THE LEGISLATION OF SESSION V.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 101, 8 October 1858, Page 3

THE LEGISLATION OF SESSION V.

The following article from the Southern Cross of October 1, will, we think, be read with interest by our readers. After referring to some minutes relating to the Electoral Bills, published in another part of that journal, it goes on to say:—

Our object is, to keep the question before the public, supplying materials for the formation of opinion. The series of Bills submitted to the Committee were a first attempt to grapple with what is after all, the great question of the Colony - —upon which its future political status must depend. The character assumed by representative institutions must ultimately depend upon the electoral machinery (inclusive of the qualification) by they are worked. The machinery is the bias upon the bowl—affecting its course but little when- first launched from the hand, but gradually and surely overcoming the impetus of the first direction, swaying the bowl more and more the longer it rolls. Yet there is no subject about which looser notions are held, or upon which public opinion, at least in this Colony, is less distinctly formed.

The question is still unsettled, the Government Bills having been shorn of their fair proportions in their passage through the House and the Legislative Council. Although still shewing goodly bulk, they have been emasculated. They now apply mainly to the details of representation, leaving principles untouched. In regard to the main features of the system—a very imperfect one, introduced by the New Zealand Constitution Act, we are as we were, in statu quo. Bill No. 1, repealing so much of Section 4 as relates to the qualification of voters for the election of superintendents of provinces, and sections 5, 6, 7, 8, 41, and 42 of the Constitution Act, together with Governor Grey's electoral regulations of the sth March, 1853, was dropped by the Government, on account of the wide difference between the views expressed by the Select Committee, on points of principle, and those enunciated in the Bills which had been laid before the House—a difference which was carried into practical effect, partly by the House, but to a .still greater extent by the Legislative Council, where Bill No. 2, "To provide for the periodical apportionment of.representation inthe House of Representatives," was thrown out upon the second reading. This question, and another still more important —that ofthe qualification for the franchise, remain unsettled still. Nor do we desire to see them settled, yet a while. Public opinion, in this colony, is faint as yet; it can scarcely be said, indeed, to Jiave existence. What, passes for public opinion is merely that of the more active tew, the great majority of-the colonists being apathetic, not giving themselves the trouble, unless on rare occasions, to interfere. The violence of party has produced its natural re-action, and-the frequency of elections has wearied out the most indefatigable voters. But we can clearly see which way public opinion, such ;,s there is of it, is about to tend. A party of "Order" is, ■forming spontaneously in every proviuceof the colony. When that party shall have become consolidated, and shall have matured its views; it will be time, and not till then, to address ourselves to the consideration ofthe principles upOn whicli our system of representation should be"based. We .shall then be aide to legislate in comparative safety, with little fear of being carried away by crude, but plausible theories, always most hotly advocated by those who know tin. least. For titis, however, is required the general and constant diffusion of information, which it becomes the duty of the press, throughout the colony, to supply. - With this View, we shall offer from time to time short explanatory comments upon the proceedings of the select committee, following, for the sake of easy reference, the somewhat 'irregular order in which they occurred. For the whole of the bills were re-considered, and many prior resolutions rescinded, after tiie valuable" addition of D\: Monro and Mr. Weld to the committee.

The most- important of the series of bills, were Nos. 2, and 3, —the Apportionment and Qualification Bills. By the former of the two; the Government proposed to do away with- provincial representation altogether, by forming the several electoral districts without reference to the boundaries of provinces. The boundary of a district might cross the boundary of a province ; so that certain districts would comprise portions of two, or possibly of three provinces. By this new mode of apportionment, the distinction, (fraught with such grave inconvenience in the House), between, for instance, "Auckland and Wellington members, would be entirely abrogated in theory, and partly so in practice. For some of the members might find themselves representing both those provinces at once.

This would assuredly have been a great gain ; but, unfortunately, too heavy a price was to have been paid for it. For the Government was not allowed to exercise a reasonable judgment in the formation of those districts, but was bound by iron rule. They were to carry the lines sois to include a certain number of electors, who should not exceed in any one district, or fall short of by twenty-five, a certain proportion indicated by the bill. Even the General.Assembly, by this provision, was to denude itself of the power of making out convenient districts. The apportionment of the representation according to numbers, and numbers only, was introduced as a principle, without regard to extent of country, or the conflicting interests of classes, or to the fair balancing of opinion among those engaged in pastoral, in agricultural, in manufacturing, or in commercial pursuits. We have argued the question so fully and so often ■that there is little need to dwell upon it now. It may suffice tp observe that numerical apportionment involves an abandonment of the English system of representation, and an adoption of the American. And the perception of this was eventually fatal to the bill. The only arguments -worth, mentioning, by which numerical apportionment, and equal electoral districts, were supported in the House, were these,-^-firstly, that the machinery was self-ad-justing; and secondly, that the object of the bill was to reduce the discretion of the Government to a minimum. Both arguments are plausible, but neither will bear examination. .In a well governed: country, we cannot have too little machinery, or too much of the conscientious exertion of the human intellect—of the delicate hand that adapts its motion to every change of circumstance. I There is one great truth which cannot be too often repeated,—'that it is impossible to work representative institutions by mere machinery. Something more than dead and rigid ironwork, no matter how nicely the wheels and springs may be adjusted, is required. A certain amount of good feeling in the community, of conscientiousness, of honest faith and trust, of general intelligence, of what is called public opinion, and of general regard for that opinion, are necessary to give them vitality. The working of representative institutions depends, not so much upon the particular form 'they may happen to assume, as upon the character of the people which enjoys them. Adjust them as you may by law, they will still be potent either for evil orfor good; the Amreeta cup of nations—the greatest of all blessings, or the greatest of all curses, according to the moral nature of those upon whom they are conferred. Law, whicli cannot be transgressed, is a dead thing compared with the expansive exercise of human justice. Let us learn to consider it as a necessary •evil, and avoid the hampering ourselves with more of it than is required as a moderate check upon judgment, to obviate the danger of abuse, or of those eccentric aberrations to which judgment is sometimes liable. Law is unadvoidably imperfect; there;is always something that escapes from rule— •that is left unprovided for, and has to be forced, no matter at what cost, within the rule. Tlie beauideal of justice is that administered by a patriarch before his tent, because he has nothing to fetter the exercise of his judgment. But the skme powers might be exercised by a Caracalla in the

purple, and abused. Now the.proh.em for solution is simply ''.iris—how tar to ■ carry rule, as a safe guard,, without cramping the free exercise of mind. ..The desire of .reducing the discretion of the executive to a minimum arises from a misapprehension of the very nature of responsible government Ministers are chosen by the Assembly, not for the avoidance of responsibility, but in'order, that they should court it. It saves much trouble to a ministry, and sometimes risk, to^ be restrained within a narrow path by statutaory enactin en t-^-to be able to confine themselves to the dry letter of the law—to be able to meet every application With a reference to chapter and verse of the ministerial Koran—to be able to say, " we are helpless; our course is prescribed by act of the Assembly which we dare not violate;'.'—all this may be Very pleasant/for ministers, who like to be deprived ofthe free use'of'their limbs, by encasing themselves in stays; but this is not responsible government-. ' We might as well go back to the old official., whom it was necessary to tye up with law, because they could not be trusted to go beyond the law; and because if they did abuse the right of private judgment, there was no practicable redress. For what is it that the largely increased expense of responsible government is cheerfully submitted to—that a staff of permanent Under-Secretaries, a necessary adjunct, is.'maintained, unless it be to create the means of untrammelled intelligent action, pro re na la, whenever such service may be required. Responsible Government is that which gives lite to representative institutions, because it obviates the necessity for mechanism, which, while it has simplified aggrandised modern life iv material affairs, can scarcely he applied to things of the mind without weakening and enervating it. Let us expect nothing from machinery but what a machine can produce; the machine gives action, but no living production; it _is the great contrast to animated organism,which not only acts, but produces organism, as animated as itself. What gives life to a Government is freedom of action—power to act for the best under whatever circumstances may arise. If they hesitate to accept power it must be forced upon them; there is little danger incurred, where the retribution for abuse is so sharp, and sure. When you bind down a Government by enactment, you signify, virtually, that you do not trust them loose. Now the very soul of responsible Government is trust, which can be safely ventured, for tlie simple reason that there is^i sufficient penalty for breach of trust. You caiMio more get on without trust in the politicaPft'orld, than without credit in the commercial world.

The Assembly adopted a middle bourse: they, rejected the " self-adjusting machinery," and retained in their own hands the power of marking off new Electoral districts, —that is, of introducing small Reform Bills, fro pi time to time, as the rapidly changing face of a new country might happen to require.