PARLIAMENTARY INDEPENDENCE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 16, Issue 813, 15 August 1870, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY INDEPENDENCE.

I livening Post.J

AMIDST all the talk which lias taken place in the House regarding Mr Ormond's position as General (Government Agent for the East Coast, wo venture to assert that the real point of the affair has not been touched upon. It matters comparatively little to the public whether Mr Ormond can manage to reconcile the duties of Superintendent and General Government Agent. It matters still less whether it is agreeable to tdie other Superintendents that Mr Ormoud should seek to degrade the .Provincial oilice which he holds, and throw ridicule on the pretensions of his official bretnren. It does, however, matter very greatly to the Colony that any member of the House of iiepresentaiives should abandon his independence, cease to be a. representative, and become the paid servant of the Government, bound iu obey its behests, be they what they may. Yet this is the position whicii Mr Ormond occupies j ana aiinough he may prate as he likes of holding ms own opinions, and of actiug in an independent manner, it is a position which Mr Ormond has accepted with his eyes open, and after due warning. It was only last year that in the great privilege case of Major Brown the present Government, in the most distinct and precise manner, defined the position winch membe s of the House in receipt oi government pay

should occupy. In his letter to Major Brown Mr Fox said—" The Government has taken into its consideration the- constitutional question of the proprietv of its own officers voting against it in the Le-

gislature, and have arrived at the conclusion that it is nnt consistent witlijthe exorcise of responsible Government'." In his speech on the occasion, he said, —"The Government could not have a salaried officer of its own voting against it on any question in this House." And again,— "It is not right that a member of this House should hold a high-salaried" office under Government, and be found voting against it." Mr Vogel, in the same debate, said—" The Legislature couM never assent to an unlimited manufacture of votes, and the principle the present Government had laid down was that members drawing pay must vote with the Government. * # If he understood the intention of the lion, member at tiie head of the Government, it was that whenever he found that public services could be best performed by members of the House, it would be a condition of any appointment that the lion, member should resign his seat." Mr Ormond having accepted a highly-salaried office after this, must, whatever he and the Government may now say, be held to have accepted it on the conditions so unequivocally stated; and Me Williamson, in accepting the Chief Commissionership of Crown Lands, is in an exactly similar situation.