New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4152, 11 July 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. SATURDAY, JULY 11, 1874.

When a Constitution was first granted to this Colony the liberality of the provisions fixing the qualification of the electors ■was so far in advance of everything at that time sanctioned at Home as to warrant the constant congratulations indulged in by our politicans who were fond of pointing out how little it fell short of manhood suffrage, which is now proposed by the Government. Possibly this quiet sense of satisfaction might have still continued had it not been for the concession made to the mining community, in granting the right to vote to those who possessed a miner’s right. Few will be found to question the propriety of this course, though it has been the leading cause of the advance now proposed to be made, for it was impossible to have ignored for any long time men who added immensely to the exports of the Colony, and provided a market for the produce of the agricultural districts, without which those already settled would have been unable to pursue their avocation with any hope of profit, and the progress of the country must have been arrested from the absence of all inducement to increase the extent of land under cultivation. As time passed, men who were engaged in other occupations than mining began to see that they were denied the political influence so readily granted to the miner, and in many parts of the Colony a feeling prevailed that a favored class existed, to which special and exceptional privileges were conceded. It was not alone in what are commonly called the settled districts that this sense of injustice existed, but even on the goldfields, when an election took place and the miner was seen exercising his right of voting, those engaged in other and not less useful employment saw they were shut out, and expressed no little annoyance. The miner himself had also a cause of complaint, which he was by no means slow to proclaim. Favored as compared with his fellow colonists in the election of members of the General Assembly and Provincial Councils, he was forbidden to vote when the Superintendent of a Province was to be chosen, and this was felt far more severely from so much of the prosperity of the mining districts being dependent on a wise administration. It was useless to point out that an entirely exceptional suffrage was given on the goldfields, or to endeavor to convince men empowered to send a representative to Parliament that they ought not to have also a share in the appointment of their chief administrator. The broad fact remained that in what they were most interested they were forbidden to interfere, while the concession of the right to them without also enfranchising every man in the Provinces whore ' mining industry existed would have placed the choice of the Superintendent entirely in the hands of one section of. the people though far inferior in actual numbers. If there were no other motive then for extending the franchise to every adult male, this alone ought to bo sufficient, that the jealousies existing between different sections of the people will he completely extinguished. But there is another reason of not less weight now pressing upon us ; we have to satisfy the political longings of the immigrants who are flocking hero to settle. The time is past when the average English laborer, especially the countryman, looked on with indifference at political contests, or if ho took any interest it never went beyond an eager desire to participate in the riotous indulgences of the lowest class of voters. In the manufacturing districts one of the greatest temptations to emigrants to the United States has long been the political rights to be acquired by their leaving their native land, and under the influence of men like Joseph Arch the like sentiment has now spread among the sluggish farm laborers. It is from no mere sentimental feeling of inferiority that the working man longs for a vote. He feels that without it laws are made affecting his personal comfort, nay even his very power to gat a living, by the representatives of classes not merely ignorant of his peculiar wants, but, right or wrong, he believes directly hostile to his interests. To secure the most intelligent of the working classes i»,

or should bo, the chief object of our costly immigration scheme, and to dp so every advantage must be, assured that other countries are prepared to give. No small additional temptation will be furnished when it can be said that after six months’ residence in the Colony every immigrant from the United Kingdom will enjoy perfect political equality with the oldest and wealthiest settler. If the affairs of nations could be conducted in accordance with strict political theories, then it would be necessary to abolish all existing qualifications, and leave adult manhood alone as the uniform test. Unhappily for the constitution framer, the long-cherislied belief in tbe representation of property cannot be readily set aside ; and it is only common prudence in those who desire to see the Bill become law to abstain from all undue interference with the opinions or prejudices of others. There are so many who cling to the idea that they are in a higher position because they vote as owners of a piece of land than if they exercised the same right in respect of their manhood, that it would be unwise to provoke opposition to a useful measure by touching their little weakness. The power to vote in several electoral districts cannot well be defended; but though it is possessed by many, it is actually exercised by few, and cannot materially affect any election where every man can vote. A far more important objection must clearly, in the present state of the Colony, be permitted to continue; that is, the influence of Native electors, not only in sending the special representatives of their own race, but in voting for the European members of the House of Representatives. It is not as if the districts for which these members are sent were different, as is the case where the European owner of several freeholds votes in more than one place, but the ordinary electoral districts are part of the Maori districts, _ and the anomaly exists of a Native voting in two elections in the same place, while his English fellow-subject can only vote in one. At present we are not prepared to advocate any change, whatever may bo done when the inhabitants of the Colony of both races are welded into one united people. The effect on the Native mind of having special representation has been so salutary, and so many Natives are already registered electors, and would fancy themselves oppressed if any alteration were made, that peace demands the continuance of these exceptional privileges till such time as education teaches the Maori that his greatest pride should be to rank in all things, neither below nor above, his European fellow-subject. With this violation of strict theory in existence, the minor defect of property qualifications being preserved, may well be tolerated. When tho Bill passes, wo shall be able to say that every man who contributes to the revenue has his share in deciding how it shall be spent, nothing but crime being a cause of exclusion from political rights.