SIR GEORGE GREY'S LETTER.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4286, 15 December 1874, Page 3

SIR GEORGE GREY'S LETTER.

(From the New Zealand Herald.) There are points still unexplained in the Constitution which have more than once perplexed those who study it. There is the sth clause, which distinctly provides for representation according to population, but which has always been a dead letter. Then we have the mystical 42nd clause, which, in the plainest terms, contemplates the establishment of separate electoral qualifications in separate provinces, apparently the torn remnant of some expunged provision winch must have been connected with provinces in the original draft of the Bill. The next question would probably be, how did the 53rd section find its way into the Bill ? We can scarcely believe that Sir George would so thoroughly destroy its symmetry by sowing the seeds of the discord and confusion which have arisen from the overriding powers which this clause bestows. Finally, bearing in mind the tendency of all legislative bodies to assume supreme power, how is it that no safeguard was provided against this abuse while a safeguard could have been so readily created ? With Sir George's concluding remarks all without distinction of party will agree. There are some few who may support the resolutions of last session still. There are others who may think too severe Sir George's reflections on Parliament as at present constituted, and as acted upon by the enormous expenditure of which the Ministry have practically irresponsible control. But few will have the hardihood to maintain that one part of the colony should be governed direct by this Parliament and another part govern itself. Few will agree that in the face of this proposed anomaly, the great injustice of spending in one portion of the colony a revenue derived from lands the property of the whole, should be again solemnly affirmed. Fewer still will disputo his statement that the present is no time to rush into Constitutional changes of any kind without taking care that they are previously submitted to the judgment of the people and finally settled by a Parliament elected for the pujrpose and free from the overwhelming Ministerial influence by which the present House is swayed.