RESPONSIBLE MINISTERS.

Southland Times, Volume I, Issue 46, 17 April 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

RESPONSIBLE MINISTERS.

(From the Daily Telegraph.)

The question of Responsible Ministers is of far greater importance than is generally acknowledged. Under any system of Representative government, the policy of the Administration is virtually dictated by the people. Various checks, more or less Conservative in character, may be interposed to guard against the sudden effect of popular caprices, but the people-are the real depositories of power. The Provincial Governments of New Zealand present many strange anomalies. Their respective Superintendents can almost make them what their genius dictates. They are responsible Governments but in name. As the recognised head ofa large and wealthy State, it cannot be denied that the Superintendent should take high political rank. Jiis position, however, in its powers and limitations, its privileges and responsibilities, is strangely and dangerously despotic. Once elected, he can hold irresponsible sway for four years. He may nominate his own ministers, selecting pliant and subserviant tools, to whom his nod is law. He may pack the Land Board, and other governmental establishments,\vith creatures of his own creation ; and, in fact, conduct the entire machinery of Government with his own minions and in his own way. The Provincial Council have no direct control over him. They may pass a vote of "■ no oonfidence" in his Ministers, but he may smile at their simplicity, and disregard their opinions. He is an autocrat, and may carry his sceptre with the dignity and vigor of a Caesar. If he does not overstep the limits prescribed by the Constitution, or infringe the statutes by which its provisions are defined, there is no power to which he is responsible for the way in which he administers his government.

Such a system isunsuited to the govern - ment of a free people, ln this country the people emphatically constitutes the community. Class distinctions and predominance are here merged in the equalising effects of colonisation. With a population numbering its tens of thousands of intelligent and thinking people, the system oi* petty despotism which has hitherto heen mistaken for free institutions will be elected intolerable. They will not be content to allow any one man, " wise despot " though he may be, to exercise the power which is now vested in a New Zealand Superintendent. It may appear to the Speculator and Monopolist — the moneyocracy of a youthful state — that responsible Government is undesirable, and they may cling with pertinacious persistence to a system which favors class interests, and circumscribes the power ofthe masses, but fortunately their days are numbered — • their career of self-aggrandisment is nigh run out. Industry is slowly, it is true, but surely, developing settled and prosperous interests. The time is not far distant when, despite the opposition of the general government, and the influences Of the Anti-progressionists, responsible government will be established. The Executive Council Bill, which has been recently disallowed by the general government, was a liberal and desirable measure. Its provisions, though somewhat too limited, contracted the power of the Superintendent, and elevated the ministers from the degrading position of nominees, to responsible advisers of the Superintendent. It was the first step towards making the Provincial Government partake of the character of a Responsible Ministry, and rendering it Worthy of the confidence of the people. The evils of the system on which we comment, have not hitherto been exposed to the public gaze in all their naked deformity, hence the small attention which has been given to the subjeot. In the early days of settlement, the duties of a Superintendent were light and comparatively unimportant, and yet an instance was supplied of the dangerous power with wliich they are invested: Fortunately, during the criticle two years since the discovery of sold, the Province has been presided over by one who has conducted the Government as though it had- been a responsible government — his Ministers have been consulted as responsible advisers, and hisacis have been those ofthe government. He acknowledged the advantages he had derived from the adoption of this line of policy by introducing in the Provincial Coucil the Executive Council Bill. The disallowance Of this Bill is a public wrong. Thoughnotso comprehensive as we would wish, it was the recognition ofa great principle, of the highest importance to the public weal. It is not now the time to go fully into the question of responsible government, but this we may affirm, that the time is coming when the present mongrel constitution will have to be re-cast — when members of either the Assembly or Provincial Council wili be compelled to resign and go on to their constituents for re-election when they accept oflice — when responsible government will be a reality and uot at sham. In the meantime it is our duty, and the duty of every inhabitant in the Province, to insist upon the re-pass-ing ofthe Executive Council Bill.