THE COLONIES AND REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1298, 17 May 1878, Page 3

THE COLONIES AND REPRESENTATIVE INSTITUTIONS.

The thoughtful letter from which the subjoined extracts are made, was recently published iu the Victorian “Argus” over the signature “fl. C.” New Zealand politicians will have little difficulty in guessing who whs the author ; My own experience of colonial legislation loads me to think that an Upper House, if elective, ought to have conjoiut power in supply. This would hinder many a job. Wo used to hear complaints of jobbery in the old times under “ Governor’s Governmentbut assure yourself that where the Crown lo ives off jobbing “the people” begin, even bettering the instruction. At the very least, the Upper House ought, by express enactment, to be secured against a “ tack ” to a Supply Bill. For a tack is a trick, a very paltry trick, just to be resented and put dowu with a high hand. Now for a few words on the vexed question How far is a Governor bound to comply with the suggestions of his responsible advisers? Is he to be a puppet, or is he, when called upon by duty to any class of the community, to exert those powers (usually dormant I a' ? mit) of which he has never been deprived by law ? You will observe that, as a stranger having no right to make or meddle in your affairs, I confine myself either to generalities or to the circumstances of my own colony, where I have taken an active part in defence of its Governor, most unjustly assailed for his resistance to usurpation of power. What is responsible Government ? We hear much prating about c -nstitutional law, much refe-ence to English practice, uttered for the most part in forgetfulness that responsible Government (so called) in these colonies, and responsible government in England, differ in a most essential point. From the use of one phrase for two different things, confusion and waste of words ensues. In what does Ministerial responsibility consist at home P I suppose in the liability to impeachment. Heads are at stake at home, and have fallen before now ; here, only in the risk —for it is no more—of loss of office. It follows that the constitutional check upon bad advice being less than at home, the moderating influence of the’Crown ought to be so much the more freely exercised. Responsible government in a colony is but an honorable understanding between the Governor and the Executive, on the one p irt that advice shall be accepted, on the other part that palpably bad advice shall not be offered. And this would seem to fethe view taken by the Governor of New Zealand in withstanding advice tendered by Sir George Grey, An opposite view has been taken here. I shall not obtrude my own opinion, but content myself with observing that the Colonial Office cannot support both views. The question remains—Will Lord Normanby be condemned ? For the imbroglios that are thickening around us in the Australasian colonies our paper constitutions are partly responsible. These bantlings of the Imperial Parliament are abortions. It is doubtful whether the best of them will stand the test of time. And among them ours of New Zealand is about, the worst. You have the advantage of us in an elective Upper House, powerful enough to offer effectual resistance to class legislation. In New Zealand, where a nominee Council may be swamped if it ruffle its feathers with any show of resistance, we have only the Governor to stand between the people and the tyranny of a single Chamber. Fortunately for us, we have an exceptionally courageous man at the helm, but his term of office is drawing to a close.

All these constitutions need remodelling upon a new pattern. The “ resemblance theory ” has been fatal, leading at once to the lowest depths of demagoguism. The Government of the United States of America, with its really powerful Senate and President, who is not “ advised,” but exercises a will of his own sufficiently at least to maintain consistency of action, is far more conservative. Yet even that has not saved the American people from being handed over to the tender mercies of the jobbers, the lobbyers, and the wire-pullers. It has been often said that responsible government is on its trial. May we not go one step further and ask whether representative institutions themselves be not also on trial? Many will admit that they do not bear transplantation, and a few, perhaps, will go so far as to say that they have run their race and done their work, even at home. Let him who would know what English institutions are coming to at home, study them as they are out here. England is some twenty or thirty years behind her colonies, but is travelling the same road. Instead of taking warning, she copies. She has already her Parnells, her Biggars, and Kenealys. “Stonewalling” and reckless intemperance of speech have crept into an august assembly, resisted, as yet, by a majority; but the unclean thing is making steady way. And how should it be otherwise F All human institutions have their periods of youth, of maturity, and of decay. We had vainly thought that by the discovery of representation we had solved the prob’em which baffled the sages of antiquity, aod, for a while, not without some show of reason. So long as the representation was °f the minority it worked well enough. When, by degrees, representation camo to be nally of the majority, its failure began to be suspected. The more thoughtful began to see that it is hurrying us on to the Armageddon of polities—the great coming battle between the “ haves ” and the “ have nots ;” in other words, between the provident and the improvident. I know that this is heresy—that I shall bo laughed to scorn. If required, I may take another opportunity of maintaining a proposition so outrageous to half-thinkers. It must suffice to indicate a line of argument. If it be concede! that the Slate ought to bo governed by the most educated, the most intelligent, the mott conscientious, and the least selfseeking of its citizens, it will scarcely be disputed thit such a governing class as that, premillenniaily at all events, is likely to remain a small mirority.