MR FITZHERBERT ON THE DUTIES OF A SUPERINTENDENT.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1531, 5 December 1873, Page 40

MR FITZHERBERT ON THE DUTIES OF A SUPERINTENDENT.

In the speech delivered by Mr Fitzherbert, at the banquet recently given to him in Wellington, he expressed himself in the following terms: —"In colonies where a system of responsible government prevails it is the duty of the representative of her Majesty to act as an umpire and to see that all the strict rules and observances of constitutional government are complied with, and not to become a player in the game. With a Superintendent it is different; he is not to act as an umpire. I will not stand by while my friend the Provincial Secretary is fighting against gentlemen who call themselves the 'Opposition,' That is not the duty of a Superintendent. The elected Superintendent of a province is bound to become a player in the game; it is his duty to have a policy. The Council had not simply rejected the policy of the Provincial Secretary and tbe other members of the Executive, but they rejected my policy, the policy of the man elected by the whole people of the province as the head of the Government. I would not consent to act the ridiculous part of carrying on the farce of responsible government in a province, and so I told the people when they first asked me to become Superintendent. (Cheers.) In reality a great deal of the unpopularity into which our provincial institutions had once fallen may be traced to the attempt to carry out a system of responsible government in too narrow a sphere. It is as much as the colony can do to carry on a system of responsible government, and many doubt whether it is able to do so. Responsible government means a great strain upon a country, for two parties must be kept alive, one to watch the other, and to remain out in the cold for one, two, or it may be twenty years, and to watch for the country's sake. That means the existence of a class at ease, and a class not only at ease and leisure in point of time, but at ease and leisure in point of money, and it is thought that this admirable system of government with all its delicate mechanism is too much for a young country. I can speak with experience on this point, for I know the experiment was tried in this province and failed, and I now give you my opinion, founded on experience, which I know to be shared by many other Superintendents. We saw, not very long ago, in someprovince3 how deadlocks were caused by the simple overburdening of provincial institutions to carry out an intricate system of responsible government."