Hawke's Bay Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY. THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1867 THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume XII, Issue 502, 22 August 1867, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 22, 1867 THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT BILL.

“ Xi///ins ii.hUi:/usjiii\;rc id verha majhtrl."

The abritlgeil report of the debate already given on the above bill Is .vortby of some consideration at our hands. Mr Stafford, in introducing the measure, exhausted all the arguments that could be used in its favor, without, however, trusting himself to descend to such details as the House evidently required, and could not graciously oppose the reasonable request of members to leave the full disc .s.-ioii of the measure for a few days, until membeis night have an opportunity of mastering it. Mr Vogel’s .speech was a sound piece of argumentation against it, and was quite successful in demonstrating that it was a deadly blow at Provincial institutions. Nothing could tell more in favor of Mr Vogel’s arguments than their misrepresentation by Mr Fitzherhert in his reply, when he did not attempt to answer Mr Vogel, bat only his own distorted representation of what that gentleman had said, and diverted the attention of the House by the relation of a foolish anecdote of the Chinese discovery of roast pork through an accidental turning down of a pig-stye,

which we did not think of sufficient importance to reproduce, Mr Yogel argued that the establishment of one body in a province, independent of, and antagonistic to, the Provincial Council, would, by the unfair advantages it would gain over the rest ofj t he province, necessitate the universal establishment of them, and so the complete destruction of Provincial Councils. Mr Fitzberbert’s caricature of that argument is nut worthy of further notice. We have no hesitation in predicting the fate of the bill; it will not pass during the present session, nor indeed at all in its present shape. It must be so modified as to give to Superintendents the power it now reserves to the Governor, to make it at all acceptable to the House, and it must contain a provision to recompense districts whose land fund has been already j expended. These alterations made, it may stand a chance, as minor details may he modified in committee. We anxiously await further news from Wellington regarding the fate of the bill and the Stafford ministry, which 'should appeal to the country if it be refused by the House.

THE DEFEAT OF THE MINISTRY. Since the above was written, we have received the intelligence, by way of Auckland, of the defeat of the Ministry by a majority of seven :—• According to the opinion which we have expressed on the probable fall of the Local Government Bill, that event has transpired. The debate on the second reading was brought on in the House on Tuesday evening, August 6th, when Mr Stafford simply moved the second reading without making a speech, and after it had been opposed by ilr Haughton, Mr J. O’Neil, Mr Brandon, and other gentlemen, the debate was adjourned to the next night, when Mr Vogel resumed the debate, being followed by Mr Hairison, Major Heaphy, and Mr Dillon 8011, who, amid the applause of the House, tore up the bill into scraps and trampled upon them. The debate was again adjourned, but, as we understand, has since been lost on a division, the numbers for the second reading being ffiJ, those against it 30. giving the respectable majority ol

seven against ministers. All this we learn from the Auck land papers, which, via the West Coast, have intelligence from Welling ton to eight or ten days later than we at Hawke’s Bay, and which the opportune arrival of the Star of the South has brought on. We further understand that ministers accept their defeat, and will not resign, nor appeal to the people, but continue the business of the session as usual.