The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume X, Issue 607, 1 September 1858, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times.

£ J Wednesday, September 1. The -arrival of the White Swan on Monday afternoon has put us in possession of the completed history of the General Assembly in its session-of 1858. From the occasional and fragmentary information which has been published in our columns from time to time as it reached us, our readers will have gathered a tolerably fair idea of the proceedings of the Assembly in the 'first part of the session, during the months . of April, May, and June, and a few hints of the proceedings in July and August, In the latter months the new representatives from Nelson, -Canterbury, and Otago, adding their numbers to the Lower House, gave the Government an opportunity of introducing their important measures. Besides a host of bills of less importance already passed the Representatives, at this period there were two questions, each forming the subject matter of a series of bills, the policy of which had been adopted, though the bills to carry them into effeot were not yet agreed to. These subjects were Finance and Native affairs. The "Colonial Treasurer's speeches in laying before the House the views of the Government on these questions will be fresh in the recollection of all. These views met with the general approbation of the House, and the bills to carry them into effect passed that (the Lower) House with but Tittle modification. The Legislative Council of course did not meddle with matters of Finance, but on the Native Bills a serious opposition was there raised, which, as the Government made the question a ministerial one, threatened at one time to cause an, upset of his Excellency's present^advisers. The point debated was one in which the Governor and his Ministers were at issue between themselves : namely, whether in the administration of new powers granted in Native aflairs the Governor should be obliged to consult Ministers, or should, as hitherto, act independently. The bills,/affirming the former principle, passed the Council under threat of a resignation ; but when the Session had nearly closed, his Excellency returned the chief offending measure, the Native Territorial Eights Bill, with an amendment, reserving it for her Majesty's assent, accompanying it with a message that the Ministry introduced the bill though made aware of his objections, and that he therefore could not recommend her Majesty to assent to it. This has been one of the most striking features of the Session in a purely political point of view; and may perhaps awaken some apprehensions for the future stability of the present Government. Such are the chief points of interest resulting from measures introduced in the earlier part of the Session.

The new matter laid before the Assembly in its later stages comprised as the most important items of legislation—the resumption of all powers over the Waste Lands of the colony by the General Assembly—the constitution of new provinces in the colony—alteration of the Customs Tariff—lmprovement of Electoral Laws— an addition to the members of the House o Representatives—and the re-adjustment of th burdens between the Provinces of the Middle Island.

The Waste Lands Bill confirms the previous legislation of the various provinces, but with certain exceptions as to credit land and other prominently objectionable fancies of some provinces. All power over the Waste Lands is resumed by the General Government, but the administration thereof is held to be delegated to the Superintendents,(or to such other person as the Governor may think fit,' to be resumed at pleasure. The arduous task of amalgamating the regulations of all the provinces into one Act of the Assembly, leaving at the same time to each province its OAvn distinctive features, is reserved as one of the labours of the next Session.

The New Provinces Bill simply declares that when any portion of a now existing province wishes for separation, it shall have it, with these provisos,—that there shall be one thousand inhabitants within an area of half a million acres; that the district to be so constituted shall not exceed three million acres; that no point of its boundary shall be within 60 miles of any present provincial capital (except Nelson and New Plymouth); that there shall be a port through which the bulk of exports and imports of the embryo province are carried; and that two-thirds of the registered electors therein petition for a provincial constitution; which being done, the Governor must proclaim it to be a province under the Constitution Act. The Superintendent of a province so formed is to be elected by the Council instead of by the body of electors, and he is not to have the power of assenting to bills, but must refer all ordinances of the Council to the Governor tor his assent. The new province is to bear a share of the liabilities contracted by or laid upon its parent state at the time oi separation, in proportion to the ordinary revenue contributed by it to the General Government, and all the existing laws of the original Province are, until repealed, to be in force in the dissevered member. The act comes at once into operation, and, in some cases, avill probably Boon be acted upon.

The now Duties of Customs Act is published in full in another part of our present issue, and therefore needs no explanation here. It will bo seen that our surmise was correct as to tho spurious character of the version copied from the Northern papers. The blunder was that of the 'New Zealander,'which, being on the spot, must have known better, and might have been more careful than to give currency to a statement calculated, in the shape which it took, to excite the astonishment (and, on such a tender point, possibly the indignation) of all who could not see the mistake which had been made.

The Electoral Laws comprised the ' Ballot' proposition which was defeated, as our readers know, and for which vivd voce voting has been substituted —a better regulated plan of registration—a Corrupt Practices bill going a great way in the endeavor to repress unseemly excitement at election time—bills to provide for the speedier issue and return of <vrits for the trial of election petitions, and so forth—and a bill originally to apportion exactly every three years the number of members of the House of .Representatives to the number of electors in the colony, altering, of course, at each period the boundaries of the various electoral districts so as to provide for each containing as nearly as possible the same number of electors. This bill passed the lower House after much opposition, but was ultimately rejected by the Legislative Council; whereupon a bill introduced to give a member to Hawke's Bay was withdrawn, and one substituted constituting four new electoral districts in.the colony, returning each one member to the Assembly : one the county of Marsden, being the Northern portion of the Province of Auckland; one in Hawke's Bay, to be called the Province of Bavfke; one called the county of Cheviot, taking parts of Nelson and Canterbury from the Clarence to the Ashley; and the fourth in the extreme South and West of Otago, called already the County of Wallace. In this bill the Wanganui and Rangitikei district has been altered in its boundaries, and the Town of Lyttelton has been extended so as to comprise the suburbs of the present town. All members already elected retain their seats for their original (nominal) disricts, with the exception of Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay, where the present member is to sit for Hawke. There will thus be 41 members in the House when the Assembly next meets. The Nelson Council petition against the imposition of the £200,000 debt equally upon the three southern provinces was referred to a Committee of the House of Representatives, who reported that it was advisable to refer the question to arbitration. All the members of both Houses for the three southern provinces who were present entered into a written agreement to abide by the award, whatever it should be, to assist in its adoption by the Assembly, and to use their influence to have it considered in their respective provinces as a final and conclusive adjustment. Messrs. Whitaker and Richmond, being two members of the Government unconnected personally with the Middle Island, were appointed arbitrators/and their decision was embodied in one of the Financial Acts. It was to relieve Nelson of £1,300 a-year, to be paid half by Otago and half by Canterbury. The former province is thus charged with a debt of £45,000 as a capital sum, and each of the two latter with £77,500. The agreement between the representatives of the provinces and the award of the arbitrators we shall publish at length at the earliest opportunity. A catalogue would show that 80 bills had passed both Houses, of which 70 have become law, and 10 have been reserved for her Majesty's assent; while eight others perished at various stages after their introduction. Of these latter some have been mentioned above; one which proposed to impose a duty upon Bonded Warehouses was the only other whose fate excited much interest. Much of this mass of legislation may require retouching in a future session, some may be repealed as i njurious, and others may give way to improved measures; but scarcely any session can be expected to show such an amount of work completed, or so much harmony among our legislators. The next meeting at Wellington may certainly be expected to contain more fighting and less business.

We have not lengthened this notice by expressing opinions upon the measures themselves. Some will of course deserve attentive consideration at our hands. The fact is, however, woi--thy to be placed on record that the principal measures introduced by Government towards the close of the Session, and spoken of above, received strenuous opposition at the hands of ail the members for Canterbury.