Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1873.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 270, 3 April 1873, Page 4

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. THURSDAY, APRIL 3, 1873.

"MEASURES, NOT MEN."

The duties of the journalist are imperative, so much so that he is frequently compelled to run the risk of giving offence in some quarters, in order properly and thoroughly to express his honest and unbiased opinion. As the annual session of the Provincial Council is drawing nigh, we purpose in this article to express our opinions (shared in, we are glad to say, by a very large and daily increasing . section of the community) regarding the utility of Provincial Councils, and what in our judgment should be done with them. We are governed in New Zealand as follows: a Governor with his Cabinet, two houses of Parliament, and a Superintendent with his Cabinet, and a Council for each province ! All this to govern some 280,000 wellbehaved industrious colonists, and at a cost which we fear to calculate. That a sort of necessity existed for some local governing body in each pro /ince up to about some ten or twelve years ago, we are prepared to admit; but that such necessity has long since ceased, has been demonstrated sufficiently often, and we need not recapitulate. It puzzles us how — taking Otago for example — the 4G members of our Provincial Legislature can, if they are possessed of ordinary common sense (let alone honesty), sit for six weeks per annum creating Ordinances, one -half of which are usually disallowed, and the other half of which are totally ultra vires, or of none effect in consequence of their being directly counter to the provisions of General Government en^ actments. That our remarks will nogo down with some of our Provincial Councillors, We are quite prepared to believe, for the loaves and fishes reason ; but we have a sufficiently high opinion of the majority to feel satisfied that they will in the main, at all events, endorse our views. So satisfied are we of their correctness, that should a commission be appointed to inquire into and report upon the subject, we defy the Provincial party to make out anything in the shape of a decent case ; and our wonder is that the General Government has not long since taken the matter seriously in hand. Perhaps, one reason may be found in the fact that there are in the General Legislature many Provincial Councillors, and here the matter dovetails nicely with a remark we made at the outset relative to loaves and fishes. Another, and a strong reason, is that for years past the everlasting " Native affairs " have so absorbed the attention of the Colonial Parliament as practical^ to exclude domestic legislation — members being tired of talking (and that's saying a good deal) long before " native affaire " have been disposed of. For this very reason we hailed the (at one time) probability of Parliament meeting in Dunedin. Such a change would hiive had a most salutory effect, and have aimed and struck home a powerful blow at the very root of Provincialism. ,Last session our representative, Mr. Bastings, introduced certain resolutions, having for their object the doing away of the Provincial Council. Although not carried then, Mr. Bastings made a very good show and exhibited his teeth. We hope and believe that Mr. Bastings -will not allow the matter to drop. We know that after last session he expressed his determination to be at it -again this year, and we are satisfied that he is the right man to inaugurate and carry out the much needed reform. He has now the opportunity of introducing the resolutions as coming from the Government, and we are sure that he will deserve well and receive well from his fellow-colonists, if he goes boldly to the breach and tires not until he has carried the point. With Provincial Councils and all their useless and expensive machinery swept away, there would be a direct saving to the colony as a whole, of many thousands annually, i There would be" a unity and a one- 1 ness of law throughout the colony,! impend of the absurd differences]!

wiich exist by reason of our having a leparate legislature for each provhce. Another, and by no means tba least to be thought of, result wmld be that in the one General Pa'lianaent we should get the servi;es of far better and more suitable mtn to represent us. We put it to evsry sensible elector, whether we have not for years past stultified ourselves by returning very many most unsuitable men ? Men of gocd character, no doubt, but ignorant, illiterate — of small (if any) abiity — men who are first-class in ther proper place and sphere, but utterly out of place in any deliberative assembly. This is one thing thst has kept, and still is keeping Provincialism vp — the matter lies witu the electors, and with them onlj. We have shewn them the true state of the case, and have by no means over, but rather under dravra it.

The "Higher Education of Women" is a subject which has been for some time engaging the attention of many of the benefactors of mankind in this colony, and particularly in and around Dunedin. To forward this scheme, classes have been opened for ladies at the University of Dunedin,- which have been taken advantage of by some lovers of knowledge ; but to give a greater stimulus to effort, a something to work for more tangible than the development of the intellect and the aspiration of becoming wiser and more useful, it is proposed — indeed, a subscription list is already numerously tilled — to endow one or more scholarships, to be 'competed for annually by the ladies attending those classes. Such a scheme cannot but meet with universal support, so for as the laudable object it has in view must present itself to every one who has the social well-being, of his kind at heart. In this noisy age of enterprise and speculation, where each one is trying to outdo his neighbour in gaining popularity, or amassing wealth, we are apt to lose sight of common, quiet, every day actioas, arid their unseen but certain and powerful influence on society. It is useless to contend for woman's superiority, inferiority, or equality of intellect with that of man ; sufficient to say, her sphere is one which exerts as much, nay, more influence on the world than any of the more active and public duties of man. Who, then, would not wish to see woman adorning that sphere — living and acting so that her influence may be like the leaven of the world, steadily leavening the whole lump. What is necessary, then, to exalt woman to her proper standard ? Is it not education — which does not mean knowledge or instruction merely, but that training of rniud and heart, that moulding of the character and disposition which is the superstructure the world's experiences raise on tho foundation of a well trained and thoroughly instructed mind. The aim of this " Higher Education " seems thoroughly practical, unlike the fashionable education of the day, whose aim is to leave in the background the useful branches of education as too common-place for young ladies of the period, and to give them an artificial polish of manners and accomplishments, and a contempt of the useful and practical, which renders them little better than butterflies in existence. Educate woman, then, in the truest sense of the word, and all the efforts put forth to forward that object will bear fruit in future ages a hundred fold. The Honorary Secretary for the Ladies' University Scholarship has sent us several papers on the subject, which may be perused at our office, and we shall be glad to .receive subscriptions towards the object in view."

Two years ago there was some talk of having the management of the Lawrence Cemetery transferred to the Corporation. The agitation which then took place awoke the Cemetery Trustees from their slumbers for a few weeks, during which time they effected some consideraable improvements in -the Cemetery, bui soon again collapsed into their normal condition of somnolence. The result of this, ifc may be supposed, is anything but satisfactory. The ground is running to waste, and gftats have again taken possession of i/. To say the least of it, the Cemetery is at present a disgrace to Ihe town of Lawrence; and the sooner the Trustees acknowledge peir incapacity by forwarding their [resignations to the Superintendent, and the management of the Cemetery is handed over to the Corporation, the sooner will it receive the attention it deserves. In the hands of a representative body holding stated

meetings, like the Town Council, we feel confident the Cemetery wou'd have been a place in keeping with the associations which cluster round the sacred spot of ground familiarly known as " God's' acre." The r»resent would be a very suitaMy? ' " - for the transference of the management, as two of the trustees recently left Lawrence, and are now, to all intents and purposes, useless as trustees. We commend this matter to the immediate attention of the Town Council, whose action in the direction we have indicated will, no doubt, meet with the hearty support of every resident of the district.