ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zealander.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 695, 11 December 1852, Page 3

ORIGINAL CORRESPONDENCE. To the Editor of the New Zea lander.

Sir, —ls it that the loaders of public opinion have not yet recovered from the excitement of the lute abortive elections I ov is it that they are stunned by the " liberal instalment of self-government'" accorded to us —so far transcending what the most sanguine would have ventured to expect —that they have not yet endeavoured to awake the public attention to the important measures in which the community will shorlly be called to take and bear a part ? The authors of our now Constitution have followed the example set them by the framcrf) of the Constitution of the United States of America, so far as to enable us to elect our local Governor and Legislature, and one branch of a Central Legislature for all the Provinces, Why did they not give us power to elect the Govornor-in-Chief i There would have been some consistency in this. We should then have had our separate State Governments and State Legislatures, and one Central or General Government, —one President and Congress. Tin's would, no doubt, have presented a (harmonious l.) whole. The analogy would then have been complete? But what would have become of our Queen and the Imperial Government ? In what sense could we have been called a member of the British Empire ? They have in'effect done worse than this. They have invited us to transfer our allegiance from our Gracious Q,ucen to J'resident Grey. While at the same time they have withheld from President Grey and his Congress the sovereign power which would have been necessary to make their scheme complete. They have turned out the machine from their manufactory in an unworkable condition. To my mind it appears the reductio ad übsurdum of Representative Government. A system of checks which renders the machinery inoperative, as if " the powers that be" were ordained to clog the wheels of public business, and subject the community to a continual and fruitless initation. The framers of our Constitution have pursued the analogy to American institutions just ho far as to create a conflict of jurisdiction which is not more abhorrent to the Institutions of the American Republic than to those of the British Empire. The Governor and Legislature of JScw, York or of and Massachusetts are perfectly independent of the President and Congress of the United States in all matters which belong respectively to their separate jurisdiction. In all their internal relations, the individual States, or Commonwealths, which in their union constitute the Republic, aro as independent of the Government and Legislature of that Republic as they arc of the Q,uecn and Parliament of England, or of the President of France. The duties of the President and Congress are of a different order. They represent the citizens of all the States —the sovereignty of the republic in its external relations. Tlioy are the supremo arbiters whore the sovereignty of the separate States conflict wiih each othcrj and in all inaUorH where the interests of each are merged in, or in-

scparable/rom those of tlie whole. The British Government could not delegate such poweis to an inFei ior authority ; it would iji fact be a dioI nicnibcnnent of the Empire. They could not so far pursue the analog} 7 as to give to the Governor-in-Chief and Central Legislature of New Zealand the powers which are oxen-iscd hy the President and {Congress of" America. But they have given them a power which the President and Congress do not possess — that of interfering- with and neutralizing all the most important <|uestions which can occupy the Provincial Legislatures and Governments. Sir Charles Filzroy is Governor-General of the Australian Colonies, but he never thinks of interfering with the ordinary concerns of Victoria or Van Uiemen's Laud. AVhen a conflict of jurisdiction shall arise between one or more of those Colonies, or when some grand enterprise shall be in contemplation, requiring the co-operation of the whole, his powers as Governor-General will, perhaps, be called into action, though it must he confessed that it is not easy to forecast such a conjuncture. As little ground can there he for any Governor living in Wellington interfering with the concerns of the Northern 1 Province. The interests of New Ulster are not more distinct from thoso of New Brunswick or Nova Scotia than they arc from tins interests of New Munster or Otngo The Provinces have in fact nothing in common. ]t is fortunate, however, that if there is any one point in which tbe parties likely to be elected to our Provincial Council are unanimous it is this. That so anomalous and mischievous a connexion should be dissolved. It is not easy to overrate the importance of an elective Council, were it only as a legitimate embodiment of public opinion. And if they are moderate and just in their demands, and temperate in the expression of them, they will not fail eventually to free the Province from this incubus on it progress, and to obtain all desirable powers of self-government subject only to an appeal in the last resort, that is to the Queen and [mperial Legislature. The question to which I would now invite the attention of your political " thinkers" is this, whether it would not be well to repudiate the Central Legislature from the beginning- — to abstain from electing* members and to decline beingelected to take a part in its proceedings. It will be said they will legislate for us whether we will or not. Laissa fairc. The evil will soon cure itself. In the mean time our quota could do little in our favour against the majorities in the South, whose interests and views may coincide or conflict more or less with each other, but are almost certain to be distinct from, if not hostile to ours. — I am, &c., December 8, 1852. lota.