THE STANDARD. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1872.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume 1, Issue 3, 19 October 1872, Page 2

THE STANDARD.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1872.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right : We shall deny to no man justice or right : , We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

The intelligence to hand by the Keera on Wednesday is of an agreeable character. Especially do we refer to the position of parties in the House of Representatives. A reference to our columns will show that Mr. Vogel has succeeded in forming a Ministry, which gives promise of stability and undisturbed peace. The accession to governmental rule of men who have not held portfolios in this Colony before, indicates the existence of a principle, which it was becoming a habit to speak of as being dead. Nothing can possibly tend more to enervate, if not, indeed, to corrupt a system, than a belief that any one man, or any set of men, are indispensably necessary. We were not of the belief that the kingdoms of the earth would totter to their fall because the Fox Ministry went out, nor did we conclude that either Amageddon’s, or New Zealand’s decisive battle was to be fought through the advent of Mr. Stafford to his old post. But we firmly did believe that a change in the personnel of Mr. Fox’s Ministry was necessary, but not such a one as would necessitate funda mental changes, or a reversal of the policy of his Cabinet. All Ministries have their faults ; and we, outside the realms of power, would render better service to our Governments in the peaceful solution of our difficulties, did we act less partially in passing judgment on their acts. Experience proves to us year by year that Governments are not to be trusted, without the controlling and checking power of the Legislature : and did Parliament do its duty, the question of “ who is to govern us” would not be reduced as now, to a question of mere personal encounter. Although we have not seen the Governor’s memorandum in reply to Mr. Stafford’s request for a dissolution, we endorse the characteristic firmness and ability which he -displayed in refusing it. There is no

constitutional question between contending parties to require, or to justify the “ ultima thule” of an appeal to the country; and Sir George Bowen has shown a less identification of party spirit in indicating the proper course for the House to take, than by acceding to the heated suggestions of personal strife.

Two of the many faults in our political institutions are—first, the almost annual change of Ministry ; second, the intense virulence manifested in party warfare. For years New Zealand has been drifting astern of other colonies in the matter of progress, and forging ahead of them in the matter of unproductive debt, and the t unprofitable borrowing of money. A state of dormancy’ (save that of fighting, borrowing and expending), hung like a cloud over us for some time. We looked around, almost in vain, for some one to take the lead on to a new and better state of things ; we searched the archives of history and experience for a diagnosis, and found them. Mr. Stafford acknowledges the cardinal points of the policy with which he cannot disagree, and Mr. Fitzherbert is ever ready to accept the paternity of it; but still their party use very ingenious arguments, endeavouring to prove the necessity that exists for altering the working of a system which,admittedly,requires years, from its inception to reap the benefits of possessing. Now that Mr. M‘Lean is again at the head of Native affairs, we have hope for the country; and as peace is an essential clement in the successful carrying out of the policy of the Government, of which he is a member—we decidedly accept the fiat which places him there. But it argues a weakness —the principle of which would be scouted to the echo in most other walks of life—to uphold the theory that we are living under the folds of a Government, the vitality of which can receive its sustaining power, only at the Lands of one man. Mr. Stafford has already set about enquiring as to the consequences of the present Premier’s death. He is looking ahpad like a wise man. And now we ask those who hold to individual, personal, rule, what will be the consequential effects of Mr. M'Lean’s death, or if he cannot undertake the pacification of the country ? Philosophy, history, and experience, all teach us how vain are the hopes which depend on the contingency of one man’s life, for their fulfilment. It is necessary sometimes for a temporary, if not a permanent, removal of those to whom we look with such implicit confidence, in order that we may become wiser in our method of correcting the errors of the past.

It would be difficult, we allow, to find a successor to Mr. M‘Lean who would be ready at any moment to take up the thread of his action, and carry on the work as he leaves it. So much worse the system which leaves us so helplessly dependent; so much more faulty has been the past government of the Natives, that allowed the necessity to grow up. We are not blind to Mr. APLean’s past career, when with more gold and less responsibility than now,he built up this system which has the heads of a Hydra, each with many horns ; but we doubt very much the propriety of trying to stem the current of circumstances which have an inevitable tendency. It is hut right that on Mr. M'Lean should be fixed the responsibility of the Native admiuistratition, because he has made it what it is ; and if he succeeds in keeping the country quiet for a few years longer, we shall be able, perhaps, to do without him, and to bury the past in a magnanimous forgetfulness.