The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1878. POLITICAL SUMMARY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5497, 8 November 1878, Page 4

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1878. POLITICAL SUMMARY.

The session of Parliament olofied on Saturday, the 2nd instant, the prorogation being by commission instea d of in the customary form by the Governor in person. There has long been exhibited by Sir George Grey a persistent desire to put her Majesty’s representative as much as possible aside, and in {ho Blouse as on the stump, the Premier speaks of himself as the real Governor af the Colony. As a justification for his offensive attitude in regard to Lord Norm.anby, Sir Georoe Grey is pleased to imagine the existence of personal hostility to him on the part of her Majesty’s representative, for which he accounts by supposing that the Governor has espoused the Colonial Office side of the old Cape of Good Hope quarral with Governor Grey, and is recommending himself to that “ department” by annoying his own responsible advisetr, the Premier. This is quite characteristic of the great pro-Oonsul and Insubordinate public servant of the “Enrjpire.”

The results of the session have not been, and could not reasonably bo expected to have been, satisfactory to the Government. Its atoms ave incongruous, and there has been internal disagreement, about which there was no attempt at concealment, in regard .to almost every one of the Ministerial treasures purporting to embody the policy of the Cabinet. It was a common occurrence to see Ministers going into opposite lobbies in divisions on Government measures. The projects of the session, as indicated in the Governor’s speech at the opening, were as follows : measures for simplifying the procedure in investigations of title to Native Lands, as well as their alienation; for so dealing with electoral reform as that the franchise and the method of electing members for the House of Representatives might be placed on a satisfactory footing; for placing the taxation of the country on a more equitable basis, and apportioning the public burdens according to capacity to bear them ; and for such -revision of the Customs tariff as would tend to relievo commerce of some restrictions which retard its growth.

No Native Lands Bill in the form thus projected has been introduced ; some indications of the Ministerial views upon this question, glv.en by the Native Minister in his official statement, were felt to be so absurd, and elicited so much condemnation, that no attempt was made to give them the form of law. Provision tor a few unimportant administrative changes in the action of the Native Lands Courts has been effected, and no more. The Electoral Bill has gone into the waste-paper, basket. Electoral reform was the chcval de hataxllo of Sir George Gret on his stumping tour in the autumn. Manhood suffrage with one vote and one vote only for each individual wasthosiraploprogrammo which, with floods of “excited bosh,” brought down the “house” at all the theatres in the ■Colony. The Government Bill introduced

by the Colonial Treasurer preserved all the existing bases of electoral qualifications, except the leasehold, the lodger, and the miners’ right franchise, and substituted for these a “residential qualification,” thus defined in clause 14; —“ Every male “ person of the full age of twenty-one “ years, not subject to any legal inca- “ pacify, and being a natural-born or “ naturalised subject of her Majesty, who ‘ ‘ has resided for two years in the Colony, “ and for six months iu the electoral dis- “ trict for which the vote is to be given, 11 previous to the date of his claim to " vote, and is possessed of or entitled to “ no other qualification entitling him to “ rote under this Act in respect of the “ district for which ha claims to vote,” would be entitled to be registered as an elector.

The Maoris have a separate representation, and four members have for several years past been returned to the House of Representatives on the votes of the .Natives alone. Native lands are exempt from all direct taxation, yet the native freeholder under Crown grant and the native householder whoso tenement was worth five pounds a year, could always heretofore andean still get placed upon the electoral rolls, and vote at the election of European members, and of this privilege a great many availed themselves. In the Electoral Bill as first introduced in the late session there' was the following clause; — “ Every male Maori of the full age of “ twenty-one years shall (subject to the “ provisions of this Act) be qualified to “ vote in the election of members for the “ House of Representatives, but shall “ only bo so qualified it hit name is en- “ rolled upon a ratepayers' roll in force 1 ‘ within the district in respect to which he “ claims to vote.” The portion of this clause which is marked in italics was, at the instance of the Government, struck out iu the House of Representatives, and a provision inserted in lieu by which the communal Maori title was made, for the purpose of the franchise, equal to an English freehold. As the Electoral Bill then stood, the words in the 14th clause which we have quoted, “every male person of “the full age of twenty-one years,” &0., &0., would have included Maoris, and have given them the same franchise as the Europeans, including the residential or manhood suffrage ; in addition, they would have a right of registration ‘on a communal title, and enjoy their special representation besides. Paying no direct taxes on their lands or houses, the Maoris would thus have actually, not equal, but much greater electoral privileges than the Europeans. A very grave scandal had just before been made public in the electoral district of the Bay of Islands; there, in consequence of a trick played deliberately by the Government, 400 unqualified Maoris were placed upon the electoral roll ; it thus became evident that the game of the Ministers was, in view of a dissolution, to swamp the European vote in many electoral districts in the North Island by means of the Maori vote, which can always be manipulated by the Native Department. The Legislative Council warded off this danger and this great injustice. The operation of clause 14, part of which we have quoted, was by an amendment limited to Europeans; the provision as to the communal title for natives was struck out, and the words in italics restored to clause 17, thus bringing it back to the form in which it first appeared in the Bill when it was read a second time in the House of Representatives. The House disagreeing with the Council, there was a free conference, at which the managers for the Legislative Council proposed to waive all the other amendments made by the Council in the Bill excepting those relative to the Maori franchise; but as this did not suit the electioneering views of the Government, the Electoral Bill was dropped, and the “great charter of popular freedom,” as Sir Georoe Grey called it, wont into the waste paper basket with the other “ innocents.” A very deliberate purpose on the part of the Government of forcing the Legislative Council into a collision with the House of Representatives on the Railways Construction Bill and, by means of a “ tack ” on the Public Works Appropriation Bill, was frustrated by the prudence and forbearance of the Upper House, which in this business, and for its action in regard to the Maori dual voting, has earned and obtained the thanks and confidence of the Colony. Of all the “great” Government measures introduced, only the Land Tax Act and the Customs Tariff Amendment Act have become law. In both Houses the Land Tax Act has received general condemnation, which will be extended out of doors as soon as the law is brought into operation. The Customs Tariff Act, by reducing the duty on ten, sugar, and some other articles, makes a sacrifice of revenue which can by no means be spared by the Treasury at present; the change was not called for by the people, and the duty will probably be required to be reimposed and the Act repealed next year. The disclosures which have been made of the jobbery and corruption of Sir George Grey’s Government are “ appalling.” The strongest supporters of the Cabinet were eager to. escape at last from Wellington, and the session was brought hurriedly to a close, in order to avoid a Ministerial catastrophe, which at one moment seemed imminent.

A census of the Maori people in the colony has recently been made, and the returns laid before the General Assembly. It discloses the lamentable fact that in a period of four years, since the last census was taken, there has been a decrease to the extent of 3319 souls in a population which in 1874 numbered 46,016 souls only. A summary of the facta revealed by the returns will bo found in another place in our columns. The confidence of the native people in the present Government is* by no means so complete as the Premier and the Native Minister would have us suppose. The boasted personal influence which Sir George Grey imagined himself to possess with the King’s people and the Ngatiraaniapoto tribe has had as yet no practical result, except, perhaps, a large drain upon the Colonial Treasury. The walls of the Maori Jericho have notyet fallen before the rara’s-horn trumpet of our political Joshua. The natives are peaceful everywhere, and would continue so if the Government could afford to lot them alone.