The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 473, 5 November 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 1879.

Although we are pronounced enemies of ‘ rats’ and ‘ ratting,’ and have lost no opportunity of denouncing political treachery and putting votes in the market, we are bound to say that a clean thing has come out of an unclean thing in the case of the Auckland members. We do nut in the least mitigate the severity of our condemnation, because the ratting has been to the right side in this particular case; for if the practice is generally approved in one case, public opinion will lose its control in every case', and no reliance will in the future be placed on promises made on the hustings Nevertheless, out of the evil good has come, out o{ carrion a flower has sprung up. Mr Macandrew said that as he had been deserted by one of his chief lieutenants on the eve of the battle, he did not now propose to offer any opposition to the business being proceeded with. This announcement was received with" hearty cheers; for the House felt that the evil spirit that had long held it in the hands of n wicked enchantment was being compelled to break the baneful spell. The evil spirit then proceeded to say that if notice of motion No. 26 (i.c., the notice of Want of Confidence) were brought np at once it might be discharged ; or if this were not in order, he would move that all the Orders of the Day to No. 26 should be postponed, in order that the motionmight.be brought up and discharged. This was done, and as Mr Macandrew sat still in his place when the motion was called, it lapsed. So ended the third No Confidence of 1879. It lived long enough to cost the country a good many thousands, bat it was a good bargain to strangle it at any cost; for had it met with the success of its two predecessors its cost to the colony would have been incalculable. As soou as the enchantment was broken, the wheels of the legislative chariot began to move, But its motion must necessarily bo slow on account of the accumulated business that blocks its path on every side, and also on account of the unproparedness of those in charge of the various measures, who haVe been quite taken by surprise by the sudden cessation of party strife. There has boon a great deal of talk in the House over what is called the “ Auckland compact.” The notion lias got abroad that the Government have promised to spend nearly half a million of the loan in Auckland Provincial District, on account of alleged injustice suffered by the Aucklanders in the past, besides giving them a full share for the present. The Opposition thought that if this compact could bo dragged into tight, the exposure would be groat g pin to them, and although it was asserted that there was and could be nothing in the so called compact that would not have to pass the House before it became binding on the colony, and that no extravagant promises had been made, yet the Opposition pressed for the correspondence to be laid on the table. Having carried their point, they were gratified by a memo, from the Under-Secretary, to the effect that there had been no official correspondence. Yet the Oppo sitiou wished to fish up aud print private notes that had passed, and reports of private conversations that had taken place between the Government and the four Auckland members. Thus the Great Liberal Party would fain have initiated a system of terrorism that would have taken away the liberty and independence of the House, and have rendered it dangerous for any political conversation to take place in a private way. In this piece of Liberal tyranny, however, they were thwarted. The chief debate has been on the second reading of the Qualification of Electors Bill. The Bill extends the franchise to every man who has resided twelve months in the colony, and six months in the electoral district; also, to any man who has freehold to the extent of £25. We presume that in the latter case the residential clauses will not be in force, Wbat more liberal measures could be required, we are at a loss to know, and yet Sir George was disappointed with the BUI. He said it did not embody the liberal views professed on both sides of the House, and that it increased the power of properly in elections. By what process of reasoning he arrives at the latter conclusion we are unable to say. The man of a hundred thousand acres in one electoral district will only have one vote, and the man with half-an-acro worth £25 will have one vote. It is surely not an illiberal law that gives as much power at the poll to twenty-five pounds as it gives to a million. Yet all manner of bugbeais are conjured up from the vasty deep respecting a rich man getting a vote in every district in the colony ! We fancy that rich men have better sense; for, in the. first place, property divided in this way would not be very profitable, and in the second place if it were profitable how would the rich man manage to vote in every district in the colony ? We 1 have

more of the milk of human kindness in onr nature than to expose the name of that contemporary who saw in the Premier’s Bill a scheme for giving the rich man forty votes in one district, so as to enable him to turn the election how he pleased, and who saw a grave danger of some moneyed institution coming into the possession of forty votes in every electorate in the colony, and thus returning a Parliament to represent itself. We hide the name of our contemporary, but we cannot help quoting the Hokitika lawyer, and observing that orir comtcmporary’s remarks are “ intolerable rot!” The present state of the franchise is not oppressive, and the proposed law is certainly liberal and fair beyond expectation. What the country really wants is an improved and simplified system of registration.