New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.} TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4834, 19 September 1876, Page 2

New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.} TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19.

The course which has been for some time pursued in the House of Representatives has without doubt been causing in all serious colonists the gravest misapprehension and alarm. Nay, we are justified in saying that there are some who are not free from a feeling of despair as to the fitness of the colony for the plan of public polity which has been named Parliamentary Government. Such a scheme is eminently the mode in which the public force of a a serious and sober people find an organ of expression, but it is also the one of all others which is inappropriate to a people who are neither serious nor sober. One who has worthily told the great story of the rise and growth of the national life of England has well said “The great preservative of the equilibrium in our Government is the public voice of a reflecting people averse to manifest innovation and soon

offended by the intemperance of factions.” In any country which is at all fitted for it. Parliamentary Government is _ impelled by forces and maintained in a definite channel by a directive power outside the walls of the chamber far more than by anything within them. If this moral and political check be really and effectively present in the country, it is quite certain that the persons who, in Parliament, represent or misrepresent the electors will be very careful not by abusing the forms of the House to bring themselves within the pinch and pressure of this wholesome guarantee. If, therefore, an entire session has been wasted in vain jargoning, in perorating and palavering ; if day after day, and week after week, and month after month we have had nothing else but jargon and palaver and perorations ; and if till now there have been no signs of public disgust and indignation in the country, what wonder is it if many reflecting people are now asking is there any such thing as public opinion ? Any such thing as a public at all 1 Are we really at all ripe or ready for a plan of self-government which presupposes in the people political vigilance and interest combined with political sobriety ? _ These questions have just now a very disagreeable ring about them ; they make people who have any respect for themselves and the land of their adoption begin to look sharply into the reality or the unreality of things which have been dabbed with fine names. Certain it is that without a vigilant, well-informed, and vigorous public opinion no such thing as real Parliamentary Government can exist. When the system was first introduced into the colonies, one of our greatest living writers. Dr. Freeman, seriously questioned whether it could possibly be carried on —whether, in fact, the requisite conditions for its pure and healthy life did exist in any colony. The eminent writer did not speak without well understanding the matter he was talking about, and the results, both in this and other colonies, have proved clearly that he was not dreaming. but looking forth in broad day with keen eyes on the signs of the times. We hail with great pleasure that, in such circumstances as these, the first of the still small voice of public opinion should come, of all places, from Dunedin. The letter which was telegraphed to us on Saturday will probably have some effect in bringing to their sober senses the young gentlemen, and the old young gentlemen who have been revelling in the delight of turning the Parliament House into something like a cross between a youth’s debating club and a bear garden. “We are wearied and disappointed with the barren and prolonged debate of this session on Piako Swamp, separation, abolition, disqualification, &c.” Well indeed may the writers be weary with the interminable jargon, the dreary never-ending palaver, the empty cloudscraping perorating, the ever-springing but barren flood of talk. The great respectability and influence of the names appended to this letter of remonstrance entitle it to a consideration very different from the fustian so liberally dealt out at the late gatherings of provincial hangers-on in the drillshed of Dunedin. It is sober, it is respectful, it is simple and practical, and for these reasons further entitled to receive due attention. It is certainly humiliating that after some twenty years of life under representative government it should be necessary to have to resort to such a drastic remedy as the Iron Hand ; but if the disorder is desperate the cure must be proportionately prompt and sharp. This very summary mode of cutting short the exuberant eloquence of troublesome legislators has been found to be of most effectual service in other countries, and no doubt will prove equally useful here. Some four months of trial of Sir G. Grey and his followers leave no reasonable hope that he and they will come to reason by help of anything but the most trenchant treatment. We fully believe that until these mischievous members feel the weight of the Iron Hand on them they will continue to abuse, partly for amusement, partly in vindictiveness, the parliamentary forms, and in either case to the great expense and injury of the colony. Let us say, in conclusion, that we are much pleased that this sample of sober work-a-day sense should come from Dunedin. The people of that city are shrewd and canny, and usually prefer going steadily and sturdily about their daily concerns, while a lot of loafers are kicking up a dust because their scraps of bread and cheese are threatened ; but when it becomes necessary, the Dunedin people can speak out and to the point. That they have now done, and good will result from it.