The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1878.

Evening Star, Issue 4202, 15 August 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star TUESDAY, AUGUST 15, 1878.

Distracted with the noise of successive party conflicts in the Legislature, the public runs the risk of overlooking the critical position into which the Colony is drifting. The Piako Swamp sale, the Land Fund, and the Reparation resolutions of Sir George Grey have each in turn claimed exclusive attention, and put the Ministry threo times on its trial since the session was opened. It would be foolish to deny the intrinsic importance of these matters. The first affected the personal honor of Ministers and the purity of thoir administration; the second involved the settlement of a burning political question; and the third, which is still undecided, invites the Assembly to entirely remodel the Constitution. The Assembly could not escape giving each the fullest com sideration; and while its members have wasted much time in lobby negotiations, they must be acquitted of the charge of having indulged in over-long debates. If copious streams of words were poured forth over the Piako resolution, the Address in Eeply was disposed of m a very summary manner; while the House, with unprecedented sagacity, recognised the fact that the conclusion upon Mr Whitakbr's Land Fund resolutions was a foregone one, and having heard what their mover had to say for, and the Premier against them, divided forthwith | and got rid of them without ceremony. The debate now proceding is of a more voluminous character, but it is virtually a motion of want of confidence, and the average time which debates upon such motions have heretofore occupied in the House is three wesks whereas the present debate is not likely to l a r st Sf moT , e than half that P e nod ; and as _xf; ILL has weU Panted out, however worthless many of the speeches made in Parliament may be in themselves, Copious talk is an incident inseparable from Parliamentary Government, and if a good deal of time is consumed in this manner, the drawback is not without its compensating advantages. But when the present debate is ended, and a division has beeu taken what then ? The Assembly will still have its principal work to perform —the creation of a new Constitution ; for it is new acknowledged on both sides that Sir George Grey s resolutions will be rejected, although the political prophets vary in their estimates as to the precise number of votes which will be recorded for them. We leave out' of account the opnion held by a very small section of members? namely, that a Central Government, with the aid of fioad Boards and Municipalities, would suffice for the | country s requirements. Suoh a notion might suit a doctrinabe, drafting an ideal Constitution on paper, but will not commend itself to the mind of any man who is practically acquainted with the feelings of the people in this part of New Zealand, at all events. A Constitution in no way augmenting the powers of the General Government and giving ampler means of looal government to outlying districts than they possessed under the Provincial systeu-f is what is needed. The Separation resolutions having been disposed of, th* House will stand in face of the oounties Bill as being the substitute definitely proposed for Provincialism. It will have to consider, first, the principle of the Bill, and next its details. The latter are perhaps the most important. The word * County ' may mean anything or nothing in the shape of local government. Its power to accomplish the purposes of local government resides in the machinery provided for it. An entire session would not be ■ too long for the construction of such a work ! The future of the country largely turns upon what is done now. We cannot be altering our Constitution every year; and the Bill before the House is a long way from being perfect. It wants amendment in many partioulari. Its own authors propose that it should be remitted to a Select Committee, m order that its details may be revised ; and by the time it has passed through that ordeal the Canterbury patriots witi be impatient to get back to their ovine flocks, other members will likewise be growing weary of the session, and the Bill will either be passed m a half formed state, or rejected altogether, when the Country would find itself deprived Of its old institutions, withoutaught to replace them. Such is, we think, at least a very probable dan^r, Wh»t makes the situation more critical is the divergent opiniors held by different sections of the House on the Constitutional question, and the srifah motive* whi«h soeht to actuate numbers of members at a juncture which might have been expected to evoke any latent patriotism existing in the Assembly. In the first place, the bulk of the Canterbury members are shamelessly directing their conduct not by considerations of the public weal, but by the course which is likely to enable the Canterbury runholders to secure a renewal 6f their pastoral leases for a long term without public competition Mr Stafford, the principal man amongst the Canterbury members, claims indeed to be animated by different motives. He talks 0111*% about patriotism aud the unity of the Colony, but the ouly object to which these two excellent principles seem to diieot his mental vision is the conversion ol the open roadstead of Timaru into a fine harbor at lie ftjpenso of the, rest of the Colony VV hat his sentiments Win regard to the Ministry rt is iaposßible %6 tell. TJiie* Session fie is declaiming against its reckless finance, and declaring that the Colony is on the high road to perdition; the next he is acting as dry nurse to the Ministry and will not let auyone utter a word against it. But his latest freak is the most extraordinary of all. Hitherto he has strenuously supported the Compart of 1856, and last year he eVen Went tartuer and fought hard to get his own districti exempted from the operation of the Abolition of Provinces Act, in so far that the permanent allotment of a fixed proportion of the Canterbury land fund to the Timaru a::d Gladstone district already made might be continued. Now he comes forward and gravely announces that he intends to support the conversion of the Land Fund into Colonial revenue. How is it possible for the Polony to look to such an unstable and eccentric politician for guidance? Nor does therr ent conduct of the Otago section ot the Opposition inspire confidence that they will render useful aid in building up a sound system of government. Mr Stoot and Mr laetv>, like petulant children, assert in <\"gry tones that if the Sepnration resolutions are rejected th'.y will let the Ministry <io atsit; pleases in the future, and will not assist the Canterbury members in ejecting it Irani office, notwithstanding that they ocl.eve it to be wholly unworthy of being entrusted with the administration of public aaans. Messrs Siotrj- md Reid are promi-

nenfc members of thoir party, and it may be assumed that they are not speaking for themselves alone. Could anything he more ndiculoua, and at the same time more repre *xf h * nsuch a thr «at? On the part of Mr >■ tout, too, its impropriety was tho more marked, because it wad interlarded with a lecture to Messrs Pyke and Mandkrs for betraying their constituents. If those latter gentlemen have really broken thoir election pledges on the subject of Separation, far beit from us to defend them > but it certainly did not He in Mr STouYs mouth to rebuke thoir fault at the very moment when he was announcing his intention to commit a political offence of equal, if not greater, magnitude. The Peparationists, like other politiCal parties, will simply have to fight their way to victory, if they can ; and if they are beaten, they should accept their defeat in a proper spirit, and not threaten to abandon the pests Which they have voluntarily undertaken to fill. The Government side of the House is likewise pervaded by influences hostile to tho publie interest. The House contains a majority in favor of the abolition of Provincial institutions; but it does not contain a majority which aooepts certain principles as those which should be followed in framing a new Constitution. Hence the I- ounties.Bill is being battered about on the sea of circumstances • it may be successfully piloted through the Assembly by the aid of party organisation, but it may, on the other hand, be shipwrecked at any moment, and the Colony be left in a state of political disorganisation, which will render the task of reconstruction, when again essayed, tenfold as hard as it is now. *