The Waikato Times.

Waikato Times, Volume XI, Issue 907, 16 April 1878, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

Equal and exact justice to aE men, Oi whatever state or persuasion, religious or political. -:» * * * * . ■ Herd shall the Press the People's right maintain, TJnawed by influence and mibribed by gain. ' TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 1878.

In the speech of His Excellency the Governor at Hamilton, the other day he gave utterance to a great truth. He said that he had noticed m the democratic communities of the Colonies a certain haste and impatience m effecting great reforms which he i'eared would frequently militate against the working of them out to a useful and practical issue. The I colonies are just at the period of transition from youth to manhood, just at that age when the blood runs warm through their political veins, when generosity of feeling, and rashness of temperament may be expected to frequently carry the day against prudence and caution. They see a wrong. • They pause not to consider the extent or to measure the depth of that wrong before they proceed to apply the remedy. The remembrance of the hideously rotten state of older and. decaying empires and communities caused by long centuries of despotism and corruption causes them to rush headlong against any political abase real or apparent, but, often without m any degree analysing the causes or measuring the length, breadth and depth of such abuse. And no one will deny that*, even this is better than a dull apathy to oppression and wrong. "Wlieu Boa Quixote charged the windmills mistaking them for giants oppressing the w9ak and unprotected he did a very foolish thing, but at least he acted with honesty of purpose. Wo say i bis ' generous enthusiasm is preferable to selfish unconcern about public affairs, and we shall filways uphold it But we contend it is the duty of the press to endeavour to prevent excesses m. the remedy as well as iii the disease. The press-

should endeavour to direct and guide these generous sentiments, these lofty enthusiams °^^ at^^^j^iP' to°curb and restrain themffigmi fceakife^ th^bauANof f^ffj irefbri? Md to W; this it npb %ringl|)be®ipoiiSe question||fc IssaelbthellbngWizanship, nob feck^aduftion^ofione party, pj indiscriaiinate and scurrilous abuse of another, but calm " Analysis, what a great castigator of wrongdoers and destroyer' ot shams-calls « Victorious " Analysis. It must dissect sedulously but dispassionately the - causes which have led -to the popular anger, and lend its aid to temper the remedies which that anger will otherwise make as liurtfuf to a community as the disease they profess to cure. It is with this object that we purpose temperately, to the best of -our; judgment,, to. anal|se and discqss constitutional questions now before the public. We gliall do so mno party spirit. The press., is. of the people and for the : people; not for one section of politicians or place-seekers* or another.* we -want to find out is this— Which of the measures now, proposed are likely to benefit this country and which are not f If some say we are of Paul and others say we; are of Apollos, we simply; say we -are of the people and the country. : < And firsts ditripg ; the last three or fbiir yeai^/thereiiave been a great -many hard tnings said. and bitter things done, by both, sides of the House and country which had better have been left unsaid and undone. With these, as a whole, we have nothing to do ; but there is one phrase which is constantly made use of, and ' wliich it: will be necessary to touch. upon iri older to make our meaning clearer as we proceed. We allude to the oft-repeated statement that we have been suffering under deliberate (i wrongs and abuses," heaped upon us by the different Governments which have previously held sway. in ,the colony. \No\vi there ajjpeirsfto 'us 3o be not a technical but a fundamental distinction between a political wrong and a political mistake; The use of such words as ; ; t |f e former m the hands of able and popular speakers is calculated to •lead, the.; public ;to imagine that a gross and- tyrannous injustice has been^dohe, and to cause a bitter and reyengefiil feeliug where the subject, of complaint is a mistake m judgment which can be easily rectified m acountry free as this by temperate and judicious demands for alteration. For example, the odious tyranny of the ; Stuarts was an abuse"* 6f political power, and a desperate remedy was needed. Consequently Cromwell and the defenders of the peoples' righ ts had to take up arms, and Charles the First lost his head. The hideous and despotic crimes of the Louis's . m France, and the .utter . corruption of their courts, was so gross an abuse that a l-evolution was wanted, and it took place. Even there a little discretion and avoidance of extremes would have saved France the stain pi dishonour ..wliich; ihe;;Reign of Terror, lias left , on her .ior,' ever. The taxationof tlie newly founded colonies ; of America -to pay for England's necessities was a gross abuse of political power, and there was no remedy but ah appeal to arms, and the right triumphed. And we might multiply instances ad infinitum of what are real political wrongs' am) abuses wilfully committed and adhered to.. But surely m a country like this, free; as air, with a suffrage so low that any man worth calling a citizen can exercise a vote, where all can think and speak aud write almost as they choose, where the people are the beall and end-all of the constitution, a few respectable gentlemen, met together m Parliament without a semblance of despotic power vested m them, can hardly be said to have deliberately and of malice aforethought been guilty of politic il wrongs and abuses. They may have been politically ignorant, and very likely were, and perhaps are, but "snatching the prey from the spoilers's mouth," /* Robbing children and children's children " can hardly apply to the very mild political power that any statesman has wielded oi 1 can wield m New Zealand. For instance the permitting the absorption of then local land fund by Canterbury and Otago was a great political ' mistake,' but not an abuse of political pow er, and subsequently vras not upheld by any autocratic and despotic power having absolute discretion as to the perpetration or abolition of the bid system, but .tenaciously clang toby a large section of the colony who thought themselves entitled to it under the compact of 1850, We think, they w ero wrong but the blame could not attach to the Govenment of tho day, bocause they were powerless m the hands of the people, and were not despotically , abusing their power. If we, up here, meant to take it, we could not have commenced by impeaching the Ministers but must have started a civil war with a large section of our fellow-colonists tor the coveted sp oil. This Land Fund business is an instance of 8 political mistake. The mischief was not caused or perpetuated by despotic action on the part of the ruling power. The, remedy for this was constitutional legitimate action, not the use ot inflammatory and revolutionary epithets applied indiscriminately, whereby the passions of the inflammable and indiscriminate are/goaded into taking retributive measures far beyond the .

actual evil. This plurality of votes 1 m local questions, to whick we s «all pgtouvn— we allttJe to the 45 votes 'ffioT^ne —may have been a JWistake, but should not subject *%V authors to the terrible ceatt^e' <S& despotic attempt to degr^Wi|i Jt>ple. It appears m the Q||nties| jjft- and Municipal CorpcJmtionJ fjicfc, but the idea appears 'borrowed from the Provincial Hifliways Act, for which (we speak under correction) one of the - present?Ministr-y*obtaiued the-greak est" kudos." Atallevents,tlieActwas possible under the Provincial sys-tem,-which ris^declarefcby.-t nosej who now assert that plurality of votes m- reference- to direct local taxation, is a deliberate abase of power, to haye been the ne plus ultra of constitutional w isdom. It ■ niay have been a tnista^kf— : t certainly was not a wanton -political crime. We shall return to the subject, and, as we. ham said, analyse : all the measures now before the country— we trust, calmly and with, out prejudice, .