THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1867. OUR REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT.

Wairarapa Standard, Volume I, Issue 22, 1 June 1867, Page 2

THE Wairarapa Mercury. SATURDAY, JUNE 1, 1867. OUR REVOLUTIONARY GOVERNMENT.

The state of affairs in Otago continues very unsatisfactory and will remain so until the meeting of Parliament. There has been a coup d’ etat, or a revolution on a small scale, effected there, and the people, supported by the Government and aided by the police, are on the verge of insurrection. We presume that this journal may be permitted to say this ranch as an item of news. But though the state of affairs at Otago will he admitted to he a matter of general interest, it is one, it will he urged, which a country journal cannot properly handle, or country people appreciate. They are supposed to know nothing, and care nothing- about what is taking- place out of their own immediate locality. Residents in towns have hut a very smallheer opinion of dwellers in the country. They are believed to he a stupid, vulgar, know-nothing sort of people. At best, hut little better than mere hewers of wood and drawers of water. It is hut natural that this opinion should extend itself to and embrace country journals. Metropolitan papers do not hold a very favorable opinion of the provincial press. And yet but few of the great men of England, France or America were born in London, Paris or Washington, though in the course of their lives they may have found their way there. Probably the best journals in Englander France are published in London or Paris, but the same rule does not hold in Washington, and it certainly does not hold in New Zealand. Wellington contains a few more stores, shops, public houses and private residences than the Wairarapa, but the former compared with the smallest town in England, which possesses a newsE‘, is hut a mere fishing village. The ag members of the Government hail from some other part of the province oxcolony, and even the leading members of the Provincial Council are not residents of Wellington. Why then should the assumption he tolerated that journals published there or some of the otlier

, " Provincial centres ” in the colony, art) the only ones capable of giving an enlightened opinion on general affairs ? We can see no reason why such a.: assumption should he allowed, and we claim for ourselves the power to properly discuss, and for our readers the ability to rightly decide public matters relative to the colony at large, though, as in the present instance, they may more immediately concern the press and public of Otago. A short time ago, as our readers are aware, Mr McAndrew was elected, by an overwhelming majority, Superintendent of Otago. He is accused by his opponents of having been a defaulter when he formerly held the office, but as the Government made no attempt through the properly constituted legal tribunal, and by the verdict of Ids peers, to prove his guilt, the public of Otago had a perfect right to assume that he was not guilty. It was not for Mr McAndrew to prove his innocence, hut if guilty for the Government to secure his conviction. The Government did not do this, but, on the contrary, allowed him to fake his seat unquestioned as one of the members for Otago in the Colonial Parliament. When elected Superintendent it is said that either His Excellency should have been advised to disallow his election, or not have been advised to withhold those powers usually delegated to the Superintendents of Provinces. His election was allowed, hut the powers referred to were withheld. He was deemed qualified to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the colony, he was also deemed qualified to administer laws made by the Provincial Council, for the peace, order, and good government of Otago; hut lie was not deemed qualified to have delegated to him certain powers conferred upon His Excellency by laws passed by the General Assembly, though he could not exercise such powers without the advice and consent of an Executive Council having the confidence of the Otago Provincial Legislature. I hose journals, out of the Province of Otago, who have blamed the present Ministry for the course they have taken, have not viewed the matter from a right standing point. The Ministry could not disallow Mr McAndrew’s election. Ho Ministry would have done so under the circumstances. They might have withheld, and have felt themselves justified in withholding those powers usually delegated to Superintendents, hut they need not therefore have taken, and were not justified in taking under their management and control those affairs and revenues which it was the intention of

the General Legislature to confide, and which, had heretofore been confided to the administration of the Provincial Governments. In striking McAndrew there was no reason why they should have insulted the members of the Otago Provincial Government, and usurped functions which the spirit of the Constitution Act, and the letter of the colonial law clearly indicate ought to be exercised bytheProvincialauthorities. Instriking McAndrew they aimed a blow at the Provincial Governments of New Zealand. This the latter will not fail to see if they still retain that sense of self-preserva-tion which is said to he the first law of nature. In allowing Mr Me Andrew’s election, as well as in their subsequent proceedings, there was more consistency than their opponents are disposed to credit them with. Like the passing of the New Provinces’ Act, they desired to secure surreptitiously what they knew they could not by fair means obtain. The election of McAndrew afforded them, as they thought, such a tempting opportunity of obtaining the darlingobject of their ambition—an extension of patronage, revenues, and powers at the cost of the Provincial Governments—that they resolved to make the most of it. There has been nothing inconsistent in their proceedings. Those who think that from what it has already accomplished the General Government is fully competent to administer in future the whole of the affairs of New Zealand, and who look upon the laws and taxes imposed by the General Assembly as wise, salutary and indispensable, are bound to uphold them in the course they have pursued, both in allowing Mr McAndrew’s election, and in withholding from the Province of Otago those powers which had previously been deputed to its Provincial Government. The conduct of the Ministry has been revolutionary no doubt, but so is the conduct of all persons who seek to secure by violent means, what they despair of obtaining by Act of Parliament.