The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 534, 1 May 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, MAY 1, 1878.

One' of the lending points in what Sir William Fitzudrbeut, in , his recent tangi over the bones of Provincial Government, called the Gospel of Democracy as it has' been preached in this colony daring the last six months, is that the bulk of the population is oppressed and down-trodden,.and that the true and. fundamental remedy for the evils of the existing system is the granting of manhood suffrage;. Now, after reading : the speeches which have been made upon this subject, not strangers alone, but numbers ,of our own people . might be led to ’believe that there . was id this colony a ruling class whose determination was to keep powbrin their own hands, and that restriction of the franchise,and the maintenance of a rigid properly qualification for, voters, were the methods, by which that object was pursued and sought to be attained. A very cursory glance at the course of legislation ; on this subject in this colony may tend to prevent the spread of, if it do not altogether dispel this illusion. • . .

When the operation of the Act of the Imperial , Parliament, passed in 1846, giving>a representative form of, Govern---ment to New Zealand, was suspended for'five years, at the instance of Governor Grey, an agitation for a modicum, of popular freedom, the right ; of choosing their own representatives,! <waa got up: and: carried on, with obstinate resistance on the part of the Governor, audr desperate determination on . the . part of the leaders, of the until in 1851 ah Ordinance was passed by the Legislative Council, entitled the Provincial Legislative Councils Act. There were then, as many of. our readers will remember, two provinces in New Zealand, known respectively as New Ulster and New Munster. In this Ordinance provision was made that one-half of the number of members of the Council should be elected, and the other nominated by the Crown; the qualification of the electors was thus defined:— The elective members of every such Council shall be chosen by the votes of the inhabitants of the province who may be qualified as hereinafter mentioned,, that is .to" say,—Every.man/of the age of twenty-one years or (except as hereinafter,mentioned) upwards, and having a freehold estate in possession situate within the district for which-the vote is to be given of the clear value of fifty pounds above all charges and incumbrances, and of' or to which he has been seized or entitled either at law,or in equity for, at least six calendar months next before the last registration of electors, or being a householder within such district occupying a tenement within the limits of a town (to be proclaimed as such • by the Governor-in-Chief for the purposes of this Ordinance) of the clear annual value of ten pounds, or without the limits of a town of the clear annual value of five pounds, and having resided therein six calendar months next before such registration as aforesaid, or having a leasehold estate in possession situate within the district for which the vote is to be given of the value of ton ' pounds per annum held upon a lease which at the date .of such registration shall have not less, than three years to run, or having a leasehold estate situated and of the value as aforesaid of which at the date of siich registration he shall have been in possession for three years or upwards previous to the date of such registration, shall, if duly registered, bo entitled to vote at the election of a member or members for the . district.

Havingbeen driven byforce thus far on the road to popular freedom, Governor Grey turned; the Councils were never allowed to meet, and until tho time of his departure in 1853 ho ruled absolutely by means of his nominees in the old Legislative Council. In these days we used to.hear a good deal of a down-trodden people ; but they were said to be down-trodden, and were so, not by a ruling class, but by one man, the Governor. Practically the same electoral qualification—that is, a propei'ty qualification—was provided subsequently; by the Constitution Act itself, and since the complete establishment of representative institutions the wholo tendoncy of tho legislation in the General Assembly has been in tho direction-of the extension of the franchise, until it has in practice become manhood suffrage, and perhaps, as we ..shall presently show, in some; instances a ,little more. In 1860 the Miners’ Franchise Act was passed; it enabled every man of twenty-one years and upwards (being the holder of a minor’s right) to vote at tho election “ of members of the •House of Representatives, : of Superinf tendonts'of provinces, and of members of Provincial Council for the electoral district in which his goldfield was situated; By the' Miners Representation - Act of 1863 holders of business licenses, in addition to the holders of miners rights, wore admitted to the franchise, and the Miner’s Rights Extension; Act of 1872 showed that the liberalism of tho General Assembly in this.direction was not impaired by experience of the working of these Acts. In 1875 ! there was passed the Lodgers’ Franchise Act, which qualified 'persons living in lodgings to vote under certain conditions, and in the same year was passed the Registration ;q£ Electors Act, which compelled the clerks, of the “ Council, Board of. Commissioners, Trustees, ortho persons or body having control of the affairs of any city, borough; or place, or of any road or highways, or in any other district however denominated,’) to place the name of every ratepayer upon the electoral roll of their respective districts.; -Mr. Whitaker, speaking recently in .Waikato, announced himself as being favorable to manhood suffrage, and we have reason to believe that Major Atkinson’s Government had in preparation a Bill in which, with such chocks as residence, registration, an educational lest, and some provision for representation .of minorities, the suffrage would be proposed to bo so far,extended. ; Now, we know, in. addition to all this,, that in a ' good many electoral districts, if hot in all, tho .public spirit of. individuals, or of associations, ardently seconded the liberal .disposition of the Legislature, and aided effectively in swelling the lists of voters,'•> Mr. Moss, tho recently elected member for Parnell,, a pronounced Groyite, addressing his constituents in February last, told them that out of eighty-eight thousand males over twenty-one years of age whom tho census of 1871 showed to bo in tho colony, fifty-two thousand were on the electoral rolls, and ho confided to them also the curious fact that tho electoral district of Waitomata, in tho province of Auckland, with only a population of 750 men above the ago of 21 years, had actually 1040 voters upon its roll, and that at tho Thames, the district represented by Sir George Grey himself, ninety out of every hundred of the male population wore registered electors. It was to these instances we pointed in saying that in practice we have already manhood suffrage .and even a little more, • , . ■ ■

Now, in fnco of these facts wo ask what is thq meaning of all this tilting at windmills to which wo have of late boon witnesses ; who are the down-trodden anci oppressed people who need the comfort of the now Gospel of Democracy or require to be roused by fiery ■ eloquence to a sense of their wrongs, and to, demand from a “ruling class,” which

does not exist, privileges which, if they do not already virtually possess them in their entirety, no one appears very desirous to withhold 1 JVhat makes it appear necessary that the'Premier of this colony should tell the people of Oaraaru, as ho did recently, “ that there were only 01,000 names on-the rolls, many of . which names wore several tinies repeated for different districts; and allowing for this and for persons who died and removed, there wore actually only about 40,000 voters, and many of rthem had'no personal interest in the country,' the result being that there were one hundred and ten' thousand adult, males who had no vote at all. One of his opponents had said, ‘ Oh, all these fellows rare loafers ; surely, you don’t want to give loafers votes.’ Well, it was a .melancholy thing that there should be 110,000 loafers in 4 Now Zealand—(laughter),—and if that was the case then where all the wheat came from Heaven only knows ; ho did not; but there it was.” (Cheers.) Mr. Moss knew what ho was talking about, and his figures are correct. Sir George Obey had not taken the trouble to study the subject on which he declaimed so glibly, and his figures are absurdly wrong. There are not probably one hundred thousand males of European descent above the age -of twenty-one-yoars, electors and non-electors, in all New Zealand. It may give cause for serious reflection as to the future of democracy in'New Zealand when crowds can be moved to “ laughter and cheers” by such oratory, and when'a gentleman on the stump can so readily,impose upon their.ignorance., . ,