SOMETHING THAT WANTS REPLACING.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5685, 19 June 1879, Page 3

SOMETHING THAT WANTS REPLACING.

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sib, —Few persona are aware that New Zea- 1 land stands on the brink of a precipice, dangerous enough I to make the’most courageous constitutionalist shudder, and quite as serious as one which, in a dark and perilous hour, was the cause of grievous apprehension and difficulty to our ancestors of blessed memory. It has become painfully evident to some ! of the profoundest and most thoughtful Official,Minds that the “ seal of the colony ” “ has worn out, is wearing out, and will continue to wear out." When the truth of this terrible fact first dawned upon the Official Mind; it was regarded as impossible. ‘ The idea was in itself a hideous sacrilege. But unruffled time kept ion .its course, and what was only an idea has become a stern reality. ■ It is a humiliating subject to the Official Mind, but it must be dealt with. The Constitution Act has been appealed to, but it is powerless. The Legal Mind has been consulted, but the results, in the shape of opinions, are legion, and as parti-colored as the hues of the chameleon. Cabinets have sat ; Cabinet Ministers'have, conferred, ; but, though'the Constitution may be imperishable, the physical constitution of the seal is undoubtedly consumptive. And what, to the Official Mind, are native difficulties, what are free breakfast tables, what is incidence of taxation, compared 1 to this ? • Still one consolation yet remains—one glimmer of light is to be seen. The Official Mind of the Imperial authorities can be aroused by this trying circumstance; The difficulties encountered in Great Britain, which occurred, as students ot history will remember, at the time of 1 the Great Revolution, when James II.; after a term infamous and disastrous misgoverhment, threw the Great Seal of England into the Thames on the occasion of his abject and cowardly flight, will at once suggest themselves to'English statesmen. They will: rise to the occasion. The Law Officers of the 'Crown in Englahd will doubtless feel that their minds are “nerved” and their pens “steeled”; and though the last man, and the last ship may not be required, the concentrated wisdom of Imperial statesmanship, and the transcendent efficacy of Imperial legislation; .may yet rescue our colonial ship of State from destruction on this rock. It may take time. It may require memoranda, consultation of authorities, reference to precedents, conferences of Secretaries’ of State ; but when once the Imperial Official Mind has taken firm hold of the idea, we may. rest- assured that it will not relinquish its grasp until it has grappled with and overcome safely, and. triumphantly this constitutional obstacle. Meanwhile it is possible the danger may be temporarily' averted. There is in existence an Act of the Colonial Legislature which was passed for the better preservation^’seals within the colony. I commebd this' to the Official Mind. Surely, this will afford the means of dealing with this great national danger—of averting a great national calamity. And ! if this may only be so, the Statute referred to will have rendered a service to the Official Mind far beyond that' which was probably contemplated by’ those whose action caused it to take its place on the Statute Book. —I am, &c.j , ~ 1 - ' Alpha.