The Globe. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1876.

Globe, Volume VII, Issue 717, 6 October 1876, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1876.

We are glad to see that at last there is some prospect of the session coming to an end. During the last week or ten days the House of Eepresentatives has gone through a considerable amount of practical work. In the absence of MrMacandrewand Mr Stout, in Otago, where they had gone for the purpose of fomenting disaffection, the House managed to get on with the bounties Bill, and has carried it through committee. But there is yet much to be done before our representatives can lay claim to have earned the £2lO, which they have voted as the value of their services during this session. Whether they will succeed in doing so or not is an open question. According to to the latest reports another course of obstruction is contemplated by Sir G-. Grey and his party. We hope, if such a step is again taken, that vigorous and high-handed measures will be adopted to crush the Opposition. It is more than time that these gentlemen were taught that the minority must yield to the majority. The Ministry have been blamed for the waste of time which has taken place this session; but we hardly think the blame rests upon their shoulders. Unfortunately the Opposition, though in a hopeless minority, have been able to use the forms of the House to obstruct, for weeks, the progress of business. The Ministry, though in a large majority, cannot put a gag upon the mouths of such men as Sir Gr. Grey, Messrs. Eees, Stout, and Sheehan. Our contern oorary the Lyttelton Times is argry with the Ministry for retaining power in the face of the opposition with which their measures are met. What does our contemporary want? EI? surely does not expect that an Opposition, composed of twenty-four men at most, Bhould be trusted with the Government of the country? Knowing that a want of confidence vote would be lost by a large majority, nu' contemporary contends that that is not the only test of the retention of office. " Anotheressential test,"hesays, " is the ability of Ministers to pass

" their measures and to conduct par- " liamentary business." This principle no one will deny, and in almost any other country but in New Zealand it would be a test of Ministerial fitness for office. But in this colony recent experience has made us acquainted with an entirely new set of political weapons. The plan of a small minority talking against time, in order to force the majority to yield, is unknown in England. Public opinion would not tolerate such a course there. In America the forms of the House would soon be put in operation to crush any such attempt on the part of a minority. "Were the pres&nt Ministry to give way in the fat* 0 f such tactics they would be betraying the trust which the House and the country has placed in them. If all the rules of parliamentary government and representative institutions are ignored by the party of which our contemporary is the mouth-piece, surely the members of the Government are not to blame for that. It may be worthy of consideration whether, before this, Government should not have brought down and earried what are known, elsewhere, as the iron-hand resolutions, and so put it out of the power of the Opposition to obstruct business any more. Such a course may be forced on the House after all, but it does not say much for the character of our Legislature, if such a measure has to be put in force, in order to teach our representatives their duty.

"We hope the railway authorities will inaugurate the new order of things by a little more liberality towards the public in the running of trains to suit their couveuience. On more than one occasion pressure has been brought to bear upon the management to induce them to run a later train between Lyttelton and Christchurch than is done at present; but one excuse or another has always been given for refusing. We think the time has now arrived when another effort should be made to secure this boon, and we are sure, if properly represented, those in authority are almost certain to grant the request. If a train ran every evening between Christchurch and Lyttelton, and back, at ten o'clock and half-past ten, during the summer, it would be largely made use of by the residents of both towns. Tired of the dust and heat of Christchurch, many would gladly avail themselves of an opportunity of frequently enjoying the sea-breezes of port, who are otherwise condemned to seek health, in melancholy walks in our dusty suburbs. The experiment, at any rate, is worth trying, and we are confident that in a very short time it would more than pay expenses. On the Dunedin and Port Chalmers line a late train is run every night, and is found a great convenience.