Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1863.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume II, Issue 93, 27 February 1863, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. NAPIER, FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1863.

We entirely agree with our contemporary over the way that it is of the utmost importance to this Province that the road . between Napier and Auckland should be opened up, but we will go a little further with the matter than lie does. The question—How is it to be done ? is as easily answered as asked, and by consequence that question, though important, does not after all assume such very alarming dimensions. To us the thing is plain enough; but to our good friend the Herald any important subject involving the probability of giving offence to the higher powers is one which must be treated with becoming reverence, and dwelt upon as lightly as circumstances will by possibility permit.

This Province would be quite able to bear ber share of the undertaking supposing the equitable premises for raising a revenue suggested by us were carried out; then we might hope to be able to do something in the road-making line, and have the satisfaction of seeing a little cash in healthy circulation. As to the half-million loan, the Herald and other equally weak-minded journals may cajole themselves, and endeavor to do the same by their readers, if they have any, with the idea that a great portion of that money will be a available for road-making; but we, however, flatter ourselves that we know better. Niue-tenths of that half-million loan are already pretty well bespoken to meet all the demands made upon the public treasury by Sir George Grey’s clever peace policy. Even supposing that the remaining tenth is at liberty to get itself invested in roadmaking, it is our opinion that it will be all gone a great many miles the Northern side of Napier, in fact we shall never see the color of a sixpence of that precious item. The amount of snubbing ■which this province has undergone from the General Go-

verninent at one time or another is more by a very great deal than any other Province would stand. But taking the mild and simple tone of the Herald upon the matter of the answer returned to the proposition made by our Provincial Council to the General Government, as touching the road in question, as a fair index to the real state of the case, we don’t much wonder at any amount of “formal answers.” If the people of Jlawhe’s Bay quietly submit to be snubbed

and put out, and are satisfied with “ formal answers, - ’ while they have two members to send up to the General Assembly, we should very much like to know what those two able individuals go there for. The truth is, that unless we assert our right to a voice in the General Government of New Zealand, and do so with a firm determination to have that desire recognized, wo shall he subject to an intolerable quantity of “ formal answers,” backed by a dismal whine from the New Zealander, that really to be a Hawke’s Bayito will he to be looked upon as one of the most simple of men. To remain satisfied with a ‘"formal answer' to any reasonable proposition appears to us to he, without exception, the height of simplicity. We don't think the General Government would try that sort of thing on more than once at a time with a certain Doctor F. down there, a little further South. We incline to think that that gentleman would insist upon something a little more satisfactory and explicit than a “ formal answer,” and, to tell truth, we don’t see that it is at all likely that any Government at present in existence would venture upon the trial, unless reduced to a state of hopeless despair and desperation. Until the Electors of Hawke’s Bay wake up out of their profound sleep to a sense of the importance of the jwivilege which they enjoy in self-government , we need hope for nothing but “ formal answers” from General Governments, and generally very unceremonious treatment from Governments of any kind. We need not, therefore, be too ready to blame Mr. Janies AA r ood, the printer, for getting a large section of this community disfranchised through his carelessncsss, for until we learn to make a better use of the Electoral privilege than we have hitherto done, wo incline to think that he did the excluded an unintentional kindness in preventing them from participating in this right. As an example take the case of the member of the General Assembly for Clive. For more than half the last Session, a Session pregnant with important matter, was that gentleman absent from his seat. And yet, notwithstanding this palpable neglect of the interests of the Province, his constituency were so lost in slumber that no notice whatever was taken of what appears to us a very grave breach of trust.

ld is much to be hoped that the Electors will assert their right to take cognisance id the doings of their llepreseutatives, whether they be merely Provincial Councillors or members of the General Assembly. There can be no doubt that once let the people assert their right to some notice, but they will find that both the members they send to the Assembly, and that Assembly itself will look with something a little more like respect upon this unfortunate Province.