The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1871.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 108, 9 May 1871, Page 2

The Nelson Evening Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 9, 1871.

An*, impression is gradually gaining ground, arifi ; we afe bound to say it is fostered by, the conduct of our Councillors; tbat the ; time has arrived, when ..Provincial institutions, at all events in; the; Province of Nelson, should be swept away. Asia body ,it, is quijte s clear. that our , .Council is no longer* required^ as the' Acts that it -passes fire i few: in . ibtimbelt? and of the most trivial nature, as witness the . prpceedings. of . last. .session, when hut four i Bills, exclusive of Act, -were introduced, and of those four, it bas ; /(jready. be.en decided,; that one should be repealed without delay. V: Then again, in Jjt__is i; session' wha. legislative enactment > s

have been brought forward ? But one. And this one — well it is quite worth while to give the title, in order that the public may thoroughly appreciate the importance of the work 'that is being transacted by their law-makers. It is headed " Province of Nelson, " and then, as a matter of course, there are the Royal Arms. We then come to the title wnich is as follows: — Dog Bill. In the thirty- fourth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria. Session xxl, No. 1. Now what follows all this pretentious introduction ? Will it be believed that the purport of the Bill is simply to reduce the tax on dogs from ten to five shillings, and that, in order that this important revolution in the present state of things may be effectually carried out, leave has to be moved for to introduce the Bill ; that it has then formally to be read a first time, after which, notice is to be given of its second reading, upon which possibly a " debate " will arise, and that then it must pass through Committee, and be read a third time ? Aud yet such is the case, and it would be but the refinement of humor on the part of the Superintendent if he were to reserve the Act for the consent of His Excellency the Governor. This is actually the only Bill, whether private or Ministerial, — by all means let us adhere strictly to Parliamentary phrases — wiiicli it has been thought necessaiy to introduce during: the present sessioD, of which a fortnight has already elapsed. Jt is then beyond doubt that law-making ''forms no part of the duties of the Nelson Provincial Council, and it is equally clear that all it has to do — barring the farce of deciding upon the constitution of the Executive Council — is to decide how the revenue is to be spent. A letter signed " Publicola," which appears in our columns to-day, offers some suggestions as to what should be substituted for our present form of Government, which we commend to the notice of our readers who, we believe, are Thoroughly wearied of the existing institutions with all their attendant expenses, and will heartily endorse his opinions. Another letter which is published in this evening's issue is also exceedingly suggestive. Is il to be attributed to the very refinement of sarcasm, or to the belief that he was merely giving expression to the popular view of the duties of our Provincial Legislators, that our correspondent " The Lamplighter" has gravely proposed that his Honor the Superintendent should take advantage of the present meeting of the Council to introduce a Bill for the abolition of Catapults. If the former, we congratulate him on the cleverness of his "hit," if the latter, we can but exclaim, How are the mighty fallen ! But there is yet another reason for doing away with our Provincial Legislature, and it is, we regret to say, an excessively humiliating one. We have no wish to hold up the Council of this Province to the ridicule and scorn of the public, but when such scenes are enacted as that of last night, it is high time that the prfcss should step in, and, by exposing the evil, make, at all events, one step in the direction of remedying it. To say that the bandying to and fro of accusations and recriminations, the abusive expressions, and the angry, screeching tones of voice that characterised the debate of last night on the question of the second reading of the Executive Bill, were childish in the extreme, would be to give but a very faint idea of what actually took place, for in no well regulated infant school would such conduct be witnessed, or, if it did show itself, would very speedily /be repressed. Disgraceful ! was the word in which many of the more orderly of the members gave utterance to their feelings within our hearing, and " disgraceful " is but a mild epithet to apply to scenes such as that of last night, which, however amusing they might be on the hustings ■at a; contested election, are entirely out of place in a legislative assembly which professes to adopt the rules of the House of Commons for its guidance. If we. have spoken plainly it is because we feel warmly on this subject, and are anxious to see that air of respectability and decorum maintained in the Council which we have a right to expect from those to ' whose care are entrusted the interests of the people of the Province, j; -** "s. ; ' '