THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times.]

New Zealand Spectator and Cook's Strait Guardian, Volume VIII, Issue 736, 21 August 1852, Page 4

THE GOVERNMENT OF NEW ZEALAND. [From the Times.]

Tbe new constitution for New Zealand has met with a very favorable reception from the House of Commons, and there seems a strong disposition to adopt its general outlines without much discussion or inquiry. Sir John Pakington doubtless deserves much credit for the promptitude with which he has grappled with this difficult subject, and the conciliaioiy spirit which characterizes his speech and his measure. But the matter is too important to be complimented away, and we are bound to offer, in no unfriendly spirit, the criticisms which the plan suggests, but which the de- , sultory discussion in the Plouse of Commons failed to supply. The European population of New Zealand is estimated by Sir John Pakington at about twenty six thousand souls. If we allow for the large numbers who will be attracted to the gold fields of Australia, the estimate will probably be too high, though the amount of the reduction must be mere matter of conjecture. To this population, amounting barely to one-Fourth of the number required to constitute a single State of the American Union, it is proposed to apply a constitution not dissimilar in its outlines to that of the United States. New Zealand is, we are told, to be considered as one colony, but this unity can be little, more than nominal, since it is to contain within itself six independent and co-ordinate Legislatures, each possessing the power of making laws on all subjects except fourteen specific heads. There is also a Central Legislature, restricted, we presume, to the fourteen powers from which the local Legislatures are excluded. Each of the six districts is to have a superintendent, in whom the executive power is vested. v The Central Legislature, is to consist of two chambers, tbe Upper nominated by the Crown during pleasure, and the Lower elected by the people. To ibe Central Legislature is to be delegated the management of the revenue arising from waste lands, and, if we understand rightly, of the waste lands themselves. Now, in the first place, these 26,000 people seem to require an enormous quantity of governing ; they are to have seven legislative assemblies and seven Governors, in order to administer the simple affairs of a rude and elementary state of society. Everybody in this favoured land will be a legislator, and the burden of proof will rest upon any one who denies the possession of. senatorial honours. Instead of economising the time and trouble of the colonists, eight' legislatures will be employed in doing that which might be as well' or better done by two. Each petty Parliament may and will adopt different principles of 'legislation, and six different codes of law within the same colony must be the result of their labours. Endless questions on the conflict, of laws will arise, and contracts will be void or valid according as they ate made under one or other of these discordant codes. The question of revenue is fraught with no less difficulty. - Iv new countrieswhere capital" is scarce and' wages are high, direct taxation is unproductive, and the revenue must be raised' through-tlie Custom house by duties on consumption. Tbe provincial legislatures are expressly excluded from imposing Customs duties, or regulating the duties on shipping. These matters are left to the Central Legislature, which will there-

fore receive the bulk of the revenue 'while the local bodies will have no other resource than the unfruitful expedient of direct taxation. It is, doubtless, intended that they should provide, for their own local improvements and defray the salaries of their officers ; but this, without considerable assistance from the central revenue, we apprehend they will be'quite unable to do. The colonists already bitterly complain of the heavy taxes, amounting to fifty thousand a-year, which are collected from them. -How far will this sum go towards maintaining seven Governors, seven legislative establishments, and -the internal management and economy of six distinct.provinces, and a federal government supported jointly by them all ? The whole machinery is far too complicated and artificial, too ponderous and too costly, for the state of society for which it is designed, and affords a signal instance of the dangers and absurdities into which men may run by too much elaborating the theory of government, and too little attending to the details, which alone can render it practical and useful. It is our object rather to point out those parts of the bill which have as yet escaped criticism, than to dwell on those sure to provoke comment and controversy ; and we therefore content ourselves with remarking, that the same objections which induced Sir J*ohn Pakington so wisely to banish the nominee element from the Provincial Councils,should have convinced him of the impropriety of its admission into the Central Legislature. An Upper Chamber composed of nominees will not have the slightest resemblance to the House of Peers. It will correspond to no existing element in colonial society, and will never command the confidence or respect of the people. Why then create an institution the certain destiny of which is to be thwarted and despised ? The proposition to give the control over the waste lands and. the revenue arising from them," to the Central Legislature, reflects much credit on the liberal and conciliatory spirit of the Colonial Secretary, and will, we trust, form a precedent for the immediate extension of the same boon to the Australian colonies, which, with ten times the population, and a hundred" times the wealth of New Zealand, are denied the slightest influence over the management of their lands, or the appropriation of their land fund. But even here the measure is beset with difficulties. It has pleased 'Parliament, not only to bestow on the New Zealand Company two hundred and thirty-six thousand pounds of the money of the people of this country, but to encumber the waste lands of the colony with a mortgage to secure to the Company two hundred and sixtyeight thousand pounds, with interest at the rate of 3 per cent. Thus is the colony which is to bear the expense of seven Governments deprived of its natural and most available resource, — the revenue to be derived from the future sale of its lands. It is difficult to understand how the power of free management of the land "and the fund is consistent with the claim of the company, who would naturally claim a right to be consulted on any operation which' might diminish the value or change the nature of that security. Before, however, this formidable difficulty is allowed to frustrate the liberal intentions of- Sir John Pakington, or, before we have recourse to the desperate expedient suggested by Mr* Aglionby of saddling the people of ibis country with the payment of two hundred and sixty-eight thousand pounds to redeem the waste lands of New Zealand from the mortgage, we hope that some inquiry may be-made into the circumstances under wbicb'the sura was paid and the mortgage was contracted. What were the representations — what the inducements, which led to so vast an expenditure of public money and so fatal a forestalling of the resources of the colony for Ihe benefit of a merely commercial company ? In what manner have these sums been expended ? We can imagine no more suitable employment for a select committee than the clearing up of the mystery, and no more fitting accompaniment to the New Zealand Bill than a production of all the documents in the Colonial Office tending to throw light on these strauge and suspicious proceedings. We have not left ourselves space to discuss the question of what form of Legislature ought to be substituted for the complicated and overrefined institutions which we are about to inflict upon New Zealand'; but we may venture to assert that without regular, safe, and speedy com-, munication by sea, any central representative government in New Zealand must be inefficient, and almost impracticable, and with such communication there is no reason why the whole legislative business of the country should not be conducted by one Central Legislature, consisting of two chambers. If New Zealand is, to be treated as one colony the local legislatures are needless, and if as six, the Central Assembly is superfluous.