The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1876.

Patea Mail, Volume II, Issue 163, 1 November 1876, Page 2

The Patea Mail. PUBLISHED WEDNESDAYS AND SATURDAYS WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1876.

New Zealand has certainly nothing to be proud of in the session that has just expired, the first of the New Parliament. It has clone very little indeed in the shape of useful legislation when the time that has been occupied,—move than four months, —is taken into consideration, and its total cost, including payment of members, and their travelling expenses, cost of extra clerks, servants, lighting, furnishing, &c., has been estimated by good judges at £45,000. The game has not been worth such an expensive candle, and it is well that it has at length come to a termination. If not productive, however, of great good, the proceedings, have at least been of a sensational character, though wo much doubt whether the excitement thereby created will be generally accepted by the country, as an equivalent for the absence of needed legislation on all-important subjects. Briefly glancing through some of the salient points, we find first the Government defeated on the Piako Swamp matter by a fluke, that ancient and Quixotic political veteran, Sir George Grey, scoring his first and only win within a week of Parliament’s meeting. Then came the reaction, when the Government threw down the gauntlet on this very question, challenged what may bo deemed their impeachment for corruption, and emerged triumphantly fi’om the ordeal, scattering Sir George and his forces—never again to be rallied—and consolidating a majority that has stood by them during the session. The false move that the Ex-Governor made in the Piako question, was the moans of saving, in lien of destroying, the Vogel Ministry. Then came the spectacle of the defeated ex-potentate evincing symptoms of obstructive imbecility that in other parts of the world might have led to- his being taken tender care of, to revelations as to his despatches auont the Government cannonading Auckland, &c., &c; in short, to an old gentleman in his dotage, because his pot institutions were being swept away, being enabled to obstruct all business for an unlimited period. Mr Macandrow then, with an amount of folly not to be expected from such a cautious son of Scotia, bints at insurrection in .Otago, if Abolition bo carried out, and a low of the Otago members threaten consequences if that province be dealt with as the rest of the Colony. A very proper onslaught on the present disposal of the Land Fund, made by Mr Whitaker,

was a preliminary to an attempt to split up the Colony, and separate the North and South Islands, both of these being equally unsuccessful. Though most of the Northern and Southern members, united in a political, if not personal, hatred of Sir J. Vogel and his collcaqnes, they had nothing in common, and their and of union was a rope of sand, which, always broke at the critical moment. Still the Opposition, in detachments, wore able to harass, annoy, and obstruct and the-result of the session has been, comparatively speaking, profitless. General disorder and obstruction have reigned supreme, and it should be the business of the Government timing the recess to see whether means to check such conduct cannot be devised, and thereby prevent a repetition in sessions to come. The “ Lords” have been unusually quiet this session, but have been more than usually obnoxious in vetoing some portions of the action of the House of Representatives, in connection with the Counties and other bills. Their powers have been exorcised mischievously only, and the old question as to the usefulness of a bundle of nominated old fogies crops up with great force again. Surely the Government should take action to sweep this relic of old irresponsible days away, and make the Upper House, as the House of Representatives, elective. It is so in other colonics, and has been found to work well. Let ns hope that means to such a desirable end may be found, and that, on Parliament next meeting, they may bo carried out. The last startling act of the session was the decadence of the political meteor, Sir Julius Vogel, who after a long and brilliant career, deserted the ship at its most perilous time, and subsided from the courted and flattered Premier into the comparative obscurity of AgentGeneral. It is not worth while sayiny more on tin's matter. Sir Julius has exercised his own, and in our humble, opinion very unwise discretion, the House lias sanctioned it, and all the diatriabes that could be penned, could not alter the course that things have taken. To sum up, all the session has been a most remarkable and unsatisfactory one, on the whole, the only comfort being that Abolition is an early impending, if not accomplished, fact, and that the Counties Act, properly administered, will most satisfactorily supply the vacancies created by the dismemberment of the provinces.