The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1554, 22 March 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, MARCH 22, 1872.

The last of the three months allotted by law for the registration of electors has now nearly passed away, and there can be no doubt that the thirty first of March will find many citizens wbo possess the requisite qualification, .shut out for another year from any direct influence on the Government of the Colony, for no better reason than that they will not be at the trouble to send in their claims. We have already called attention to this subject, but the matter is 60 important that we make no apology for recurring to it. The absence of political excitement, and the engrossing nature of the duties which keep our country friends busy at this season, will prevent some from, attending to ifc who might otherwise do so. In many cases, however, mere indifference is the only explanation that can be given of the fact that so many who really possess a stake in the country are content to remain year after year mere political cyphers in the community. In some cases of which we have heard,

qualified persons have refrained from registering under the impression that by so doing they secured exemption from serving as jurymen. This however is a great mistake — as some of the jurors discovered at the last session of the Supreme Court in Invercargill. Others, it is just possible, may feel such unbounded confidence in the political wisdom and integrity of our rulers as to imagine that there is no need to concern themselves about public affairs, though we fear this happy state of feeling is by no means so universal as the Ministry and their friends may possibly think it ought to be ; and even such amiable optimists might be reminded that there is no saying how soon we may be called on to choose between our present leaders and others less desirable. Some, strange though it may seem, are unconsciously influenced by the idea that one vote more or less is of no consequence, and in this way excuse ! their neglect of a plain duty. With any I one who seriously advanced such a pro- ! position it would probably be useless to argue. An absurdity so obvious need hardly be gravely refuted, nor does any one who remembers some of our own contested elections, or who has ever heard of the proverbial New Zealand ministerial majority of one, require to be reminded that it has more than once been refuted in our own history by " the inexorable logic of facts." It is to be regretted that any one whose opinion is worth having should be incapacitated through his own carelessness from recording his vote when it might be of service to the community ; and there are few indeed who have not opinions which at all events they think worth expressing. Such neglect disheartens those who desire to secure the best possible results from the working of our political machinery, and when it prevails to any great extent in a community, the invariable effect is to hand over the control of affairs to the class of professional politicians who look on the administration of the public estate, not as a trust reposed in them to be exercised for the general good, but as a privilege to be. fought for among themselves, and who regard the people's money as their own most legitimate source of subsistence. The inhabitants of New York have lately learned this lesson at the somewhat heavy cost of nine millions sterling, stolen from the city treasury in a few years, and indirect loss to an unknown amount. For obvious reasons we are hardly likely ever to pay so dear for it in New Zealand, under any conceivable regime. But the facts have their lesson, nevertheless ; and there are those who affirm that if the history of our Southland experiment in Provincial Government were fairly written out, traces of the same political indifference, with similar result^ in a small way, would not be wanting. A few days ago we pointed out that the Briton's cherished privilege of grumbling at the Government is unquestionably forfeited by every one who neglects to register ; unless indeed as an alternative, he ia willing, like Dogbebby, to " write himself down an ass." But as we are all apt to forget until too late what may be done at any time from day to day, we herewith present our unregistered readers with an aid to memory which we feel sure will meet most cases even during the few days of grace that still remain. It is simple, and being founded on the agreeable right of grumbling, will probably not be neglected, and it has, moreover, the rare virtue of turning to a profitable use what is ! generally regarded as a nuisance, to wife, the continual and not always trifling inconvenience arising from the new provisions of the Stamp Act. Thu3, let every one who, between this date and the 31st of March, feels inclined to grumble on thiS particular subject, remember that if through his own fault he is still unregistered, he has no right to say a word, and then send in his claim forthwith. Should this suggestion be generally adopted, we venture ,to predict a considerable accession 4>f names to the electoral rolls, particularly of the country districts. .?■"