TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 814, 4 September 1877, Page 2

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1877.

The House of representatives has commenced its Monday sittings, a sure sign of the drawing near of the rising of Parliament. Nearly two months have been frittered away in futile discussion, personal recrimination, and the most puerile and purposeless of party skirmishing,, and now in weariness of further absence from their homes and occupations, members areagreed to forego the non-sitting day of rest with the object of rushing through their several stages some few bills before the House, which, for very shame sake, they feel bound to take in band. Time was when the business of the country was conducted after a far difterent fashion. Then, as now, there was a continued struggle for possession of office, but the contest was carried on under the recognized rules of legitimate party warfare, and the occupation of the Treasury Benches was looked upon, not, as it now is, as an object to be gained for itself, but as a means of advancing the policy of the party thus placed in power. And herein is to be found the cause of the present decadence of the New Zealand parliament in point of Legislative capacity, character, and personnel. For several Sessions the Opposition has had no policy. Its banner has been a thing of shreds and patetes, and the bands that have rallied beneath it have - been a motley gathering of free lances and 'their immediate followers, each distrustful and suspicious of the other. Nor is this the worst. The Government on its side has shown itself utterly powerless to control the b ouse, and has seemed to owe immunity from defeat less to its own inherent capability than to the weakness of an Opposition which had no other bond cf adhesion than a common hostility to those in power. There is a certain generosity in the conduct of honorable warfare which throws a charm and halo over its darker aspect. * It is the same in the arena of the Legisture as in a fiercer and bloodier field. But the soul of chivalry has of late years utterly fled the precincts of the New Zealand House of Representatives., till, from, occupying the proud position of being the most august and -dignified of Legislative Assemblies, second scarcely to that of the British House of Commons itself, it has sunk almost even to the level of the Legislative Council of New South Wales. Where once the business of %»J3olony was conducted by such le»qer».aß^he present Judge Richmond, Wrateti-i the Fitzgeralds, Dr Monro, Weld, 841, Featherstone, Ward, tfewe;!, FoV Sbuffojtf, Fitzherbert, and o hers, and 'bb.? very rank and tile were the men whottow only redeem it from a still lower depth 1 ban that which „we have pawed -w where onge t^ese mgn

swayed the councils of the State we have now the Maundei's, the Woolcocks,. , and men of a like stamp. No wonder that session after session the time of the country is frittered away in unseemly recriminations, that argument has been exchanged for vituperation, eloquence for declamatory harangue, irony for abuse, and vilification of | character and personality for pointed \ sarcasm. Our politicians of the past, in the excitement of party contest," hit their adversaries hard, but they used the polished rapier of the gentleman ; those of the present day too many of them strike with the bludgeon of the rough, or use the more cowardly knife of the assassin. Scarce a day passes but charges are made which, were they true,- would brand those against, whom they are levelled, nob only as unfit to be members of the Legislature,, but to consort even with honest men. Not a day but expressions are used which would have positively shocked the Assembly of ten years ago into a horrified 'silence, and have damned > their utterer for ever as a public man, not merely with . the House itself, but with the public outside of it. But the. -evil which is thus entailed > Is not alone that of .loss of character to the Legislature. The Colony suffers. While Opposition degenerates into a mere irrational purposeless harrasing of those in power, and not one of its members is prepared, if by their efforts per. chance they should succeed in ousting the Ministry, to replace its policy, such as it may be, with a better; and while the Ministry itself is more tolerated than confided in by its supporters, the. real business of the Colony is brought to a standstill. .Important social and political questions are held over from session to session, or turned out in a crude and unworkable form, because the time that should have been expended in calm deliberation upon them has been wasted in party conflict unworthy of a deliberative Assembly. This has been the experience of recent sessions for some time past, and to a very great extent it is attributable to the character of the Opposition. There is nothing, speaking apart from all political party biai whatever, we would rather see in our Colonial Legislatnre than a good sound healthy high toned Opposition. It is the breath of the life of Representative Government — but the Opposition, which has taken possession of the cross benches of the House of late years has sicklied over the rude.health of our young Colonial Legislature, emaciated its virility, destroyed its tone, and bids fair, unless a complete reformation be initiated, to cause, as in America, our best men to leave the public administration of affairs in the hands of a lower and inferior political caste. ■