CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4821, 4 September 1876, Page 2

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.

(bt a silent politician.) No. 111. Trust no party, class, or faction, Trust no leader in the light; But In every word and action. Trust in God and do the right. —Anon. Mr. Gladstone, in his “ Juventus Mundi,” speaking of the politics of the Homeric age, instances the prominence given to the power of speech, as the strongest proof of the spirit of freedom among the primitive Greeks. I venture to doubt it. Eheu I A much suffering public here are also sure to doubt it. If colonial freedom may be measured by this standard, as set up in our Senate, there should be enough to satisfy the aspirations of the worthy Knight of Kawau for the coming race. I designed to pen one or two papers upon constitutional reform, but I pause in dire perplexity at the changes that come and go, and at the amount of talk to which I have already had occasion to refer. I find one growth of huge platitudes succeeding one another, and one series of invectives only giving place to others still more bitter. It was but the other night that a desire to facilitate public business gave rise to a scene, in which the House of Representatives acted like Lear with his hundred knights brawling in his daughter’s palace. Besides, one realises how little any reform can accomplish, unless accompanied by self-negation and chivalrous feeling. It is hard to say it, but truth compels the avowal, that our Assembly instead of being a representation of the general interests and intelligence of the colony, seems rapidly drifting into a representation of disjecta membra and personal spites. The representative accounts himself the delegate of the constituency, not the brain and heart of it; and what amount of time he can spare from the indulgence of tormenting or trying to torment those who differ from him, he gives to question of the most hard-and-fast localism. When he speaks itissimply anattempt to please those who have elected him, and not to declare freely what he knows and feels would be best for the country. One is sometimes perfectly amazed at the narrowness of view which finds utterance. With such qualifications, it is evident any man can make a member of Parliament. They do not involve the need of mind, or patriotism, or probity. Does New Zealand wish to carry this state of things to the bitter end ? If not, let the electors bear in mind that men who think and reason are necessarily tolerant. They see two aides to a question—many sides to some questions, and consequently their native hue ol resolution is often sicklied o’er with the pale oast of thought. It is impossible for them always to vote “ straight," or according to resolutiousof public meetings—very good means of expressing popular feeling, but at which short and easy methods of settling intricate questions find too ready acceptance. Under conditions of this kind the best men go to the wall, and hence, to a large extent, our present “ political situation.” The resignation of Sir Julius Vogel affords an apt illustration of its characteristics. He ia now a private member of the House of Representatives, and judging by his placid look, he feels as it a heavy burden had been taken from his shoulders. He may have made a mistake in resigning, but if so, it ill becomes his friends here and now to be other than blind to it. Rather let them regret that New Zealand ia about to lose one of its ablest statesmen. His opponents, in the circumstances, should be excused much, but anger is making them very unreasonable. Even Mr. Rolleston, one of the most honorable-minded men in the House, has temporarily forgotten himself. All the fury expressed at Sir Julius Vogel’s resignation is unconsciously the highest compliment that detractors could pay to him. Like Balaam, they mean to curse, but a blessing comes instead. The burden of their woe in effect amounts to this ; He is leaving, and after him the deluge. I should be sorry to think so. Sir Julius is a man of ability, who has done a good work for New Zealand, but the colonist can confidently say, with the old King in Chevy Chase, I trust I have within my realm Five hundred go»d as ho. Five hundred! Five thousand I Although many public men are not just now doing themselves justice. The country has been assured, in every variety of mood and tense, that Sir Julius Vogel is incapable of - administration and unworthy of trust—the longing desire of the Opposition has been to drive him from office; yet now, when he has voluntarily resigned, its members shout out that it is shameful of him to do so; that he is deserting his post, and leaving the Government at a time when he ia most wanted. This makes rather a pitiful exhibition. The only logical outcome of the original premises would be — He is going: a good riddance. But not one of his opponents ia bold enough to put such an opinion into words. Diverging for a moment from my immediate object, X will say that it seems to mo one of the saddest facts in history that mankind has generally been ungrateful to their benefactors. Blame, insult, and worse, have too often been the recompense which the world has bestowed upon reformers and civilisers. Jerusalem killed its prophets, and Troy made fun of its Cassandra, “ Aristides,” says Grote, the historian of Greece, “ by his straight and singlehanded course, with no solicitude for party ties, and with little care to conciliate friends or offend enemies, and by manifesting through a long public life an uprightness without flaw and beyond all suspicion, earned for himself the lofty surname of the ‘ Just.’ ” Yet the people got heartily tired of Aristides and his justice. They preferred less honest and less upright men. And it is so still ; New Zealand being no exception to the rule. I daily meet men who shrug their shoulders at the mention of this and the other person, high in the public service, who should be in quite other places, but I am told these persons serve their purpose admirably well. As it ia so, I shall have no sour milk of human kindness in me, and my advice to any rising politician would therefore be, “Don’t be too particular—abuse any man who has risen to eminence; keep out of sight his good qualities; dwell continually on his, faults and failings—shove anybody aside (no matter although they have done you kindnesses) who may be climbing in your way ; seize hold of any branch however nasty it is (a few of us in a tub or in a corner may grumble) ; n'importe—the public at large will not think the worse of you for it.” Nothing succeeds like success. If a man go in for virtue, of course virtue is its own reward—sweet but intangible—and he will get it and get no more. A majority of men and women, however, care more for the thing when it is credited with a fair proportion of marketable

substance. Job’s case seems very; much to their mind, because at the clbse of the account the good man had twice as many camels, sheep, and oxen as at the beginning. v . \ j ‘ To return. The Vogel Ministry and what is worse, the Vogel party, have retired. It is useless to express vain regret. Past services are soon forgotten. And so a new Government has. been formed, or rather it is our old friend with a new face, which is quite a different matter. I hear this Government spoken of as a strong one. I fail to see it, except a “ new departure,” meaning thereby the changing of some and the abandonment of many measures, constitutes strength. Mr. Whitaker has too many dints upon his armour, and his land fund resolutions were too conspicuous a pretence, to make him a desirable colleague at the present juncture. Mr. Hall, lam told, is equal to any amount of office work; |and, like Oliver Twist, he used to horrify the clerks in his department by asking for more. But there are numbers, of industrious men.' Never was work looked after with more care or singleness of purpose than by Mr. Reynolds. Mr. Ormond is a safe man, and has the reputation of much ability, although to an ordinary observer it refuses to make itself at all apparent. And these three gentlemen, after a Guy Fawkes atmosphere of mystery had been imported into the affair, and our Tapers and Tadpoles actually looked big with State secrets, make up the added strength or weakness of the Government.

Things are very “ mixed,” yet the good colonist must not bate a jot of heart or hope. Major Atkinson will do all that is possible for him to carry out his policy and the traditions of his party. He richly merits the high position to which he has attained without any seeking of his own. The old members of the Ministry are also thoroughly reliable; but looking at its new elements, the prediction may be safely hazarded that he who expects least is most likely to suffer the smallest measure of disappointment. What shall we manage to pick up amid the shiftings of the political sand ? An emasculated Counties Bill will be brought forward —probably passed ; Messrs. Whitaker and Hall, ranking it with measures saluhres sed voluptatc carentes cibi, must give it a half-hearted support. Some enactment to make arrangements for provincial finance seems also absolutely necessary. These, and perhaps two or three Harbor Board Bills, will make up the book for the session, — a very expurgated edition, in all conscience, of the Vogel programme; but what then? Provincialism is avenged, and there will be other sessions of Parliament.

There is something said about effecting public retrenchment. I fear the news is too good to be true. Every member in the House advocates economy pro tanto ; every member declines to seek it in detail. If he come from Otago, he would strike off any number of officers of the Civil Service in Auckland or We lington, and then vehemently resist the dismissal of an unnecessary letter-carrier in his own village. And members from Auckland and Wellington will act in precisely the same way. It will take a stronger Government than the present, and a different feeling in the House, before any sensible retrenchment is set about. Besides, it is not of much use strengthening the superstructure until the foundation is secured. Constitutional reform must be built up on the concrete foundation of a general acquiescence before other even much needed improvements have any chance of being effected.