FORMER SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND. (Concluded from our last.)

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 301, 17 June 1848, Page 3

FORMER SUGGESTIONS TOWARDS THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND. (Concluded from our last.)

Our next and concluding extract from this paper refers to the qualification for candidates and voters for the municipal corporations and the legislative and provincial assemblies. We should be content, then, to allow of a qualification for candidate no higher than that for voter, provided that the franchise is only extended so as to include those labourers who shall have earned sufficient money to buy some land, or to hold a considerable quantity as tenants; thus proving to a certain degree,

not only their steadiness and intelligence, but their determination to retain an interest in the country. Supposing the franchise to be so arranged, we can conceive no reason why such persons should not be perfectly eligible to the office of Councilman. On the contrary, we should be glad to see, if posible a certain proportion of such men in the governing body of each Municipality, because we dis inctly consider them to be among the best colonists. We are thus averse to a qualification for a candidate higher than that for a voter, but strongly in favour of a qualification for both which shall depend on holding a sufficient stake in the Colony to prevent the selection of unfit persons. With our knowledge and experience of the present population of the existing settlements, we are in favour of a scale of qualification which may at first sight appear very high ; but we will begin by stating it, and afterwards adduce some reasons to justify it. The right to vote should, in our opinion be confined to persons :—: — Ist. Owning a freehold estate in land of the value of fifty pounds sterling, clear of all charges and encumbrances. 2nd. Deriving a beneficial interest from land, to the amount of five pounds sterling annually. 3rd. Occupiers or Tenants of land, houses, or other tenements to the value of fifty pounds sterling annually. Provided always that for the purposes of this arrangement, land shall never be estimated at less than the price originally paid for it to the New Zealand Companyin their settlements, or to the Crown, or to the natives with the sanction of the Crown, elsewhere. And prodded also, that any land to be estimated for these purposes must be held by title derived from the Crown ; that not even, for instance, the occupation of native reserves by natives should give them the franchise, still less that natives admitted on their own application with their own lands (formerly constituting an exceptional territory) should be able to qualify, until the land has been distributed in freehold among individuals of their number by title from the Crown. This will give the Crown the power of determining how soon natives may be competent to enjoy the electoral franchise. It is necessary that we should here explain that the customary rate of interest on money in New Zealand and the neighbouring colonies is ten per cent., while it is only three per cent, in England, and that the wages of labour are also ordinarily much higher. A freehold qualification in these new settlements of the value af £6 13s. per annum, is, therefore, equal to a 40s. per annum fieehold qualification in England ; and the freehold ownership of land of the value of fifty pounds which we advocate is worth five pounds a year there, but is actually equal to a smaller freehold qualification in England. We do not, however, found our estimate of the scale desirable at present only on this calculation, but on a practical view of that scale which will I include the most suitable class of voters, and we only adduce the undeniable difference in the value as at least worthy of consideration. We have not failed to seek for precedents as to franchise in some new communities. We find that the qualification for voters in New South Wales is a freehold estate in lands and tenements of the clear value of two hundred pounds sterling, though this high qualification is rendered almost null by the granting of the franchise also to householders occupying dwelling houses of the yearly value of £20 in a colony where scarcely any dwelling house is worth less than this sum. Even in some of the States of the American 'Union, the qualification is as high as that which we recommend, and in others not far below it. In Massachusetts, it is necessary to have an income of £3 sterling, or a capital of £60. In Rhode Island, a man must possess landed property to the amount of 133 dollars. In Connecticut, he must have property which gives an income of 17 dollars. In Nevr Jersey, an elector must have a property of £50 a year. In South Carolina and Maryland, the elector must possess fifty acres of land. It is also of importance to observe, that there is great difficulty in restricting a franchise once established and exercised, while there is comparatively none in extending it ; so that a fault on the side of fixing too high a qualification will be easily remedied, but one in the opposite direction will be almost irretrievable. We are of opinion that, under the beforementioned conditions, " Municipal Corporations" under the Act might be advantageously established at once in the existing settlements of Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, and Petre, to form a southern Province, and in those of Auckland and Russell, to form a northern Province. We have included Petre among those, although it contains no more than 200 European inhabitants. But it has a town and country district of its own under the Company's arrangements ; it is upwards of a hundred miles from the nearest of the other settlements ; it numbers among its inhabitants four gentlemen who were thought fit for the office of Justice of the P eace under

the existing form of government : and, the " native question" having been recently arranged there by Governor Grey, we have little doubt that its population will rapidly increase ; and even in its present state, it will be good economy to let the inhabitants manage their little local matters without having to refer to Wellington or New Plymouth. The boundary in this case may be left to be fixed by the Governor, as in the cases of Auckland and Russell ; and the Provincial Assembly may be trusted to determine what local powers the little "township" shall exercise. In the case of Wellington, we should recommend that the " Municipal Corporation" extend its jurisdiction over all to the south of a line as follows :— The latitude of 40° 30' S., from the east coast to the highest ridge of the Tararua mountains; then southwards along that ridge to the point nearest to any waters of the Waikanae river; then along that river to its mouth in Cook's Strait ; together with the islands of Kapiti and Mana. But the Governor might be allowed to use his discretion in excepting for the present any districts within this boundary, as provided for by the 10th section of the Act, so as to meet the difficulties which may arise from the continuance of Rangihaeata in a troublesome atlitude. In the case of Nelson, we should recommend the " Municipal Corporation" to extend over all that part of the Middle Island which lies between Cook's Strait and the latitude of 42° south. In the case of New Plymouth, we approve of the boundary recommended in Mr. E. G. Wakefield's letter to Mr. Gladstone, dated in February, 1846. Although, as we believe Governor Giey has found some difficulty in overcoming the obstacles which his predecessor threw in the way of adjusting the " Native Question" at that settlement, the boundary might, in this case also, be left to be fixed by the Governor for the present. We should also desire that a " Municipal Corporation" be constituted at once for Otakou, to include within its boundaries at least the whole block purchased in that neighbourhood by the Company. We also think it very advisable that some of these extensive ".Boroughs" should be divided into " Hundreds" or " Wards," with a view to the election of Councillors from each such subdivision in proportion to its population. Some of these subdivisions might return no Councillor for the present, but any person holding qualification therein should vote in that " Hundred" nearest to his qualification. It would be necessary, with a view to the numerous changes in the state of population which are sure to take place in a country under the process of a rapid colonization, that the powers now possessed by her Majesty to constitute " Municipal Corporations," to extend the boundaries of those first established, or to erect any one sub-division or more of a " borough," into a separate " Municipal Corporation," or to alter and amend the boundaries in any way, be delegated to the Governor, if, as we apprehend, such delegation Le possible under the Act. If the proposed Church ot England Colony, for instance, should intend to settle in a part of the Wellington borough, at present only inhabited by squatters, and only placed under its jurisdiction in order to include them within the pale of law, the person sent out to order the land to be surveyed for such a settlement might also carry out an application to the Governor to constitute such sub-division of an already existing " borough"' into a separate one. Or if, upon the settlement of the '* native question," the population in the valley of the Hutt, or at Porirua, should so rapidly increase as that the local matters could be better managed by a separate Municipality, the Governor might be empowered to grant the application for that boon of a certain amount of population, say one or two thousand souls. We may here observe, that the average population of a "township" in the state of Massachusetts is about 2,000 souls. With regard to the Provinces, we are content to propose that at first there should be two. 1. All north of the latitude of the mouth of the Mokau River, including the Municipal Corporations of Auckland and Russell. i 2. All south of the same parallel, including the Municipalities of Wellington, Nelson, New Plymouth, Petre, and Otakou. We are ot opinion that the same qualification which we have recommended as calculated to secure the best class of voters in each Municipality, is sufficient for a representative to the Provincial Assembly, no less than for a Councilman ; and this is on the principle before advocated, that you are more secure of a correct choice when the whole body of electors is of a station secured by property, than when you ptovide that the few persons chosen shall be possessed of a certain property, and leave the choice to a larger body of electors, having less stake in the country, and a lower position to maintain by upright conduct. The Representatiyes from each " Munici-.

pal Corporation" should be in proportion to its population. We are inclined to desiref thst no ex-officio members should sit in the Provincial Honse of Representatives ; but thnt officers of the Government should offer themselves to the suffrages of the electors, in the' same way as in England. Such an arrangement would go far to secure that* the officers of the Provincial Governments should be chosen from among the most estimable of the colonists, and not from among strangers and new comers careless of their welfare, as has almost always been the case under the old form of Government. We should desire, above all, that the Legislative Councils be composed of persons having a very important stake in the country. At the beginning, indeed, it may be expedient to allow the Governor a perfect carte blanche in the selection of Legislative Councillors ; because the Jate troubles in the colony have left many persons fitted for so high a station with comparatively little property. We should not, therefore, be sorry to leave this discretion entirely with the Governor for at least three years. But during the succeeding three years, no one should be eligible to the Legislative Council, who had not resided at least two years in the colony, and who did not possess property to the clear value of three thousand pounds sterling, of which at least one thousand should be in real property, in the Province to whose Legislative Council he might be nominated. After these six years no one should be eligible who had not resided at least five years in the colony, and who did not possess property to the clear value of six thousand pounds sterling, of which two thousand must be in real property in the Province. All nominations, excepting those made during the first six years, should, in our opinion, be for life, or at any rate for the duration of the Provincial Assembly as then constituted. But it should be at the option of the Governor to nominate or not for life, at the end of the six years, any of the persons who had served during any part of that time, but who at the end of it might not possess the highest qualification required. It may be necessary that some Government officers, not possessed of the above qualification, should hold seats iv the Legislative Council by virtue of their office, as the Judge of the highest Court in the Province, &c. ; and perhaps that the Governor should always preside ; though we should prefer to see him so completely a representative of her Majesty as only to appear even in the Upper House on occasions of dissolution, prorogation, and re-assemblage, and as to introduce Government measures into either House through the medium of responsible Executive Officers. We are convinced that the office of Colonial Governor loses much of its dignity and usefulness, when its holder appears as a violent partizan in a Legislative Chamber, and the discussion of public objects is converted into an occasion of personal dispute between the Representative of Royalty aod one of the Queen's subjects. We would apply precisely the same principles to the Representative and Legislative Councillors of the General Assembly as to those of the Provincial Assemblies. The House of Representatives ot each Province should be empowered to chose those of their number to be sent to that of the General Assembly. But it appears to us most essential that the number of members thus deputed by each Province should be in proportion to the bond fide tax-paying population of such Province ; and this would be still more requisite, should it be determined against our wish to continue the present form of Government in the northern part of the north island ; for in that case, by the 9th section, the Government would be euabled to send to the General House of Representatives a number of mere Government nominees from the Northern Province, equal to that of the members really representing the more populous Southern Province, and there would be only a mockery of Representative Government on the nine points of legislation reserved for the General Assembly of the islands. Bond fide Representatives, indeed, from any of the settlements, would probably not be found to give their countenance to its deliberations ; as they have on many occasions heretofore refused a seat among the non-official minority in the Legislative Council as at present constituted.