A POLITICAL PICTURE.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume IV, Issue 201, 9 February 1877, Page 14

A POLITICAL PICTURE.

The following vivid description of the New Zealand Government ie taken from the * Auckland Herald/ the most respectable, independent, and outspoken of any of our colonial newspapers. Probably it is independent for more reasons than one, and for this among other reasons that, like the Tablkt, it can afford to be so. Its only client is the people, and it cares no more for Sir George Grey than for Sir Julius Vogel, when either appears to go against justice. For five years, from 1870 to 1875, says the 'Herald,' "The Ministry could simply do anything they chose, and, indeed, they became so accustomed to the exercise of unchecked power that they in many cases of great importance omitted to go through the ceremony of— consulting the House at all. During these years mentioned, tLT representatives of the people, with a very few exceptions, were mere hangers-on to the Ministry, trying to get jobs for themselves or their relations, or at the best suing for favors to be shown to their constituents. It was actually painful to sit in the House and see how business was conducted, and how the members actually fawned upon Ministers. Ministers, as Mr. Andrew has said, sported and played with the House at their will, and Sir Julius Vogel, in his trips to Europe, not only had his own expenses paid, but the passages of his family, and presumed so much upon the servility of the House, that he drew to the amount of thousands of pounds without authority. The salaries of the Ministers were greatly increased, and the country went to enormous expense to provide them with palatial residences. It is a remarkable fact, too, that during the last seven years, six Ministers of the Crown have received permanent appointments, with hardly a protest from the Assembly. No sooner tad the members of the Assembly been corrupted by the first borrowing than they called out that the pace proposed was too slow, that more money must be borrowed, and more rapidly, and that the spending must be profuse. Thus the Public Works scheme became a mere scramble, in the midst of which a large proportion of the money borrowed has been wasted. Members only sold themselves to the Ministry, who had favored men, and favored districts, and favored interests of their own. In the important department of legislation for native lands, Ministers were simply omnipotent, and could deal with the estate of the country as if it were their own. No House ever voted public funds in such a way as the last one. The money was put into the hands of Ministers. Millions were voted for railways, any one of which Ministers could make or leave unmade, while hundreds of thousands were voted for the purchase of native lands, of the details of the expenditure of which no account has been given. In very many ways, the Ministry showed ho-ff independent they felt of the Assembly. Arrangements with respect to the San Francisco service were made while the House was sitting, but without communicating with the representatives of the people." What a deplorable and humiliating picture we have hereof parliamentary or popular servility on the one hand, and ministerial corruption or political depravity and impudence on the other. Talk of the corruption and dishonesty of " Popish " Governments under Continental " despots " after that. This is "progress" with a vengeance; not, however, towards improvement, but towards rascality, bare-faced, audacious villany in the infant state of New Zealand — the youngest offshoot of pure and mighty England. What a spectacle for other nations to witness. What a burlesque on Parliamentary Governments. " Members openly sold themselves to the Ministry. No sooner had the members of the Assembly been corrupted by the first borrowing," than they called out that the pace was too slow, that more money must be borrowed, and the spending more rapid and profuse. The Public Works system became a mere scramble, in the midst of which a large proportion of the borrowed money has been wasted." Mark that, ye pure patriots and honest men — ye admirers of Parliamentary rule throughout the world. Could anything be worse, more shameful or scandalous. But men may say New Zealand, after all, is only a chip of tie old block — England. If the people of New Zealand thus meekly submit to be fleeced by a corrupt Government, the people of England have many a time and oft been victimised in the same way. The people are enamoured with self-rule, and self-rule they are getting, though hardly to their " heart's content." The ' Herald' hopes that the "Opposition" party will introduce honesty into the Government of New Zealand. Vain hope. Selfishness not justice or honesty is the essence of popular rule on a small scale ox on a large scale. As the people have made their bed so they must lie on it. Amidst much real and more seeming justice, the Parliamentary Government of England is one of the most selfish in the world. Yet, in spite of corrupt and dishonest Governments, the people prosper, at least, in a material sense, both here and in England. The Irish are bent on securing " Home Rule" or local self-government, for much the same reasons that Sir George Grey and Mr. Macandrew plied for Local Parliaments here. Yet I will venture to say, if these gentlemen were members of thj^ Imperial Parliament, they would vote against the Irish Home Ku^P party, and oppose them tooth and nail. If the Irish don't get Home Rule or something equivalent to that ere long, it will be a wonder. It is not nearly so hopeless a cause as Catholic Emancipation was once. Magna est Justicia. Who can measure the power of justice or arrest it in its course ? It -would appear that the most "popular" Governments are ever the most corrupt and dishonest and disreputable. The ' Otago Times' or ' Guardian,' I forget which, hinted the other day that the Government of America was so disreputable, that no honest and competent man would have anything to say to it if he could avoid it, and the Government of New Zealand was in a fair way of becoming equally bad if it did not coon mend. In the midst of all this political dishonesty, injustice, and corruption, the Catholic Church, by her faithful children, should exert a wholesome and restraining power. She is notably doing bo. The Catholic party in th« British

House of Commons drove from office one of the cleverest and most plausible and dangerous politicians of the age. In return for this, he turned fiercely against the Pope and all his belongings ; and if his power had been equal to his will, he would probably hay« kindled the flames of war in Europe to uphold the interests of huj party, unless I greatly misunderstand the drift of his "pamphlets, which may be the case. Happily he is not likely again to posses* the power of working evil. His hard words will break no bones. Even in this colony the wholesome influence of the Roman Cathoha citizen on public affairs is not unfelt in contested elections, when parties are evenly balanced or divided. It was notoriously by th« Catholic vote that the late Mr. J. Williamson was placed in th« - Superintendent's Chair of Auckland on the last occasion of his election, in the hope that he would secure to Catholics justice in the School question — a hope which was doomed to be disappointed. Rightly or wrongly, the Catholic party in Dunedin got the credit of returning a member to the House of Representatives in opposition to Mr. Barton. "It was not my opponent, but Dr. Moran/ eaid Mr. Barton, " who defeated me." Dr. Moran it seems was innocent ; but the imputation showed the power of the Catholic party in Mr. Barton's ©pinion. They owe him thanks for the compliment. Auckland. I^ic.