WELLINGTON.

Southland Times, Issue 1785, 26 August 1873, Page 3

WELLINGTON.

(FROM OUE OWN COBBEBPOFDENT.)

Newspaper readers (and newspaper correspondents too) have much cause to deplore the undoubted strength of the Government this year, as it has most certainly deprived them of all the sensational element which is ordinarily supposed to lend so much piquancy to Parliamentary reports. Those who are content, however, to forego this source of gratification in consideration of the general welfare of the country, and the progress of the public works and colonisation scheme which in undoubtedly being secured by the present administration, have no reason as good citizens to regret the unwonted dulness of the session. Much good work is being done, which will bear fruit hereafter ; and should the present Ministry continue, as there seems no reason to doubt they will continue, to retain the public confidence for at least another Parlia mentary year, they will have by that time established a stronger claim than ever to tha support of the electors of the Colony. Much has been said of the want of debating power on the Ministerial benches, and certainly it must be admitted that Mr Yogel, alone among his colleagues, is in this respect an accomplished master of fence. But mere debating power ia not everything ; and those who have witnessed how, in Mr Vogel's absence, Mr Donald M'Lean succeeds, in courteous and yet satisfactory terms, to reply to questions, and to answer objections, on matters it may be not at all connected with his own department, have sometimes thoueht that in that respect he is even more successful than Mr Yogel, whose prompt and incisive wit sometimes leaves a needless •ting behind, when he is goaded to impatience by a blundering or ill-informed questioner. The abandonment of the Electoral Bills for this year by the Government excited no surprise, as it has been evident from the first that; tha unusual latitude allowed to the vagaries of private members by the absence of an organised Opposition is likely greatly to prolong the session. The difficulty of passing these measures, on that ground alone, would have been very great. The announcement of the principle of manhood suffrage, as the basis on which the Bills promised for next year will be constructed, has given general satisfaction. It is felt that the restrictions of the present electoral law, however they may have been intended to operate, certainly do the State no service. They neither exclude any class which may be presumed less fit than the rest of the community for the exercise of the franchise, nor do they by any means include all those classes who, in the opinion of all reasonable men, must be judged quite as fit as others to exercise that right. Therefore it is felt that our representative system will rest more securely than at present on the broad base of manhood suffrage, while the recognition of the claims of property is accomplished by the retention of the present qualifications in addition to the new, with the proviso, of course, that no elector shall exercise more than one vote in any district. The miners are no longer to be treated as & separate class, but will vote along with the main body of electors on their manhood suffrage qualification, and any other qualifications, such as residence or property, which they may possess. It is to be hoped tbat these liberal and reasonable viewa may become law with as little delay as possible, and it is to be regretted that they could not be carried through tbis session. The discussion on the Tariff Bill brought out little that was interesting or new on the special subject under consideration, but developed an extraordinary capacity for carping and finding iault on the part of many of the late opposition members, who, however, on their own showing, are no longer to be classed as such, but, to use a phrase of Mr Reader Wood's, among the "intelligent and independent " supporters of the Government. Mr Fitzherbert's long speech, delivered on the motion for going into Committee of Supply, for the purpose of considering the Tariff Bill, was an elaborate attack on Mr Vogel's financial statement. Though undoubtedly clever, it could not be called a success, entirely missing the main point aimed at by the speaker, to prove, namely, Mr Vogel's utter insincerity. The effect produced on most of the audience, who could not, somehow, forget the Wellington loan project all the time, though Mr Fitzherbert never referred to it, was that Mr Voxel's sincerity would compare very favorably with Mr Fitxherbert's, and that after three or four hours of the latter gentleman's eloquence the House was becoming exceedingly tired. The decision on the tariff you already know. From all that has been said, pro and eon, here on the subject, lam inclined to think that the new system will be found to be a vast improvement on the old. Even if a little more money is raised, which ia far from certain, the ease and rapidity with which the new duty will be collected should afford a more than equivalent advantage for any little additional sum which may be raised under the new system. It is well known that the measurement plan, besides being rode and unequal in. application, entailed much vexatious delay and trouble on importers. It should be generally known that the class of goods dealt with in this measure contributed last year only £140,000 of duty out of a total of £845,000,

or one-sixth of the whole, and that the otho> duties are not interfered with by the new bill, but remain just as they were before. Mr Pox's Bill (known as the Permissive Bill, but really called the Licensing Bill) made a shor! progress through Committee on Friday night 15th August. From the opposition it met. with on that occusiob it seems uulikely that the Bill will pass this rear safely through all the dangers which await it in the narrow and tortuous navigation of a Committee of the whole House. Yet nothing is more remarkable than the decided difference and respectful character of the reception which the measure obtained from the House this year as compared with last.