NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 508, 16 September 1857, Page 3

NEW ZEALAND PARLIAMENTS.

[From the 'Nelson Examiner.'] Swift, in that immortal satire of his, fulliver's Travels, contrives to render most f the petty pomposities, prides, aim vanities of human governments and governors thoroughly ridiculous, by simply depicting them as actuating his Lilliputian officials o f six inches high. His Secretaries and Treasurers, his tiny Reldresals and Fliinps; his Emperor of Lilliput, taller by fully the eighth of an inch than the tallest of his subjects (so like the late Emperor of Russia, whose imperial bearing and majestic stature so many wondering admirers have celebrated) ; his rival empire of Biefuscu, " natural enemy " of Lilliput—all these things, and the intense and quiet seriousness with which he narrates all the j transactions of the diminutive nations in the tone of ordinary historians full of importance of their subject—should be enough, one would imagine, to cure all who have read his book of arrogance and assumption ; of

the weakness of being unduly elated by the acquisition of a little authority over their fellow-creatures; or the folly of investing their administration of affairs with too much loftiness either of manner or of diction. A kindred, humour to that of the finest of all satirists seem to have actuated some of the founders and framers of our New Zealand Constitution, or at least some of those'upon whom has devolved the duty of bringing it into operation. Their design seems to have been- to ridicule the grandiloquent phraseology and solemn procedure of even representative and responsible Government, by applying them to the affairs of villages and petty handt'uls of men. It was a new application of the Gulliverian lash. To create six separate responsible governments in a small colony like this, with six separate Parliaments, and then to regulate every step of their proceedings by the strictest rules of constitutional government established with respect to the Three Estates of the Empire of Great Britain, does look like a sarcastic attempt to -bring all representative and .responsible government into contempt and disrepute. This sort of reflection we cannot but think must often be forced upon the colonists of New Zealand by the proceedings of their Provincial Governments and Councils. Two instances just now present themselves to our notice.

In the largest of our capital villages, Auckland, our readers are probably all aware of the dilemma tha Provincial Government and Provincial Council*|^)t themselves into a short time back. The " deadlock," as they called it, is famous throughout the colony. Kvery one. knows, how the Superintendent at last adopted the somewhat extraordinary proceeding of dismissing his Council and carrying on the Government without them. As he could obtain no authority from them to spend the public the public moneys, he boldly resolved to do it without their authority, and we believe is at this moment, defraying all public expenses without having had any estimates passed at all. After his Council had been locked up on two occasions 24 and 30 hours, without being able to come to a division, he addressed a proclamation to them, dismissing them to their ho'ves in order that they might have time for reflection and come to a better

temper. Gray, the poet, in liis " Country Churchyard," pleased himself with the imagination of the " mute inglorious Miltons," the village Hampdens, and guiltless Cromwells that might'be lying at his feet. But he never in his wildest flight dared to conceive anything more than undeveloped patriots and statesmen in the village ; never rose to the conception of aHampden calling i upon the thick soled tenants of his hamlet by all that they held dear and sacred to rise for the liberty of a stray cow, perhaps, or \ donkey in the pound ; or to resi-t to the last drop of their blood the tyrannous imposition of a sewage-rate or education-tax. Bdt here was the Cromwell actually developed, and acting in full Croinwellian style in the village itself—developed and realized on the smallest rustic arena. A live Cromwell, " guiltless of his country's blood," save what may have been drawn from bloody noses at bis election. For just as Cromwell dismissed his refactory and Pedantic Parliament did the Auckland Superintendent rid himself of his fastjammed and dead-locked Council. He determined to govern by himseif. " L'etat ~—c'est »»<M/"'*said Williamson the IVth (Superintendent). He would make the happiness of his people alone. " Seul j'e firai le bonheur de mon peuple." And for anything we learn (though we pronounce no opinion) his people are as " happy" as if he were still constitutionally controlled hv; ..*>■*- Minister Carleton and all hisi

By the latest news we hear, however, that, Time not having had the dulcifying effect anticipated upon the embittered Councillors, the Superintendent has had his parliament dissolved. Like Lord Palmerston, he resolves to appeal to the whole parish—no, tlie Province, we should say. He throws himself boldly upon the (sixth part of the) whole colony. Again in the smallest of our capital villages, New Plymouth, we learn that" the Ministry" have just resigned. Beaten upon the " Absentee land confiscation" question—or that curious question of "fencing whatever the shadow falls upon at noonday," they resign the powers entrusted to them by the villagers. Not that we laugh at the " sun and shadow " affair; it may have been a very acute mode of distinguishing, for aught we know, between what was to be considered the northern and what the southern side of the land to be ■ fenced by adjoining proprietors ; a knowing plan for securing impartiality in the administration of the act, for the sun would be a constable it would be very difficult to bvihe to neglect his dut)'. But conceive a " Ministry resigning " in a village of 300 or 400 people ! and this and the other dignitary being mysteriously '* sent for," and entrusted with the " formation of a Cabinet," &c, &c.

Do not let our. New Plymouth friends mistake us. We sympathise with them heartily in all their struggles, and thoroughly ,admire their real steadfastness and manful perseverance under more difficulties than have, beset any other settlement. But we know they will let us laugh a little at a failing we are but too well aware we have quite a sufficient share of ourselves. We certainly have all of us assumed and wear with strut and pride the skin of the British Lion. The outside covering is mimicked to a hair. We say nothing of the possible animal beneath. We take it for granted, if you please, that it is leonine to the heart's core, however diminutive in bulk. Yet we do feel sometimes, in spite of lashing tail and bristling mane, a little uneasy about the ears. We have just a little 'trepidation lest the bystanders, at Sydney or Melbourne for instance, should detect, or be malicious enough to fancy they detect, a glimpse, now and then, of somewhat elongated tips protruding. We con-

frss to a consciousness of just a slight misgiving lest our roar, earth shaking and terrific as of course it must-be, might be mistaken sometimes —by unpractised ears no doubt—for something Just a little approaching to a bray. All this of " Ministries" and " majorities" and Cabinet-formings may be, simply ridiculous. But it i«| probable that it is mischievous too. The analogy between these little governing bodies and the great Parliament of England so constantly suggested and so implicitly adopted, probably leads to many of the difficulties attending the working of the Constitution. Much unnecessary opposition in the Councils—many unnecessary changes, and continual elections and contests are caused, we believe, by adherence to so inappropriate a model. And all kinds of small Machiavellianism and manoeuvring, and even the multiplication of offices, waste of public funds, favouritism, if not jobbing in contracts and other matters, may also be forced upon a Government, necessitated in a small community to keep a majority in a small Council. In the Auckland deadlock case, it is probable that if this fixed idea of the necessity of following English Parliamentary rules of proceeding had not taken possession of so many heads, the difficulty might have been got rid of without any fuss, at the the commencement of the business, by the exercise of a little common

sense. We know we are trenching upon a dangerous subject. To irritate the vanity or excite the indignation, possibly, of no less than six Parliaments at once (or Parliamentettesj, is a very ticklish proceeding. Fancy six furious little bodies'—like so many of those little black insects they call " Devil's coach-horses"—all turning round upon one and cocking up in air their six tails, double pronged with penalty and imprisonment for all who commit a-breach of their privileges; privileges almost, if not quite, as great as any assumed by the Great English Parlia. merit itself—a very crocodile or Icthyosaurian in comparison. "By our La'kin !—a parlous fear." Well, if our remarks should offend the dignity of any of these important bodies, we beg to assure them beforehand that, like Uriah Heep, we are very "umble," and, without waiting to be dragged b-tore their half-dozen Bars, shal make no Mutation -abpuf withdrawing any expressions calculated in the slightest degree to call v nnpstinn tlimr own estimate of their comty or positive utility.