THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Ressurexi. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1878.

Thames Star, Volume IX, Issue 3035, 6 November 1878, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Ressurexi. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1878.

The session of Parliament just closed may be said to be the most remarkable legislative epoch that ever New Zealand saw. Great things were expected of it, but the actual results may not perhaps come up to expectations. A Government of Beform were at the head of affairs, and they had propounded a policy which took amazingly when explained from a public platform, but even the most sanguine admirers of the Ministerial theories scarcely believed that all would be practically accomplished in one session, though possibly they expected that more would be achieved than has been done. The Government were strong and well organised apparently on their main questions of policy; the Opposition were numerically weak, and wanting in the essential of concreteness. But while Ministers could depend upon their supporters when it came to a party division, they were decidedly weak on some questions where members were supposed to be free to exercise their own opinions without actually deserting their party, or placing the Government in a minority. The proceedings of the session indicated that Minisk r» were not by any means unanimous, as witness the debate on the Judicial Commission Bill. The Attorney-General evidently thought it incumbent upon him to support the bill, and the Premier opposed the bill tooth and nail because (he said) it intruded upon the liberties and rights of the people. It is not edifying or reassuring to see Ministers arrayed against each other on such questions, because it is suggestive of a possibility of diversity of opinion on more important points. The policy indicated by Ministers during the recess (from the Premier downwards) was a readjustment of representation, electoral reform, balance of the incidence of taxation or Customs Revenue, and a property and income tax. Of this programme, how much has been, carried out? No adjustment of r the representation was attempted. In the matter of Customs Eevenae a beer tax was proposed to be '•♦aposed as .a substitute for some trifling reductions on what are regarded by some persons as necessaries, and the income and property tax ft as reduced to a simple

tax on land, which, ns carried, can only be looked upo> as the thin end of the wedge. This ihin end of the wedge/however, has established the principle advocated by Sir George Grey and by him ever kept before the people as a cardinal point. It will not be of much account as a source of revenue under present arrangements, if even it can be made to meet the expenses of organising the requisite machinery for its collection. The withdrawal of the Electoral Bill, for which Ministers fought well in the Lower House, was due to the opposition of the Legislative Council. If that had passed the extension of the franchise would have materially added to the strength of the Government, and when the representation came to be readjusted, there is not much doubt but that the present Government would have received a considerable accession of supporters. We have written now mostly of what has not been done. Ob a future occasion we may recur to the subject of the past session, and notice something of what has been accomplished in the way of legislation likely to advance the best interests of the Colony.