THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1873.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 239, 3 October 1873, Page 4

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 1873.

There must be some radical irregularity in our Constitution when fifteen excitable and pompous old gentlemen, simp]j out of opposition—or " stiffness of back," as a Wellington correspondent put it—should have power to thwart and, indeed, utterly put a stop to useful legislation. The District Courts Bill and the Provincial Loan Bills, so summarily dealt with by the Upper House, were measures that had been carefully considered, and were good practical steps in a right direction. Other measures—such as the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill, that had passed the Lower House for the third time by a fair majority—should at any rate have received careful attention. We have watched the debates in the Council with some interest, and nearly all the speakers appear to be men who have, long ago, moulded their opinions to a certain uniform shape not to be deviated from. Any debates in other places, or any contemporary literature is, in their opinion, utterly erroneous, if not squaring with these self-made moulds. The wonder to us is, that out of the men representing property in JS r ew Zealand, such a very poor selection should have been made to. hold seats in the Council. The necessity of an Upper House is very apparent, but such a House to be ©f use to check rash and hasty legislation must, at any rate, supply what may be presumed to be an equivalent in talent and judgment. The House of Lords at Home —the original model of these Colonial Upper Houses—presents this in an eminent degree, and besides, from hereditary instinct, the members are tinged with an exaggerated Conservatism, which is just needed to balance the somewhat destructive proclivities of the reformers, both in and out of the House of Commons. Mr. Vogel's predominance in the General Assembly would alone convince any thoughtful person of the necessity of an Upper House. Otherwise, under his rule, or under that of any other powerful, strong-minded Minister, we might as well proclaim a Dictatorship, without the expense of Parliaments. Such a man, once getting a fair lead in the Assembly, generally commands a majority, owing to the subserviency of those weak and self-peeking members, a few of which always find their way into representative bodies. The evils of a pergonal lule are only checked by the knowledge that all measures have to run the gauntlet of a body of men outside these coercive influences.

It is to be regretted that the Government did not take a firm stand on the Provincial Borrowing Bills, and, if still opposed, did not prepare to bring in a scheme ibr reconstituting the Council, rendering the seats in it elective. An elective Upper House, the franchise of which might well stop a good way short of manhood suffrage, would bring together a, body of men instead of

being a drag, and a drag only, upon true progress, might tend greatly to * accelerate it. -

We bave hesitated to comment much upon tbe extreme dilatoriness shown in the progress of the Mount Ida Public "Works, knowing what difficulties contractors have had to experience from the scarcity of labor. Still, hesitation has itsl.tnits, and it becomes necessary to draw attention to the matter. It will be remembered that the first contract was let to one contractor—for five miles—and also the second. In spite of these contracts not progressing as they might justly have been expected to do, further contracts were still let to the same gentleman. The Provincial authorities, evidently being tempted by the desire to get the work delegated to them done cheaply, accepted tenders that their Engineers knew perfectly well could not possibly be carried through with any profit at the prices agreed upon. "We pointed this out at the time—as the contractor interested thought, very unjustly to him—but we really had no alternative. He had engaged in works that he was perfectly unable to see through, and while he was making the experiment the district was to suffer. It is nowreported that the contracts we refer to are suspended. The contractor certainly has left, and we hear nothing, of the works being let to a more competent person. We do not wish to embarrass the authorities by pushing our remarks any further at present ; but, if action is not taken very shortly, and an attempt made to accelerate works that the future of the immediate district is dependent upon, it will be our duty to enquire into the minutiae of all the present existing contracts--t*::e 'work done and still, to be done—•with a view to giving the fullest publicity to the state of progress. We cannot tolerate the idea that the necessities of any individual speculator are to be made superior to the welfare of a considerable population.

[Since the above was in type, the advertisement in.another column reached us. It is to be hoped that contractors will, reckon fairly what the cost will be of undertaking portions of the race, so that no rash tenders may be put in. The action of the Government in dealing with tenders will be pretty closely watched, as there is—as is natural—a great deal of latent dissatisfaction with the progress of these works, shown partly in the growl of a correspondent in another column, also received since our comments were in type. Contracts should only be given to thoroughly reliable contractors.]