THE ELECTIONS

Press, Volume II, Issue 46, 29 March 1862, Page 1

THE ELECTIONS

Rγ the last Gazettes from Auckland we learn that •ur Provincial Council id dissolved, and that the new elections will begin to take place in about three weeks. The election to the Supcrintcndency will he merely nominal. It would probably be thought by many to be unfair that Mr. Moorhouse should be displaced. "vVlien he was elected last time it was understood that he was elected for four years ; and many would be indisposed to take advantage of an opportunity which luiuself lias afforded, for curtailing a tenure of ouicc which he might, had he chosen, have prolonged to the full limit. We should indeed be restrained by no such feeling if wo saw any chance of replacing our present Superintendent by ons anymore qualified for the office or more creditable to the province. But so great is the dislike which has grown up on the part of all the leading men in New Zealand, in all the provinces, to undertake the office of Superintendent, that if Mr. Moorhouse were to retire to-morrow, we should probably see a worse man in his room. The fraternity of Superintendents in New Zealand is one to which no man of any position can lie very ambitious of belonging. This is a great national calamity. Go into most of the provinces and ask who stands at the head of its society, who is the most intellectual, or most learned man, who haa done most for the place, who is most distinguished, and in most caseathe answer will be —not the Superintendent. Now ■fili iHs-rasper kva Governor, differs from a Superintendent, because as a matter of fact, the Governor, however deficient he may be in other respects, does always lead the society : but in few eases have tSiiperintcndents been able to achieve anything like such a. position. Our own case differs little from that of other provinces. "We regret that for four years more the same listless and lazy superintendence is to be continued at head quarters, which has already produced such sad effects, pecuniary and other, in the several departments of the Government. We regret that the low standard of public life and public duty which has been before the country for four years is to be again set up for a similar term. In short, where we meet so many men of refined manners, of cultivated tastes, of considerable abilities, and with the habits of and capacity for business, it is very sad to see the first post in the Government filled by a man is immeasurably their inferior in all t>hcse qualities. If the test of the successful working of the Government machine be, whether or not it puts the fet men in the first places, it is patent to all that the election of Superintendents has miserably broken down all over New Zealand; and it has broken down here as well as elsewhere, though not perhaps to the same extent as in some other places. Rut if the Superintendent is to be unchanged, the same will not, we hope, be said of the Provincial Council- After all it is to the Council that we must look io * a representation of the community. An accident or a kwporary idea seizing the popular mind may control one election; but that will not be the case with twenty elections over all the country. The history of the Provincial Council of Canterbury has been that, from the first session, when it contained most of the leading inhabitants of the province, it has gradually in ability, in independence, and in tone and influence, until last session. It reached its lowest ebb when the Superintendent Rinsed to allow it to see the public accounts, and ' gam. after calling it together to consider certain pub-

lie bills, dismissed it with discourtesy and contempt before its business was concluded. As to any regard for the mode in which the public money was appropriated by the Council, that was never dreamt of Last session the tide first turned. The Council began again to assert its constitutional position and powers, The Superintendent escaped only by a single vote the disagreeable punishment of having to refund out of his private purse, money which he had expended without sanction of law j and in many other matters the Government only maintained their position by a submission to the will of the House. Now the Council will be able to regain its power and influence solely by the intellectual capacity it may bo able to display. There is a vulgar proverb, ' You can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear :' you cannot give dignity, and weight, and influence, to any assembly which is composed of men who are not looked up to in private life as possessing such attributes. To elect men, ignorant, unlearned, unaccustomed to public business, incapable of expressing themselves in their own language, is simply to provide that the public business of the country shall be badly and inefficiently done; in other words that, to that extent, the progress of the Colony shall be retarded. ! Now there are several reasons why our Council ought to bo composed, during the next few years, not only of men who might bo useful in the conduct of the local business relating to the various districts, but of men of known weight and position in the whole colony. It, is unavoidable but that in the next year or two, two great questions will be presented for our consideration. First.jln what proportion is the native expenditure of the Northern Island to be charged on the several provinces ? And secondly, Is the unity of the whole colony to be preserved, or is a separate Government to be claimed for the Middle Island ? It may be said that those are questions which will be determined by the General Assembly rather than by the Provincial Council. This is true; but many questions will arise out of these two, which must be determined in the local assembly. The financial future of Canterbury, engaged as she is in the vast works she has undertaken, and incurring such formidable engagements, will be greatly affected by the questions to which we have referred, and ought to receive all the attention which the wisest and best heads amongst us can bestow upon it. And in any movement for the separation of the colony, it will be in the Provincial Councils that the most energetic action will be taken on one side or the other. It will not, then, be so much purely local matters, as what we may call our foreign policy, which will occupy the attention of the Council during the next year or two. In proportion, then, as the subjects are such as require a wider range of thought, so ought they to be entrusted to men more habituated to the consideration of such matters. But. apart from this, there ought to be a great and legitimate feeling of pride in the creation of a legislative body commanding the respect not only of our own community but of others. Again and again we would earnestly insist on this doctrince, and enforce it on our readers, that if our representative institutions do not put our best men into power tiiey are really of no use at all. Why all this trouble, and expense, and waste of time in elections, if the result be to place men in a position which they are unfitted to hold. Our institutions assume that the best men will be elected; and therefore that our best men will present them- j selves for election. If it be not a real honor, and be not so generally esteemed, to take a share in the Government, then the whole machine must sooner or later come to end, A people will not very long submit itself to rulers whom it despises. Political power, in the long run, must be allied with social

superiority; the one must make the other, or the system must break down. Now if nil our best, our really leading men, refuse to come into the Council, it will never be a respected body. Nothing brought the old government iv New Zealand more speedily to an end, than the fact thrt the then Governor could <*et no gentlemen to accept seats in his Council. So it will be again : if wo want to maintain the reality of the Council, we must make it the fashion to strive for s eats in it; we must get our best men to stand for it; and therefore we urge it as the most boundeu public duty for all those who can put up with the sacrifice of time required, und who are in a leading position, each in their several districts, to use their influence to obtain seats in the Council. We would especially guard against the supposition, i which of course some will attribute to us, of desiring to sec a party or factious opposition to the Superintendent. So far from advocating such a policy, we say it. would be utterly suicidal. Nothing has brought Provincial Councils into such contempt in other parts of New Zealand as a prolonged quarrel between the Council and the Superintendent, ending in a dead lock, which has invariably resulted in throwing the whole power into the hands of the executive, and displaying the inherent weakness and decrepitude of the legislative body. Violent party and factious moves always defeat themselves. What we desire to sec is : not the election of the adherents of ono man or another ; not of the supporters of government, or the supposed partizans of an imaginary opposition ; hut the election of the leading intellects of all parties and of all opinions, in the full conviction that the judgments of a body so constituted will carry with them a moral weight which will command the support of the whole community. There is indeed at this moment not one single question which can be said to divide the political world of Canterbury into parties. The railway has been long removed out of the category o f disputed questions. Far larger matters are looming in the future which may possibly divide our politicians into new combinations. What we want to see is intellectual powar and social weight introduced into the Government. The first and most important thing in any country is that the Government should be supported by all the intelligence and weight of the community. If we cannot replace Mr. Moorhouse by a better man, we would ally with him every one who can ornament, and dignify, and support his Government, and can supply those qualities in which he is wanting. It is the thing we strive for, not the men: so that wo can see a government as a whole standing above the community, comprising and embodying the accumulated wisdom, honor, and ability of the community—a government reflecting credit upon Canterbury, and taking its stand pre-eminent amongst the Provinces of New Zealand—we shall be satisfied.