The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1883.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4636, 13 November 1883, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1883.

Bason Hubneb, a diplomatist from Austria, has—in a private capacity—visited our shores, and expressed delight at what he has seen in the colony. He wondered at the scenery in its variety, grandeur, and, in places, weirdness; was surprised gt the adaptability of the soil—more par* tieuJarly in the North Island—in which tree* and plants from all climes and region* grow and flourish io redundantly j

was gratified with the progress of the people and the colony, which he characterised as "a remarkable event in the world's history; " and in relation to our politics he said the people are a democratic community, and he did not see how we could, from the nature of things existent, be anything else; he pursued, that there is no order of nobles here, and no reason for their existence. These criticisms by a veteran in diplomacy, and an adept in the art of Government, are of value to those whose desires are to oppose the building up of a " lath and plaster " aristocracy, such as is attempted to be done by those who have followed the destinies, and almost linked their fortunes with the fate of'the party in power in New Zealand at the present time. We quote an educated thinker, and the expression of a man whose years are past the allotted three score and ten, who is still in the vigor of life, mentally, and whose opinion on this matter is, we venture to say, held generally throughout the colony. That there is no order of nobles here, cannot be taken literally, or the absolute truth of the statement is abolished. There is, as far as the system can be carried, an order of nobles, and an order that is as purely ornamental as any order in older countries. The Legislative Council of the colony under its present constitution occupies a position—when every comparative point is considered — equal to that held by the various upper chambers in Europe, and this is precisely what our foreign visitor would congratulate us on the absence of. The system of appointment, which may be healthy enough in principle, is, when reduced to practice, entirely subversive of the design to which it owes its origin. The appointment of Legislative Councillors by the popular Chamber would be very acceptable were not such appointments made for life —say, for instance, were a Government of a day's growth, and a brief life, to fill the ranks of the Upper Chamber, would this be in consonance with the spirit of the law as it was originally conceded ? The life appointment must be abolished, and if the strength of the existing Chamber, and that of the present Ministry as a support, prove too powerful for those desiring an elective Chamber to carry their desires, the next best thing the Liberal party can do, in the direction of Upper House reform, is to secure an enactment providing that—in fu'ure—-all Ministerially appointed New Zealand Lords shall retire from their Parliamentary positions, upon the retirement of the Ministry appointing them, from the Government benches.