THE POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE CLEARED.

Hawke's Bay Weekly Times, Volume 1, Issue 42, 14 October 1867, Page 255

THE POLITICAL ATMOSPHERE CLEARED.

(From the New Zealand Times, October 9.) The political atmosphere is again clear, the impending storm has passed over without bursting, and the vessel of the State is once more sate. The crisis has passed without any more serious results than, a couple of days’ anxiety, speculation, and delay, and the Panama mail will take home the pleasing intelligence that the Colony has declared its liability for the Provincial loans, and has undertaken their conversion. Practically the Public Debts Bill has passed the Council in the same form as it came therein. The amendments made by the Council in the title and preamble have been Conceded, and the concession has saved the dignity of the Council without compromising the principle of the Bill, or interfering with the financial poliey of the Government. The managers or the second conference proved more yielding, or rather less obstinate, than those, of the first one, and the arrival of Messrs. Tetley, Harris, Strode, and Gray, yesterday, placed the eight gentlemen who made what the Hon. Dr. Buchanan termed the memorable- amendments in such a decided minority, that their representatives, the managers, acted wisely , in agreeing to a fair compromise. Dr. Meuzies, while admitting that the late majority had: become a minority, pointed out plainly that the result of the conference yielded up all that he and his supporters had contended for, and that the amendment of the preamble was of no practical value, as the amendment in the enacting clause had been abandoned. He entered fully into the reasons which led him to oppose the Bill; and on the motion for the adoption of the report of the Conference, he divided the House, the result being that the report was adopted by a majority of five, the numbers being 9to i. Thus ended a contest which at one time threatened to involve the most serious consequences in the shape of a conflict between the two branches of the Legislature—the upsetting of the whole financial policy of the Government-—almost irretrievable injury to the credit of the Colony—a dead lock—and the indefinite prolongatiou of the session, or a dissolution and appeal to the country. Happily the good, sense of the managers of yesterday’s conference, and the promptness with which certain members of the Council* at considerable personal inconvenience, hastened to resume their seats, has averted these calamities, and the work of the session may now be regarded as at an ends We will endeavour, in a few words, to make the result of the conference clear to our readers. The preamble of the Bill originally ran as follows: “ Whereas it.is expedient for the maintenance of the public credit of the Colony of New Zealand to declare the liability of the Colony for the payment of the said Provincial loans.” Por this the Council substituted- the following:—“ Whereas it is expedient to provide for the conversion and consolidation of such Provincial liabilities into Colonial; stock, upon equitable terms.” This amendment, has been agreed to in the Bill as now passed. But the amendment made in clause 2, affected the whole principle of the Bill, and it has not been insisted on. As originally drafted and as now passed; that clause declared that the principal, interest, and sinking fund of the loans named in the Schedule should, “ from, and after the passing of this Act? be charged upon and paid out of the consolidated revenue of the Colony. Por this . provision , the Council substituted these words“ Prom and after the conversion of any such Provincial Debentures into Colonial Debentures, issued under the Authority of this Act, or under the authority of the ‘ Consolidated Loans Act, 1867,’ shall, as regards such alterations, be so converted.” This amendment, as we have has been abandoned; but, in compliance with the wish of the Council, the title of the bill has been altered from, an “ Act to declare the liability of the Colony, of New Zealand for Provincial Loans and for other purposes,” to an “Act to make provision for the conversion and consolidation of Provincial loans into Colonial stock.”

Following the example set last night by the Horn Mr Mantell, we ean congratulate everybody on the issue of the late “ misunderstanding.”