THE COLONIST.

Colonist, Volume IV, Issue 417, 22 October 1861, Page 2

THE COLONIST.

NI'JLSOiY, TUESDAY, OCTOBERS, ISGI

Public attention has been directed of late to the question of the superior advantages likely to accrue to this island, if a separate r/overnment took the place of the centralised power which has hitherto conducted its national affairs, and, with its many experiments of over-legislaiion, brought us into the present most unenviable state of debt and danger. One of the points which has been urged with most vehemence, and which has made the greatest impression on the public mind, is the greater energy and capability of internal improvement connected with a local management of our financial and legislative matters. It is not improbable that this idea has been recently forced upon th'e,mind of some people by the cumbrousness of the machinery which has been set on foot to govern the scattered population of this coiony; and, although this is a weak point in constitutional governments, it may fairly be represented as the price we pay for the inestimable benefits accruing to us in other

aespects from our liberal constitution. The power, which in some countries is centralised m a government department, is scattered in this colony through different Provinces, having their petty executive officers, governors, and councils—all bringing to their labors, it would seem, the listlessness and torpor inhetent in every-day duties. Much has to be done, but it is not constitutional that it should be done except by certain persons, who, in their turn, have no very overweening desire to bear the whole weight of the business of saving society from useless expenditure, national hazard, or political degradation. They have a tendency therefore to look to the power that be for any very extensive national improvement, or, if discovered in any political pettifogging to carry out their own selfish purposes, to take refuge- in fresh constitutional or technical difficulties, until at length the energy temporarily inspired by the loudly proclaimed voice of the governed has ceased to exert itself in measures of enlightened advancement and local improvement; so that, when r'dblic- attention is revived, it is usually £cund that the whole matter ended in talk and hesitation, and that nothing whatever has' been done.

Compare with this the energy of a centralised bureau, armed with despotic power -'id doing for every one, will they, nill 01 ey, v> hat is required to protect them against 'hemselves. A striking argument seems to "ii,e afforded against the cumbrousness of constitutionalism and in favor of the vigor of despotism; and, in a certain quarter, there is a disposition (notwithstanding a profession i;f liberal opinions) to push this argument <o its utmost bearing. But, admitting what •.e have said above to be true, we are far from being willing to.concede to centralisation, the eatire advantage of this comparison.

There is one great distinction between despotism and free government, in which lies at once the seeming weakness and the real strength.of the latter. Despotism deals with transitory occasions and special cases. Constitutionalism provides for permanent states, and for society in continuous and lasting relation?. The one is superior in meeting unforeseen calamities, the other guarding against chronic diseases. But the permanent social condition of a nation must exercise a most powerful influence on the frequency or infrequency of the recurrence of dangerous crises; and though at times the effectiveness of centralisation as a moving power may bias our minds in its iavor, surely, if we look at the question more broadly, there can be no comparison between the superior efficiency of an isolated Boaid, doing everything without appealing to the understanding of the nation, and the somewhat inferior capabilities of the whole nation, acting for itself, and its distant members on grounds which have approved themselves to its own reason. However slow and defective may be the positive agency in the one case, there are "the germs ot progress and improvement in this continual appeal to the national mind, which are wholly wanting in the other, Government Boards seldom advance, nay, generally retrograde. Improvement reaches them long after it has ceased to be improvement elsewhere; and though the rapid action of an inferior instrument may be often the more effective, there will be a period when the inferiority shall have become so great, that time will be comparatively an unimportant element. And this is the tendency in all rivalries between despotism and constitutionalism. And although it would be folly to deny the mischiefs arising from the selfishness, the hesitations, party spirit, and painful crotchets of local bodies, it must be remembered that we possess no evidence to show that centralisation is at ail more efficient in the intervals between crises. It acts at the time, and for the time. It provides not for continuous improvement, nor does it contemplate more than the momentary suppression of an eyesore. It deals with the patent symptoms of disease, but does nothing to remove the general unhealthiness of the body politic. Its character is well illustrated by the case of its model city of Naples, where poverty is suppressed for great occasions by a decree committing all beggars to temporary incarceration. In the preceding remarks we would not be misunderstood, as if we were the fanatic devotees of local government, as to deny to centralisation the possession of considerable advantage in some respects. 'At any rate, we are not in this island prepared yet to take upon ourselves the yoke of local government, to say nothing of the cowardly sneaking from the consequences, when the bill is presented for payment, of the rather general demand for a costly, humiliating,.and insane war, and the nonfulfilment of our contract with the aboriginal inhabitants of the colony, who were promised a better legislation on their paaceably giving up a share of their land to the white stranger. We are desirous of seeing some of the adv?ntages of centralisation grafted into our constitutional system by a judicious combination of the two methods; and we are equally desirous of drawing attention, especially at the present moment, to the remediable defects of our local organisation. There is however a tendency, as we before observed, at the present moment to contrast constitutionalism unfavorably with despotism considered in their entireties; and it is as wholes that we have endeavored to give the true rationale of the comparison, and to point to what we believe to be the only legitimate conclusion. Perhaps it will gratify the feelings, if not edify the minds, of the electors of this province to- know precisely how long their representatives (?) were at Auckland, and how many actual days' work they ..performed. The session lasted ninety-seven days— from 3rd June to the 7th Sepember. ■■ The actual number of sitting days in the House of Representatives was jjfty-six, or a little.over one-half the number of days they were absent. Government House social blandishments must be all-powerful- with so much time on hand; for it is said of a certain 'party,' that he. 'always finds something for idle hands' to do.' Be this as it may, the labor of members may be truly denominated the 'Government stroke;' and we respectfully call the attention of the Speaker to the fact, especially if the compensation to 'workingmen should ever again come under his noice. ,

Below we give certain 'Resolutions of the Central Board of Education,' agreed to in October, 1861.

1. That the Board will not. undertake to estaWish a school.in any district where, within a circle of three miles from the intended site of the school-house, there aro not thirty children between the ages of five and fourteen:

2, That when the number of children between the specified ages in any district applying for a school is above thirty, the Central Board, if the means at its disposal admit, will establish a school; but will not engage, wlifcra the children are less than fifty, to find a larger salary than £40 per annum, conceiving that, when" the probable attendance ot children is small, a female teacher will be sufficient. •

3. That the salaries of all teachers, who cannot show an average daily attendance of at least twelve children, will be £60 in case of a male, and £40 in that of a female teacher. ,

4. That the salaries of all masters (with the above exceptions and that of the Town teachers) be £80 per annum. But when, in any school, whether of girls or boys, the average daily attendance of scholars shall be found at the end of the 5 ear, to have exceeded twenty, and the average is equal to sixty per cent., one pound for each scholar above that number will be added to the salary of tho teacher, without prejudice to any gratuity for superior attention or efficiency that may be awarded.

KB.—ln estimating the attendance at any school, the total number of days' attendance during the year of all the children (not including those under the exclusive charge of, the female assistant) will be divided by 220, and the resu't be treated as the average daily attendance in the year.

5. That, in all mixed schools with an average attendance of not ksa than twenty children,, an aUow-

ance be made of £12 per annum for the occasional assistance of a female teacher, for at least three afternoons, or six hours per week; and that when such assistance is given daily during school hours; an allowance of £24 be made.

6. That separate Girls' Schools cannot be established where their average daily attendance does not exceed twenty; and that the salaries of the teachers in such separate schools be, respectively, £40, £50, and iiGO, according to their certificates and the average attendance of children.

7. That it must be distinctly understood that the ability of (ho Board to carry out the above resolutions depends on the sum placed at its disposal by the Provincial Council, the sufficiency of which is necessarily an implied condition of the fulfilment of the promises here held out on the part of the Board.

Accidents.—Last week an accident occurred to Mr. Green, of Hope, who, with Mrs. Green-and two children, was returning home in a spring cart. When at the stream by Balk's, the horse while drinking became frightened by the head gear and blinkers falling over his ears, and he ran against the adjacent bank, breaking the shafts and throwing Mis. Green out with much violence, hurting her shoulder, and seriously injuring one of the children, who is still in a dangerous state: Mr. Green and the other child were comparatively unhurt. Mr. C. Schwass, of Waimea West, also met with an accident on Thursday last by being thrown out of a cart.

Baptist Chapel.—TheßaptistchapelatWahnea South, after being closed for a short period, for the purpose of its being enlarged, was re-opened on Sunday last, by the Rev W. M. Biss, Baptist miuister of Nelson, who preached in the morning from Eph. ii. 19-22, and in the evening from Acts xvi. 29-31; both times to attentive and crowded congregations. A tea meeting in connection with the above will take place this evening. Taranaki.—ln the Provincial Council of New Plymouth Mr. Bayly presented a petition from Mr. Benjamin Wells, praying the Council to adopt measures to restore his wife and children to their home, or to rescue them from positive want while they remain in Nelson.

The Census. —An advertisement appears in this issue, requiring competent parties to act as subenumerators for the census return, which is taken every third year (after 1858); the forms of returns being required some ten days earlier than the previous date, namely, the 16th day of December, instead of the 26th, as heretofore.

How to manage Earthquakes.—Our Auckland friends, who will perversely insist upon palming off Wauganui earthquakes upon Wellington— much to the annoyance of the sensive folks of the Empire City—have a very nonchalant method of treating those unwelcome visitors. Ex, gr.— 1 In the course of Thursday, October 3rd, two slight shocks of earthquake were experienced in Auckland : one which occurred at a little after four o'clock p.m., though of short duration, was sharper than either of the two shocks which have heretofore been felt in this place. In the year 1848, and again about seven years since, slight shocks were felt here, and on both occasions very great injury was sustained in the Province -of Wellington and in the South Island, where the force of the earthquake was greatest. We hope that on this occasion we shall not have intelligence of new disaster.' In respectfully informing our adroit contemporary that neither of the shocks so tersely mentioned by him reached us, we assure him that When we are again shocked, we shall not fail to reciprocate his sympathies.