General Assembly.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 593, 14 July 1858, Page 2

General Assembly.

The following' summary of Legislative •proceedings is given by the Correspondent of the 'Nelson Examiner/ dated Auckland, June 27.

The General .A ssembly has been making laws for you enough to satisfy the most voracious legislative appetite. There have been introduced into the House of- Representatives 56 bills, of which 41 have passed that House. A considerable number have passed both houses, and something like a dozen, I believe, have been assented to by the Governor. The bills sent down by the House of Representatives seldom pass through the Legislative Council without receiving a mauling; and, to say the truth, are occasionally considerably improved, for the Legislative Council has been much strengthened by recent additions, and contains now tlie"best" leo-al talent in the colony. The great majority of the measures are. however, of an unimportant and technical character. For in-" -stance, they relate- to " special partnerships," to '"foreign seamen," to "unstamped instruments," to "Church of England endowment sales," to "Bankers' -returns," to the amendment of the "Marriage Act," and so forth. The most important; measures have not yet beenbrought ■•before the house. These are the electoral %il!s; a waste lands bill, .which is proa_tised; and'a bill to make some alterations

in the tariff, which is also talked of. The electoral hills have been submitted to a committee for its report upon them. That report has not yet been presented to the house ; but it is generally understood that it contains a decided expression of disapproval of the apportionment of representation according to numbers alone, and also condemns the practice of secret voting. As to the nature of the ministerial measure with reference to the waste lands, nothing has yet transpired. It is reported that they find very considerable difficulty in making up their minds what it is to be. Some of the measures ahead}' passed are, however, of some importance, and affect the relations between the General and Provincial Governments. For instance, the Resident Magistrates are now all, taken out of the control of the provinces, and made officers of the General Government. The same has also been done with regard to the Coroners and Sheriffs. On the subject of the Resident Magistrates, nobody could possibly now hold more proper or constitutionaf language than the Colonial Secretary, Mr. Stafford. "Circumstances alter cases," says the .threadbare old proverb. When Superintendent, Mr. Stafford made a fierce fight to have the Resident Magistrates under his control. But now, as Colonial Secretary, he has become wiser, and is eloquent upon the injury arising^ to the community from the possible suspicion of justice being warped by its contact with politics. It is rather remarkable, that all these three departments which are now placed under the General Government were contended for with the greatest pertinacity by the Nelson Superintendent in his empowering ordinance, and were opposed by certain members there upon tho very grounds which have now led the General Government to take them under its own wing. But the general tendency of the policy of Ministers, I am happy to say, is towards the reduction of the powers of the provinces. There is no attempt made to deprive them of any power for useful local. purposes: but the General Government is. asserting its proper position' in the colony, as the organ of the community charged with the control of all subjects of general, not local interest, and is gradually resuming that position and those functions which, in consequence of Sir G. Grey's cart-before-the-hOrse policy, were usurped by the provinces. In doing this, the Ministry has the complete support of the house. In fact, one now. hears opinions promulgated in the House of Representatives which, four years ago, would have raised a storm of disapprobation. The freaks played by the different elements. of provincial rule, constituencies, legislatures, ; and execntives, have satisfied all thinking people that they are not at all fitted for the exercise of those large powers which . at first they arrogated to themselves.

I believe it is the intention of tbe Go- ! vernment to restore to the Province of Nelson the £10,000 deposited by Mr. Robinson for land in the Amuri, upon which they laid their hands, on no other principle than that they wanted the money; and I further understand that the date of the payment of the annual instalment to the New Zealand Company is to be extended from Apiil till Jan may last; that is to say, payment is only to be reckoned from the Ist January, 1858. This will cause a refund to the Province of Nelson of £3,000.

Nothing specially relating to year Province I has yet been before the House. In the beginning of the week, Dr. Monro presented a memorial from your Provincial Council, complaining of the undue pressure upon Nelson of its share in the Company's debt. The memorial was, read and ordered to be printed. But a discussion upon an almost identical subject had already been got up in the House upon the Land Orders and Scrip Bill. I will give you some little explanation of this. You are, no doubt, aware that in the last session of the General Assembly, a bill of the above title was passed, by which further compensation under the Land Claimants Ordinance was put a stop to; and it was farther enacted that all scrip which might be issued by the Government should be exercised only in the Province in which it was issued. This act was unjust, because, without notice, it took away value from scrip which certain persons held ; and its operation upon the Province of Nelson was most injurious, because, by limiting the exercise of scrip to that Province, Nelson was compelled to bear the burden of all the Company's liabilities in the Middle Island. Strange to say, your Nelson members appear to have generally acquiesced in this Act passing. I understand, however, that Mr. Domett voted against it, though I don't know upon what grounds. It is pretty well known that Mr'. Tollemache, that most indefatigable land-jobber, has been using all his influence at home to persuade the Secretary of State to disallow the Act; and the impression lof Ministers was that it would be disallowed. On this account, and on this account alone, they introduced the Bill of the present session, which is aloiost a transcript of the bill of last session.

It commences by repealing tho act of last session, and then re-enacts its clauses with trifling alterations. By such a course as this, the effect of her Majesty's veto is defeated; as fast as hei Majesty vetoes a Bill-in fact, before her veto has reached the colony—you pass another to the same purport, which remains good until vetoed, and so on, ad infinitum. Whether this is a proper course, or respectful towards the higher authorities at home, is a matter upon winch different persons will perhaps entertain different opinions. T must say that, in my opinion, it is rather too much of "a dodge." _ However this is the explanation of the origin of the liana Orders and Scrip Bill of the present session. It had all but passed through committee when the Nelson members arrived. Upon the motion for the third reading, Dr. Munro moved its recommittal, with a view to further amendment, and pointed out the injurious operation of the Bill upon the Province of Nelson. His argument was briefly this:—You fix the New Zealand Company's debt upon the Middle Island; "you assume that the state which it represents is divided into three equal shares, because you compel three equal payments. But now, by this Scrip Bill, you nail all the debts'upon Nelson, and they become a deduction from her share of the estate, and she gets no allowance for this deduction. " This scrip is issued to satisfy liabilities contracted by the New Zealand Company, for which the Province of Nelson is in no respect liable, and ought not to be made to pay. ; They are liabilities attaching to the estate, and instead of being nailed to one Province, ought 'to be spread over the estate as widely as possible. You will find Dr. Monro's speech upon the subject in the New Zealander of the 26th/and a fair statement of the case in a leading article of the Southern Cross. It has created a good deal of sensation here among the members of the "middle island;, and among the northern members, who are'disinterested, the opinion appears to be gaining ground, that Nelson has come out of these distributions of colonial burdens very badly. Dr. Monro, following the question up, gave notice of an amendment to be raovei last Thursday, to the effect'that the Government land scrip should be exercised, in any part of the Middle Island; which would have the effect of placing some share of the burden upon the Provinces of Canterbury and Otago. But, about an hour before the debate was to come off, a conference among the members of the Middle Island was suggested by some of them as a desirable thing, and the motion was accordingly postponed.. It is not likely, J understand, that they will be able to agree, and in all probability the question will have to be battled in the House. The issue will depend upon the votes of the' Auckland members chiefly, and in a great measure upon the view that ministers may take of the question. They have not declared their opinions yet.'One thing is clear, that, supposing this point gained, the chance of. obtaining a re-adjustment, as asked for in the . Nelson memorial,isgreafcly advanced;- \For,~if it be affirm edhy vote of the House, that future land-scrip ought to be borne by the three Pro-, vinces, and not by one only, thesame rale must hold with regard to the past. Thus, Nelson ought to have credit for the ,£90,000 worth .of scrip she has been obliged to issue, and which is, in fact, a deduction from the**state for which she is made to pay full value. The chance of carrying the point in favour of Nelson, has, however, been considerably diminished by the arrival of the White Swan, which has brought two more Canterbury members, namely/Messrs. Morehouse and Ward. There are still absent all the members for Wellington, with the exception of the Speaker; two of the Otago members, and one member, for NelsOn, With these exceptions, all the others are in their places. The most remarkable feature of this session is the complete absen.ee of anything like party; and I believe until the Nelson members came there was very little discussion. The consequence was, that the bills . went through the house like corn through a winnowing machine,, -though not subject to the same chaff-separating j processes. In the absence of anything like an opposition, Ministers have it all their own way. While this state of things continues, grumbling is useless, because it leads to no practical results, and it is just as well to let things generally proceed upon the responsibility of the Executive. It is allowed by all, or nearly all, that Ministers are entitled to very considerable credit, for assiduity and great atten- . tion to their public duties. Few departments of the public service appear to have been overlooked by them, and they have succeeded— particularly in the financial accounts -— in introducing perspicuity and order where formerly confusion and mystification prevailed. The colonial Treasurer's, speech upon the introduction of the estimates, is well worth a careful perusal by any one. The receipts from the customs for the current year are estimated at £149,000 ; the total ordinary revenue at £166,700, and adding together the ordinary revenue, the territorial revenue, and' the refunds from the provinces,—rthat is to say, the £12,000 from the Middle Island, and the interest of the money borrowed in the North Island for the purchase of native lands, the total revenue amounts to £280,000. On the other hand, > the expenditure is estimated at something like £120,000. This is certainly somewhat startling, when we bear in mind that iv 1856, the estimates were not more than £5 _,000. But the increase is more apparent than real. Thus, for instance, the. present ■ estimates provide for the payment of Resident Magistrates, Coroners, and Sheriffs, the burden of which formerly fell upon the provinces. The cost of the General Government is thereby increased ; but, on the other hand, .the expenses of the Provincial Governments are diminished. Another addition to the estimates for this year

is the interest of the borrowed money; and this is a very serious addition. .There was a sort of debate on the estimates in the house about a week ago; but, in the absence of_ any leader or any organized opposition, it _ resulted in the only caviller—a very conscientious and clear-headed Auckland member, Mr. Daldy— being "pitched into".on all sides. It was my impression that the whole question deserved more consideration than most members had been able to give to it. The Colonial Secre- •• tary, with unnecessary warmth, defended his estimates, and certainly answered some of objections urged by Mr. Daldy in a distinct and satisfactory manner. He maintained that the only increase that the Ministry were responsible for, was the amount of £1400, and that this arose chiefly from the proposed addition of a new "department to the Executive. It is proposed to constitute a Minister for Native Affairs, who is to, be one of the Responsible Executive. I confess I don't exactly understand such an Office being one of a Responsible Executive; for, so far as I understand the matter, a very large power of dealing with native questions is held by the Governor upon his own responsibility. But I don't believe that the house knows what the precise relations are between the Governor and the Ministry, with regard to native questions. But to return to figures. What the provinces'will j probably consider the most unequivocal answer j to the question of increase or reduction of expenditure, is the announcement by the Co- ' lonial Treasurer, that for the current year the provinces are to receive two-fifths instead of three-eighths of their gross customs revenue. This is one-fortieth more than they have been receiving. The amount.is certainly not great ; and you must not. fall into the mistake of supposing that this addition is something superadded to the relief of the provinces, from the charge of Resident Magistrates, Coroners and i Sheriffs. It is not so. The arrangement in present estimates is this. The expenses of the Gsneral Government are divided into two j classes—general and local. The expenses under the head of general are borne upon the revenue generally. Those classed as local are (though j paid in the first instance by the General Government) to be placed to the debit of. each province. ; This arrangement is certainly attended by this advantage : that it checks the indecent scramble for a share of the public money which took place while the representatives of each province were trying to get as much as.they could out of a general fund. But, like most other questions, it has its bad as well as its good side. It operates with harshness upon those provinces which are small and scattered, and in which in consequence the machinery of Government bears an undue proportion to the resources. In the event, for instance, of new provinces being established, if the whole cost of their Government machinery were to be imposed upon them, their, funds would be seriously diminished at the very time wh en they would require them most. I understand that there have been only three divisions this session as yet, and none of them upon ministerial questions. In one, ministers divided upon opposite sides. The last division was on a motion of; Mr. Fprsaith's, to the effect that leave of absence should not be granted to members of the House on grounds of " private business or personal convenience." His object was to lay down a rule, the application of which should save members from the disagreeable duty of saying "No" in any particular case. The ground taken by the honorable gentleman was exceedingly high—quite Spartan in its tone. He maintained that sacrifices were inseparable from the discharge of the duty of a representative; and that as every one who undertook that duty knew this beforehand, he had no right to draw back when the occasion of the sacrifice arose. On the other hand, it was urged that we had better take care what we were about; that the position was not one which was aspired to with so much eagerness that we could afford to deter people from it by restraints and penalties; and that if you could not get representatives to attend and. work from a sense of public duty, you could not expect to bring them up to the mark by treating them like school-boys. Mr. Domett amused the House a good deal by the energy with which he denounced any such proceeding. He declared it was an attempt to treat the House in the same manner as the celebrated cabman in " Pickwick " treated his old horse : that the object was to "brace 'em up werry tight," and then setting the wheels of Government going behind them, make the whole ma.chine rnove^ forward: and, for himself, he denounced in indignant language (in which lam not sure that the use of the word "rot "did not occur), all attempts at "bracing him up werry tight," or " putting the screw on." The house divided, and the motion was rejected by 15 to 7, ministers counting among the minority. The electoral bills are not to be treated as ministerial questions. There will probably be a debate upon them, and that awful and interminable subject, the " Waste lands " will also be debated. The question of the reapportionment of the burdens of the Middle Island will also lead to a good deal of discussion. These are the chief topics now : remaining to be dealt with; and it is expected that all business will' be brought to a close in such time as to allow of the Southern members returning by the next round of the White Swan.