigation are often given to a subject and measures carefully prepared, based upon intelligent knowledge of it. Possibly in some respects they might be amended, or, haply, it may be thought by a majority that they will not work. Instead of trying to amend them, or, when rejected by the House, acknowledging that all men are

liable to err, and as Executives are but men they share the common lot, the “ outs” at once bring all kinds and descriptions of charges against the “ins,” and represent them as selfish or trying to legislate for a class. Of course, the inference they wish to be drawn is that they are immacculate and altogether above the common order. At the base of these professions lies the fact that they are the “ outs.” All men are patriotic when they are in that position ; but no sooner is the prayer “ put me in ” answered, than the black spots in their politics shew themselves. They are shown to be pretty much of the same breed with those whose places they have taken, and find themselves subject to similar treatment There are variations, of course, and these, though sometimes personal, depend more upon occupation and education than idiosyncrasy. The black spots in the illiterate and comparatively isolated predominate, as a rule, over the brighter features. Unfortunately, the latter class have been the majority ; but we trust it will be found this is changed through the late election, and that party majority will be found in those banded together for the common good.