The Globe. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1876.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 706, 23 September 1876, Page 2

The Globe. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1876.

Contrary to the most sanguine expectations, the House of Representatives appears to have settled down, temporarily at least, to the real work of the session. Parliament has now sat nearly a hundred days, and another week will show us the end of the provincial tether. Until the last day or two, almost nothing but party fights or unseemly wranglings over matters of personal concern, have been the order of the day. It culminated this week in bon. members recollecting and putting into practice the good old saying about charity beginning at home. There was no telling how soon the session might break up, notwithstanding the fact, that scarcely a single constitutional issue, for which this year’s Parliament may be said to have been especially convoked, had been determined. So some of those prudent gentlemen—keen-witted as many are in whatever touches their pocket lost no time in moving the House in the direction of obtaining free passes and increased honorariums. Surely there was ample time for dealing with those paltry and personal matters of detail when the estimates came on for discussion. We certainly never had any very exalted opinion of the new lot of men brought to the surface by the general elections of 1876 ; but this last exhibition of the reverse of sacrificing themselves for the good of their country is a deplorable one. As we have said before, although time enough has already elapsed to constitute the natural period of an ordinary session, absolutely nothing has been done, while, at the same time, there never was a meeting of the Assembly so eagerly looked for, so anxiously watched, and so pregnant with important results, as the present one. When, however, they have safely secured both honorarium and free passes, those gentlemen may perhaps feel refreeh«?d and more inclined to set to to their task in sober earnest. We quite agree with Major Atkinson that the practice adopted in our Parliament of keeping back the consideration of the estimates until the end of the session, is much to be regretted. At home, they are brought down early in the session, and are discussed and passed irrespective of other matters. The result in New Zealand has generally been that the estimates pass through a thin House, when it is often difficult to get a quorum; members become tired of their work, and either wished Grod speed to their fagged out confreres and take wing homewards, or they hastily, and Avith something akin to petulence, rush through everything placed before them for matured consideration. It is very unlikely that any exception will now be made to this rule, and we may fairly expect that the Gfovernment—weak as they may be on any point but that of abolition—will push before them a few of their most important constitutional measures, without any serious obstacles being placed in the way. The manner in which the “ Innocents ” will this year be martyrized is likely indeed to be quite unprecedented. Some lengthy and serious flebates on financial questions are sure to take place before the estimates come on fairly for discussion. We expect that the scramble to prevent

private Bills from being choked out of existence will be somewhat terrific. The Harbour Bills, Mr Montgomery’s Akaroa Bailway Trust Bill, and measures of a similar character will have a troubled time of it. The majority of members unfortunately, next to looking after what suits their private interest best, devote their energies but too often to log-roll something out of the House, which something they hope to bring forth before their constituents as a proof that, as far as the latter only is concerned, they have elected a very fine fellow to represent their own individual interests. It is against this feeling of trying to satisfy at all costs or to redeem at all hazard promises or pledges made by members to too exacting constituencies, that the Hon Mr Stafford’s remark was directed, when, during the separation debate, he emphatically said that he was not a Canterbury member, but one for the whole of Hew Zealand. It was perhaps a dangerous remark to make, and it has of course been much misconstrued. It was, however, one uttered in defence of patriotic principles, and one bringing forcibly to mind, that the greatest curse which eYer retarded the progress of these islands has been the Pedlingtonian feelings of jealousy, which, but too often, set local prejudices to work one against another.