New Zealand Times. PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5092, 19 July 1877, Page 2

New Zealand Times. PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, JULY 19, 1877.

To-day marks a point of new departure in the history of New Zealand. Provincialism, with its necessity and its uses, with its abuses, its bickerings, and absurdities, has passed away ; and for the first time in our political history the Parliament of the colony is face to face with the people of the colony. We have no desire to quarrel with the past system of of government. The necessities of the colony brought it into existence, the necessities of the colony abolished it; and we would only remember its good services in the past. Nor do we withhold our sympathy with Sir George Grey in the regrets with which he has parted from the system he claims to have conceived, and which undoutedly he did tend and nurture till it had attained proportions the early settlers of this colony never intended it should reach. Naturally enough he could not bear to lose his bantling. Walter Bagshot aptly said, “One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, ‘so upsetting it makes you think thdjjt, after all, your favorite notions may be wrong, your finest beliefs unfounded ; it is certain that till now there was no place allotted in your mind to the new and startling inhabitant, and now that it has conquered an entrance you do not at once see which of your old ideas it will or you will turn out, with which of them it can be reconciled, and with which it is ,at essential enmity.” It was so with Sir George Grey. His soul revolted against the “ new idea ” of the abolition of provincialism, for the simple reason that he could not recognise that a condition of things had sprung up amid which it was impossible for his favorite scheme to continue to exist. But he should not have regarded abolition as a “new idea.” It was shadowed forth in the first “ speech from the throne ” after the inauguration of representative government. Thus we find in Acting-Governor Wynyard’s address to the newly-assembled Parliament the following passages:—“Seeing that the colony is composed of a number of detached settlements, each from another more than 100 miles apart, with no facilities forinter-communication —planted by Various founders, on different systems, and each independent of the other—-with little intercourse between them, either social or commercial —with no common sympathy—and heretofore without the, slightest bond of union ; seeing, too, that each of its several provinces has been invested with large powers of local legislation, it will rest with the General Assembly of these islands whether New Zealand shall become one great nation, exercising a commanding influence on the Southern seas, or a collection of insignificant, divided, powerless, petty states. To mould its various provinces into one united people; to create amongst them a feeling of common sympathy, and to inspire them with the pride of a common nationality, may well become the leading object of the Assembly of New Zealand, and may suggest the guiding principle on which its legislation should proceed.” Such was the task delivered to the Parliament four and twenty years ago; and to-day we see how that task has been performed. We have now a united state, a common sympathy, and the pride of a common nationality, and New Zealand exercises no small influence in the Southern seas. Doubtless, there have been mistakes in the past; mistakes in legislation and administration, in times of war and in times of peace; but on the whole we have no need to be ashamed of our records. In spite of exceptional difficulties, during which the Colonial Office might have been more diligent in the exercise of those offices of justice and kindness which should tend to preserve unbroken the sympathy between the mother country and her colonies, New Zealand has survived her hour of trial, and has come to occupy a leading position in her Majesty’s dominions. As to what the future shall be, that must rest with the people themselves. There is very much to be done. Financial, land, educational, and other questions of more or leas importance press for settlement, and all must be approached with the greatest care and discrimination, so as to avoid any semblance of disregard for local interests and prejudices. With a Parliament more directly responsible to the people than it has ever been before, we may justly hope for a policy of conciliation which shall smooth over old differences, heal old sores, and intensify that unity which alone can make New Zealand prosperous, and her people contented.