The New-Zealander. AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JAN. 15, 1853.

New Zealander, Volume 9, Issue 705, 15 January 1853, Page 2

The New-Zealander.

AUCKLAND, SATURDAY, JAN. 15, 1853.

He just and fear not: Let all tire ends thou aiiu’&t at, be thy Country’s, Tiij Cioli's, and Truth’s.

VST: have at length find an opportunity of perusing I lie “Act to Grant a Representative Constitution to the Colony of New Zealand,” in a parliamentary copy, as issued by Her Majesty’s Printers after the measure had received the Royal Assent. Considering that it bears dale the 50th of June, it does not say much for the regularity or rapidity of our postal intercourse vvilh England that only now—in the midfile of January,—have we been able to obtain a sight of ibis Act; and even now only by private courtesy. Us receipt, however, has added little or nothing to our previous information as to the provisions of the measure; for, after a careful and minute comparison of the Act with the amended Bill (which had already reached us) we find no change of any practical importance, the only alterations being verbal, and not affecting the substance of ilie enactments, hiit only thb. form, and ,modifying even that) in but a few instances. Still, we could not be sure on this point until we had an opportunity of making the. comparison; and it is obviously more satisfactory to have the Act before' us in the precise words in which it became law. It may be interesting to compare the amount

and kind of reprcs<.‘illative Government proposed to be conferred on the colony in the several schemes proposed by Sir George G,*oy,—as explained in detail in His Excellency’s Despatch to Earl (Irey of August 50, 185!, on iransinilting the Provincial Councils Ordinance, (which appeared in ilicNkw Zealander of the 30th of last October)-by Lord Grey himself, as set forth in the Despatch to the Governor (which was copied in onr last number) and in the Heads of the Bill which his Lordship intended to lay before Parliamentand as tolly enacted in the measure which was passed during the last session. We can exhibit in a brief space the extent to which the introduction of the popular element in the several departments was contemplated in each ol these plans, by summing up the provisions as to the constitution of the Colonial Governing Bodies, which they respectively contained. Sir George Grey’s Plan, —which undoubtedly formed the basis of the whole, however it was subsequently departed from in certain particulars,—after providing for municipal institutions, properly so called, proceeded as follows. There were to be five Provinces, each having a Superintendent and a Provincial Council. The Superintendent was to be elected by the general constituency. The Provincial Councils were to be constituted in the first instance in the manner provided in the Colonial Ordinance of 1851, that is, one third of the members were to be nominated and two thirds elected ; but His Excellency evidently looked forward to a speedy, if not an immediate, liberalization of this arrangement, as, in a subsequent part of the Despatch, he recommended “ghat the Govcrnor-in-Chicf and the existing General Legislative Council should be authorised to pass, before the new Constitution was proclaimed, if they thought proper to do so, a law' enacting that the Provincial Councils should consist wholly of elected members, from and after the time at which the inhabitants of any Province should be authorised by law to elect their own Superintendent.” For the General Legislature of the colony, His Excellency proposed that there should be a Legislative Council, to be elected by the Provincial Councils; the election being thus—not directly indeed by the voters at large—but substantially, though indirectly, by them, as represented by the men whom they had already chosenalso, a Representative Assembly, wholly elective, and chosen by the voters at large, no other qualification being required than that possessed by voters for members of the Provincial Council, which, in effect, is almost identical with household suffrage.

In Lord Grey’s Plan, while there was a large adoption of the Governor's model, there were a lew important deviations. Standing on the fundamental, and hitherto universally recognised, principle of the British Constitution that “all executive authority, except that which in the strictest sense of the word is merely municipal, must emanate from the Grown,” His Lordship refused the consent of Her Majesty’s Government to the recommendation that the Superintendents of the Provinces should be elective. Indeed Lord Grey’s Bill would not, in terms or formally, have noticed the Office at all, the only provision made for it in the “ Heads” being this, —“Power to the Crown to delegate any of the powers and authorities hereby conferred on the Governor within any of the respective Provinces to any officer or officers to he by him appointed under the Great Seal of the Colony.” As to the constitution of the Provincial Legislatures, his Lordship firmly adhered to the introduction of n proportion of members nominated by the Crown ; it appearing to Her Majesty’s (then) Government.; that “ the general objections to the Constitution of a single Chamber, wholly elective, apply to these Councils, however local in their character,” and, moreover, that “the power of nomination affords the means of introducing, til limes, persons whose services are of great value.” The General Legislature was to include a House of Representatives chosen immediately by the entire bodies of voters, and an upper Chamber called the Legislative Council, to he chosen, according to Sir George Grey’s recommendation, in such a manner as to enable a minority to be in some degree represented, each member of every Provincial Council Being empowered to give three votes, and to give such votes to one candidate or to divide them ns he may think proper. So the Constitution as actually passed, wo find the constitutional objection to the election of the Provincial Superintendents overleaped, and the cilice placed at the disposal of the voters at large. The powers connected with it are in some degree defined, but the definition is far from being as full or clear as might be desired. A careful perusal of the Act shows that the Superintendent’s power in assenting to, or vetoing, Bills passed by the Provincial Councils, is more dependent on the will of the Governor than many at first supposed. Not only has the Governor power to disallow any Bill assented to by the Superintendent, at any time within three months after he shall have received an authentic copy of it, but he is also authorised (by the 51st clause) to transmitlo the Superintendent “ for his guidance in assenting to, or withholding assent from Bills, or reserving the same for the signification of the Governor's pleasure thereon, such instructions as to the Governor shall seem fit, and it. shall he tiie duty of the Superintendent to act in o’ edience to such instructions.”. . . The Provinces are to be six in number, Now Ply. mouth being erected into a separate Province The Provincial Councils arc to be wholly elective, no nominee or representative of the Crown as such having a seal, the-mode in which measures originating with the Government can bo advocated, or conducted through their stages, remaining a problem to be solved by experience. As to the General Assembly, the Upper Chamber, or “Legislative Council,”. is., to consist exclusively, of mcmbcrsappoiirled by, the Governor, who is also authorised to appoint the Speaker of this Council;» and The members once appointed arc to hold their seals for life, unless in certain contingencies connected with individuals personally. The Lower Chamber, or “ House of Representatives” is to be en-

tirely elective, chosen by eonslittilcnnes enfranchised on the very extended principle laid down in Sir George Grey’s Provincial Councils Ordinance. Wo have liitis sol before our readers a general view of thcucoinparative extent to which the element of popular representation has been contemplated in the several Plans of Sir George Grey, Earl Grey, and the Imperial Legislature of last year ; and, as we proposed to confine ourselves to this single point in the present article, we do not follow out the comparison in other points on which it might be instituted,--such as the concession to the Colonial Legislature by the Act which is now law, of the control over the Waste Lands of Ihe Crown and of the Revenues accruing from them, which forms a grand and characteristic feature of the Act, and one that not only was not included in either of the previous schemes for a Now Zealand Constitution, but was not conceded to any of the Australian Colonies in (heir Constitution Act of 1830. Considering that it has been the constant custom of a party here to represent Sir George Grey as a “despot,” a “satrap,” and a biller enemy of liberal institutions, it is bare justice to remark that his Plan was the only one which would have excluded nomineeism in every shape and degree. Had his Excellency’s recommendations been adopted in all their parts, there would have been—so soon as Ids Plan was in full development and operation elective Superintendents, elective Provincial Councils, an elective House of Representatives, and an elective Upper Chamber or Legislative Council. How far such a Constitution would have been consistent. with the theory of British monarchical Institutions, or calculated to work advantageously in the existing stale of the Colony, is a distinct question, on which opinions may, and certainly do, widely differ. naj-ftrjnnKUXZ frarerr jvr.rrKX&xssrr \