The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 1873

Evening Star, Issue 3246, 16 July 1873, Page 2

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 1873

We like the business-like tone of the Governor’s speech, which, in that respect, compares favorably with the scholarly utterances* of Sir George Bowen. There is nothing wasted in it: no flowers of rhetoric. It breathes business from beginning to end. So far as the retrospective portion is concerned, it points to the chief events that have taken place since last session, bearing upon the welfare of the Colony, and gives a few hints as to the best way of utilising the advantages gained, in the power to form arrangements for reciprocity in trade with the other Colonies of the Australasian group. We need not traverse the ground we have already gone over. The advantages derivable from judicious use of the concessions of the Imperial Government are too manifest to need pointing out. It will be gathered from his Excellency’s speech that, notwithstanding the rabid recklessness of many Northern journals, there is no likelihood of war ; while, at the same time, there is no intention of allowing the murderer of Sullivan to escape. We do not know but the exhibition of a calm determination to vindicate the power of the laws, even although it be exhibited through a length of time, will not produce a' deeper effect on the Maori mind than any arbitrary exhibition of force, visiting guilt upon mistaken partisans by waging war, with all its horrid consequences, upon the tribe. There is a weight in the terror of the march of the avenger tracking a criminal; while, if he be attacked by an army, he becomes a hero. It should be the object of the Government to deprive all such crimes of their romance, and We think it is best done by treating them so as to attach a stigma to the individual, and not to elevate his crime to the dignity of a casus belli against a race. This is the course which has been persistently followed by the present Administration, and it has succeeded. It will be seen the work marked out for the session is varied and onerous. Reform of the Upper House, education, prison discipline, reform of the electoral laws, abolition of imprisonment for debt, a new Bankruptcy Act, and other important measures will be brought under consideration. Any one of those large proposals would form the subject of years of discussion and effort at Home, and will no doubt create divisions of opinion here. Whether the Government will be successful in satisfying the country on these points is doubtful, for each is open to varied and conflicting opinions. It is, however, a convenient time for their consideration, as no very great extension of the Public Works Scheme can be entertained, nor is any absorbing question pressing upon Colonial attention. It is not likely, with so much work, so important in its character, in prospect, that the session will be brought to an early close.