The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, July 19.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 387, 19 July 1856, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times. Saturday, July 19.

Do any of our readers remember the days when we were governed by a tyraniry; when we were trampled under the feet of despotic clerks in Downing street, and bruised by the iron rod of an irresponsible and long invisible Governor ? Do they remember the time when we were roused from our tame submission to the yoke, and instructed how we were galled and bruised by it, beaten and abused; our wants neglected, our injuries unredressed, our wishes and our complaints disregarded and despised ; when the heart of every one of us panted for freedom from this bondage, and every voice was raised to cheer when any leader and instructor of the poor, crushed people uttered the magic words, Local Self Government? Do any of our readers who remember these things, know that we have now what we prayed for ? or have commerce and agriculture, sheep and cattle, planting and building, or even the contests and the elections, the machinery of the change, disguised the desired result, that we now govern ourselves, and left the bare fact alone to our perceptions, that we still are governed. For we are not content. Why ? We rather think that the words Local Self Government, words of magic power when used together, represent, when separated, each of them a reason for our dissatisfaction ; each of them some quality or thing which, (at least when exaggerated") is undesirable and inefficient. The word Govenmi-.Mit we shall let go without comment: hunr.m nature could never thoroughly approve of what it represents. The charm of the magic formula lay in the first part of it. The people was to obey its own will, and to have its scat of Government in its own centre, under its thumb as it were : this was delightful, would have been all that was chnrmiug — ■'/ the people had but one will and one thumb. But, unfortunately, our of twelve me:;, five always think differently from the other seven; and what then is ihe people, wim ;uo its will and its thumb? are they ;>ot the will and the thumb of the seven: and will not the five grumble and disobey the will, and feel tyrannized over by the thumb ? Worse still, if the seven appoint

one or two of their number to declare the the will and manage the thumb for them, is it not pretty certain that presently all tiie ten or eleven will grumble and feel tyrannized over and disobey ? Jack, Tom, and Harry agree to govern themselves, at their own houses, and he happy : the end of it is, that Jack and Tom bully Harry, and Harry and Tom abuse Jack, who' lives so close to them as never to get out of hearing.

Our readers, with their fellow-colonists who are not our readers, have undertaken to govern themselves ; tlie} r have tried likewise to make their Government: exceedingly local; they manage their own affairs .in everything that is important to their comfort; they deal with their own property exactly as they like. Still, with the most local form of the most liberal Government, there are some who kick at it, who will not see the wisdom of its deliberations, who will not allow themselves to be ruled by its orders. Of course they will not, for is not any one such man fully as wise and as worth consideration as any

one of his neighbours who out-vote him? Is he not every day in contact, with the other men, his fellows, who are to him in the position of his Government, to argue with them and abuse them ? Has he any occasion to consider that people who govern themselves must also obey themselves, and that contempt for their own Government must be an insr-lt to their own persons ?

On a question sue!) as the management of our roads, and collection of funds from our own pockets, the power of the majority to coerce the minority is brought home to us in its most disagreeable form. We would all give a pound voluntarily, rather than be forced to pay a shilling; and, after our experience in the old country, the word Taxation has to our ears frightful significance. But we should remember, and remind one another, that a tax levied on all alike, for a specific object, by a government which they themselves form.is a voluntary contribution of the people as a whole ; and that such a system is far more fair and just, far more likely to be applied to the good of the largest number, than that of individual contributions, or any other.

In conclusion, we would earnestly recommend those gentlemen who disagree with the law in question or any other law, to consider whether their objections are not more forcible against the system of lawmaking which they themselves have desired ; whether opposition should be directed, in any case,asjainst a law in action, so as possibly to bring the people into collision with the Executive of a popular Government ; and finally, whether opposition, if undignified or underhand, is not likely to bring themselves iiito disgrace and ridicule, to weaken the power which they themselves may some day be called upon to wield, and generally to injure the cause of Local Self Government ?