The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1874.

Auckland Star, Volume V, Issue 1503, 4 December 1874, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News and the Morning News.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1874.

m-

For the cause that locks isfliftanne, Kor tho wrojiy i.<-«ii rie_U itsihtuuce, for the fr.lure id t.ie distance, Ab>* tb» tffoi that «■>• nan 4*

Whatever may be the result of the com. munications which Sir George Grey has been pleased to place before the public, they I are all interesting. . Indeed it could hardly be otherwise coming as they do from one so largely mixed up with the early history of the colony, and from one who had so much to do with the original formation and fixing of the wheels in our most complex constitutional machinery. However little some may appear disposed to admit his ability to repair that machinery which is now admittedly all wrong together, in is important to learn from him what are the imported parts not contemplated or arranged for in the original adjustment^and which have clearly produced that jarring and rattling in the machine, which now attract the attention of all men. Whether we snould revert to the old and simple mechanism originally intended, or whether the a ivauce of the times necessitates a further departure from the original design is of course the question, and it is capable of reasonable and fair debate, but tkaekfl are really

due to Sir Guorge Grey, and it is bad taste in the extreme to censure or sneer as so many have done, when (the original designer of our Constitution comes forward to explain the original design and to defend it from censure unjustly laid upon it. Sir George has written another and a most interesting letter to the "Herald," which appeared in that journal yesterday. It is mainly retrospective, and is in that pensive strain which is natural to a veteran when reviewing the struggles of other days. For practical purposes, the most important portion is that in which he points to the wheel that has thrown the machinery out of gear. A nominated Upper House was an element that was not contemplated, and we think that Sir George is correct in tracing to that, all the evil that has resulted to the original Constitution. Thit Constitution contemplated simple federatioD, in which the several federated legislatures would be virtually supreme. This feature would have been preserved had the Upper House been elected by the Provincial Councils, as in Sir Georgeoriginal draft; for it is not reasonable to suppose that a body would feel disposed to destroy the power from which it; derives its own existence and its powers. Indeed it would be hardly possible, inasmuch as the elected members of the Legislative Council would have been amenable to the Councils that elected them, and any tendency to kicking over the traces would have

being seen to in time, and promptly curbed. With such an elected Chamber, the Lower House, however it rright fret and fume, would have been powerless to ride rough shod, and never would have dared to deal with the Provincial Councils in the fashion

now intended. We do not say whether this condition of affairs would have been better or worse than a strong and supreme Central Government. It is just the old question between Republicanism and Monarchy. The system, as originally designed, can find powerful support in the analogous relations of the federal cautons of Switzerland, which have preserved the national life and freedom, and given undisturbed prosperity and peace side l>y side with the most powerful monarchies, and it might find further argument in

the position held by the federa'ion of th c sovereign state? of America. That carried out according to its original intentions, it would have conduced as much as any other form of Government to making New Zealand a great country can hardly be questioned. But vrhen once that original in. tention wa3 departed from, and a legislature

was set up, not only owning no dependence on the Provincial Councils, but with actual

powers to adjust and fix the limits of their authoiity as of inferior and dependent powers, tho ultimate result was as certain as the decrees of fate. The smaller was sure to be eaten up by the greater as necessities arose, and the Provincial authority is as it is to-day. We are not sanguine that Sir George Grey's early ideas can now be reproduced. However excellent and defensible the system, the General Assembly is now tr)o powerful and has the provincial system by the throat with the grip of death. Unless byexternal intervention, as by the action of the Imperial Government, the provincial system has no way of grappling with its opponent; and seeing that the people of England-the creditor of New Zealand — must feel timid on the question of our Sttte securities, such intervention as tending to weaken the security, by weakening the hands that have pledged the credit of the colony is not likely to be made. The " evil day " may be deferred by expostulation or by finessing, but the Rubicon is passed, and Centralization has now commenced a march that cannot stop till the Provincial system is a thing of the past. There is no use fighting against the inevitable. The fatal deed was done when the element was introduced that left the General Assembly supreme, and now it is the duty of all good citizens to merely see that in the great changes impending, justice and equity are impartially meted out to every portion of JNew Zealand.