PRIVILEGE QUESTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 356, 29 March 1856, Page 3

PRIVILEGE QUESTION.

It is currently reported that an answer has been received from the late Colonial Minister to the communications made to him by the Provincial Council, on the privilege question raised by Mr. Fitzherbert last year, in the unjustifiable attack made by him on Colonel M'Cleverty. It is generally believed that this answer is what is commonly called a " complete settler" to the Provincial authorities and their arrogant pretensions. It is said that the Colonial Minister denies the ri«-ht of the Provincial

authorities to interfere in any way with the military authorities ; that (he regrets Col. M'Cleverty should have felt it necessary even to notice Mr. Fitzherbert's unwarrantable imputations in the Council, and a plain intimation is given that such conduct on the part of the Provincial authorities is calculated io bring discredit on our Representative Institutions. We believe this report to be substantially correct, but of course, it is very easy for the Speaker of the Council or the Chairman of the Privilege Committee to put this matter fairly before the publi', md prevent misapprehension or mistake oy publishing any communication they may have received on the subject from the Colonial Secretary at Auckland conveying the reply of the Colonial Minister to the communication made to him. We challenge them to do this, and we think the public have a right to expect that it will be done —that the reply will be made at least as public as the correspondence which has occasioned it, and which is incomplete without it. It will be an unworthy evasion to withhold this information because the Council is not sitting, and no member can move for its production. The question has been raised by the Provincial authorities, and the public are greatly interested in knowing: the result. We must confess that it appears to us the natural termination of the alFair, that it should be treated with the contempt it deserved. We hope, however, that one or two useful practical lessons may be derived from it. We hope that it will be no longer tolerated that the members of the Executive may use the Council for the purpose of making those unjustifiable attacks on the private character of individuals under the shelter of a privilege which they claim, but really do not possess. It is also tolerably clear that all these ridiculous assumptions of privilege and importance only bring contempt "on those that make them, and bring discredit, on Representative Institutions in the opinion of impartial persons and statesmen in England when these assumptions arc obtruded on their notice. It i* to be borne in mind too, that the Minister who has administered this cutting rebuke is not some aristocratic Tory or Conservative, but one whoso sympathies wore entirely democratic ; the late Sir William Moles worth throughout his public life belonged to the Radical party, and was the first Radical whomever had a seat in the Cabinet ; this gives additional force to the rebuke, this makes the condemnation more complete. If the reply had been at ali favourable, there can be no doubt it would

have been made public long before this ; and we do not see on what reasonable ground its publication can be withheld. We will not ask for the publication of any answers to the communications sent by the Committee to the Commander-in-Chief, or to the Secretary of War— Sir Sydney Herbert, as the Provincial statesmen have chosen in their wisdom to designate him— for the simple reason that we do not suppose either of them have thought the subject worthy of notice. — Wellington Spectator, .March 1.