Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1872. NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT.—THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1465, 26 October 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1872. NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENT.—THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION.

The abstract of his Excellency the Governor's speech on the occasion of proroguing Parliament, published in our present number, should have appeared in our last night's issue, but owing to delay in the telegraphing it did not reach us until we had gone to press. Like most of such speeches, it pre>ents an exceedingly ex parte aspect of affairs, and is calculated to convey a very different impression of the character of past session from that which would Ve entertained by an impartial pbservcr °.f \\\Q progress of events.

Of course the speech itself is the production of the Ministry, and only differs from one of Mr VogeTtt efforts in the House in the fact that it has no prospect of being replied to there, so as to have its fallacies exposed; and its advantage in this respect will be but short-lived, as tbe criticism it mils to meet at the hands of the House it will certainly receive from the press ot the Colony. Had we nothing as a criterion but the speech before us, we might conclude that the session just passed had been one of the most successful of those ever held in the Colony-—that there had been no waste of time, no hurried legislation, and very little ground of dissatisfaction at the result of any of its doings; whereas, perhaps, there has never been one from which so little remains to show as the result of so vast an amount of talk—the fact being that four-fifths of the session was wasted in almost fruitless discussion, the end of the session seeing most of the proposed legislation abandoned for lack oi time, while almost without exception the Bills passed have been rushed through the House without any of that careful deliberation that is necessary to :*uccessful legislation, leaving for future sessions something more than tbe average work of tinkering and amending that which should have been better considered on its first passage through the House.

It will be observed that the speech does not- conclude without a reference to the prosperity of the Colony, and its position amongst the appanages of the British Empire. To this wo nmy reply that it is most fortunate for the Colony that its surrounding circumstances and internal resources are such as to enable it to surmount in a great measure the enormous difficulties placed in its course by mi-government—at the same time that misgovernmeut h;is, beyond a doubt, succeeded in retarding its advance; and so far firm expressing gratification at its holding the fourth place amongst the colonies, his Excellency should without doubt have shown that under a better system of rule it might and ought to have been second to none of them.