The Invercargill Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1864.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 29, 13 January 1864, Page 2

The Invercargill Times. WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 13, 1864.

The opinions expressed in the Southland Neics, in yesterday's issue, must have rather staggered our fellowcolonists; at the same time, we feel bound to admit that those opinions are made sufficiently intelligible. Touching lightly upon the question of the contemplated removal of the Seat of the General Government to WeUington, and frankly allowing that the whole system under which New Zealand is ruled requires considerable modification, our Contemporary sets himself the task of pointing out with whom the present Administrative responsibility in the Provinces rests. "To whom are we to address our complaints and supplications? and upon whom is the weight of popular displeasure to fall if tlrngs amongst us go to the bad ?" Those questions are answered promptly and briefly at the close of the paragraph from which we have above quoted : — "Our Local Government cannot be placed on a satisfactory basis until we recogn-se frankly the direct Executive responsibility of the Superintendent and of His Honor alone.'" The clauses of the New Provinces' Act are made the ostensible ground-work on which this opinion is formed ; but the whole tenor of the article goes to show that the writer has but a sight acquaintance with that Act, and none at all wiih the " Provincial Government Ord. nance, 1862," the provisions of which bear directly on the subject in hand. We ac lorced into this belief because our contemporary alludes to the Superintendent as being elected to the offic" by the voice of the people — by the voters of the Province — p.n/1 because, in pointing out what he consi* ders the duties of the Executive, which should be " strong, active, and energetic,'' there i< no mention whatever of the Ordinance to which that body owes its existence. We congratulate the Southland News upon its readiness to place so large an amount of power in the hands of the Superintendent; and we are sure that its views will receive all the attention they merit at the hands of the pabHeGf Southland. For ourselves, we look upon the matter ia a totally different light, and feel certain that a large sectiou of the community is of our way of thinking. Somewhat more than a week ago a meeting of the members of the Provincial Council was held at the Southland Club. It was a private meeting, and the press was, as a matter of course, not admitted. It ia well known, however, outside that these gentlemen assembled for the purpose of considering the relative positions of Superintendent and Executive — a course rendered necessary by the imperious and arbitrary conduct of the Superintendent, which the recent notorious case of the appointment of a Road Engineer had put beyond all bearing. The result of that meeting was a memorandum unanimously adapted, embodying the members' opinion of the duties of the Superintendent, and a distinct intimation that they would none of them form an Executive unless the Superintendent first pledged himself to act in accordance with the Provincial Government Ordinance. The position of every ruler under responsible Government is plain ami well defined,- ajid so generally understood throughout the British Empire, that it is strange that this" memorandum should have been required. In our simplicity we thought that ah Executive was responsible to the Provincial Council for the Government of the frovinee, seeing that, according to the -Provincial Government Ordinance, the Superintendent is supposed to act with their advice and consent, just as; the General Government is responsible to the Assembly. We "deny r altogether that the affairs; of the Province would j be better managed without the aid of an Executive Council possessing the] usual powers ; but tba t is not the poiriC The law, as it at -present- stands, pro-* vides for an; Executive, and defines its; position. The whole matter' lies in. -a nutshell. The Act of Parliament known as the Constitution Act, which gave New Zealand representative* forms of Government, divided the Colony into . Provinces, giving to each a Superintendent and Executive. The

power of making laws was vested in the Superintendent and Provincial Council. The new Provinces Act made provision for the erection of new Provinces, -witlr- Superintendents and Councils as in the .old ones. la the new Provinces the Superintendent 13 elected by the Provincial Council — in the old by the people, lhis difference our Contemporary was evidently not aware of. In the old Provinces the Superintendent would be responsible to the people — in the new to the Council. No matter, however, to whom the ,'Superintende it of. Southland may have been responsible in the first instance ; he parted with all his responsibility and put it on the shoulders of an Executive when he assented to the Provincial Government Ordinance 1862, the second clause of which is — " The Provincial Executive Government is hereby vested in the Superintendent, who shall act with the advice and consent of an Executive Council.?' The present Superintendent assisted in framing that Ordinance; he assented to it when passed •" it received the sanction ;of the Governor,;aad is as much a law of the Province of Southland as any Act of the General Legislature. If it has not that authority, then the whole of our Provincial Government machinery is a vast sham. Of the meaning of the Ordinance there can be no doubt. It is written in good plain English, and the only construction which the second clause (the one we quote) will bear, is that whatever the Superintendent does in the way of governing the Province, whether exercising powers conferred on him by Acts of Assembly or Orders of Council, he must do it with the advice and consent of an Executive. The Provincial Government Ordinance is, in fact, an agreement between the Superintendent and Council, to carry on the Government of the Province under the responsible form. At the present moment, the members of the Provincial Council have an opportunity of asserting their independence. We regret that tha memorandum mentioned above was necessary, but we sincerely trust that no onu will be found willing to assist iv forming an Executive, unless His Honor pledges himself to govern constitutionally. The position assigned to the Executive by the Southland News, is little less than degrading. They are to "fetch and carry; " they are to be the bearers of the Superintendent's will to their fellow-members in the Provincial Council ; they are to do what they are told, and, nominally His Honor's advisers, they are in reality to be his servants. If the meu of this Province are content that these things should be, we are mistaken ; but if, as we suppose, they wish to be governed iv accordance with the laws, now is the time for them to speak out, and display a little of that " public opinion" which has at all times been found so efficacious in the Old Country. We have little inclination to follow our contemporary through the sentences of fulsome adoration with which, in the hitler part of his article, he beslavers the present Superintendent. II is Honor will know exactly what value to place on them.