RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XI, Issue 723, 2 June 1854, Page 2

RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Sir,— What is Responsible Government? ■ It's ins, ic's outs, It's change abonts Of selfish Elves To serve themselves. This seems to be the echo cry of the colonies; the theorizing cry of political quackery. But without powerful parties, with the pretensions at least of being able to govern, how can responsible Government have the elements of existence ? — for where would be the materials to form new ministers, on the defeat of old ones ? Even in England this is often found to be a difficult task, so much so as to oblige a coalition of parties outwardly cemented but inwardly repulsive to each other ; thus the feebleness of the present ministry is the consequence of discordant materials. What, then, must be that of a little colonial community without a powerful press to guide and control public opinion. Where any plausible demagogue may arise filled with the bitterness of disappointed pride, and inflated with a belief of his own fitness for place (although empty in mind and more empty in purse), yet, aspire to leadership of a party ? And thus artfully watching some weak, ill concocted, or unpopular measure of the Government, unseat the heads of all the public departments, and oblige the governor not only to a change of measures, but to a selection of new men of whose competency there could be no possible experience. Mr. Leanskin, Colonial Secretary of to day vacating for Mr. Common-place to-morrow. Mr. Talkative, Attorney- General to-day and Mr. Pud-ding-head to-morrow. Mr.Freet-grant Surveyor-General to-day, and Mr. Public- Auction to-morrow. Mr. Rule of Thumb Auditor- General to-day, and Mr. Farthing-and-a-Fraction Auditor - General to-morrow. Mr. Tariff- on -empty -bottles Treasurer to-day, and Mr. Freetrade-and-no-custom-house-treasurer to - morrow. In short a government more variable than the winds, and more unstable than the weather, — a theorizing, experimental, and not a practical government, — a will of the wisp dancing and shining before our eyes but escaping our grasp. In the name of common sense would the exchange of the theorizing Mr. Wakefield, as prime minister, for the slow coach, Dr. Sinclair, be any exchange for the better ? Only asfar as their own pockets relatively may be concerned. Where indeed is the party (and we have wearried our eyes in looking around) having cither weight, or wisdom, or political knowledge, or official experience, in short the essential qualifications for governing, to be found in this infant state ? Is it because a man knows the age of a horse, or the value of land, or the trickery of traffic, or can speak and spout out a great many words without any sense, that such a man is capable of grasping the reins of government, and fitted to guide a state ? such men may be fitted for the stable, or the counter, or the public mectiiigs of Auckland ; and all we say to such men is — stay in your place; be content to act in that position which you are only qualified to fill. What a specimen of fitness for self-government we have already in the Auckland City and Harbour Councils ? What a mewing of cats, and barking of dogs we have there. What disinterestedness ! — Queen-street versus Britomart Point. -What a school for scandal. What | personal denunciations. What scientific exhibitions. The Demon expelled from the New South Wales District Councils, the County Cumberland Road trusts, and the Sydney Corporation, must have found a new home of refuge in the little toe of the southern hemisphere, New Zealand. What a dislocation of society must such petty struggles for mastery produce. Old friends sworn enemies; 6worn enemies new friends ! It is in fact only electing some twenty persons to counteract the skilful operations of an engineer. Lord grant the man patience to endure the folly of such a Council of Solomons. And yet it is the wish, with such miserable exhibitions in all our Colonies of our inaptitude for self - government, (why or wherefore I cannot at present consider) to extend the farce and re-enact it upon a larger theatre affecting the highest and most important interests of the six provinces, under the supposition that there may be concealed, somewhere amidst the volcanic craters or the hemp covered swamps, a second Pitt, or Fox, or Peel, competent to new mould and reorganize our political existence. Happy anticipations ! the throes and agonies of which we see in certain dissertations portending the coming hero of reality or romance yet to be proved. Great parties, at home, are governed by avowed and recognized principles. In tact it is not, at home, a contest with parties for the buffooneries of legislation such as we would have here ; but a contest of great principles, the growth of centuries, acting and reacting upon each other. These find their echo m the hearts of thousands who arc devotedly engaged to support and carry out their principles under the leadership of men around whom it is an honor to rally. There are here in fact no great conflicting questions to give birth to such political or commercial rivalry — as free trade, catholic emancipation, elective reform, and many other questions of debate, affecting large sections and rival interests of the state. It would be better for these modernized Pitts, Foxes, and Peels, to discover coal and promote steam commerce, and thus develope the future of the Colony than be ringing loud peals upon the public ear of a sound, in itself so unintelligible to the greater portion of the community, as responsible Government : in other phraseology, — let Me John , or I Thomas — , be Prime Minister of all New Zealand. The fact is, this colony, and indeed most of our Southern Colonies, are but groping their way in a new state of things, which will not admit of speculation — which will not allow of hazarding the present for the future. This Colony has to deal with two races of men, who are far from yet being amalgamated, and with whom confidence once shaken, can never be restored. It has to deal with measures of finance without any capital of reserve. It has to guard against local jealousies of provincial legislation, to keep together bodies which have no general interests to act upon. In short, it has too much of the speculative in it already, and too little of a practical foundation, to venture upon a changing administration — a shifting sand of opinion — a conflicting antagonism of petty parties— disputing and opposing every measure without reference to its utility, &c. The measures of Government can be altered or rejected, if necessary, without destroying the whole frame- work thereof; a frame- work difficult, if not impossible, to replace. Union, and not division, is what the present state of affairs requires ; for the very form of Government is a problem, and a very serious one too, yet to be mastered, without casting in a new and doubtful element, which would make that which is already complex, more complex still. Leave the execution of your affairs, in as few hands as possible, and let these be

made independent, as far as possible : of mere sectional theories, so that they may have a strength and energy of action which the exposure to constant change and i petty and vexatious influences, never could secure. Time enough, I say, therefore, for these great ministerial changes, when great and important interests arise that need to be balanced, and when the Government have great and good men to select and to choose from. I am, &c., New South "Wales. [We have made room for "New South WalesV ' letter, being unwilling to depart, without due notice, from" our rule of giving insertion to all well wiitten correspondence matter. But we would ask our correspondents to recolwithout reference to our own opinions on the subject lect, that the principal duty of a public journal, during the sitting of a Parliament, is to attend to the reports, and not unnecessarily to crowd its columns with discus-^ sions of public policy. So long as the House is sitting, the community is immediately represented therein ; it is the legitimate arena for the expression of opinion. But when it is not sitting, the community finds itself represented by the press alone, which is therefore bound to open its columns with the least possible reserve. If communi .rations be offered to us, let them be written in an intelligible hand. We have decyphered the present with the greatest difficulty, and could not undertake * to bestow so much attention upon another. — Ed.] I

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Sir,— Will you permit me, through yonr columns, to call the attention of the Committee, for the suppression of drunkenness and immorality, to the desirableness of bringing under the notice of the General Assembly, the present systsm of treating at elections, wherby bojh parties are corrupted, praying them to enact some mea^N sure to remedy the evil. It is an evil without an-^ admixture of good, it is an injustice to honourabfe '* members themselves, and is demoralizing in its tendency. Yours truly, "William Atkixs. Tamaki, May 29, 1854.

To the Editor of the Southern Cross. Sir, — I am happy to hear that some of the hon. members of oui Council, are about toj} introduce some improvements in the regulations for the settlement of the waste lands ; — nothing that they could do, would prove more beneficial to the country at large, and I hope that in their wisdom they will adopt something like the reformed Canada plan. The admirable system of Canadian Land Laws, works to the entire satisfaction of every one, and is managed as follows : — The government land is first divided into townships of ten miles square. The government surveyor runs the base lines, and by public contract, or otherwise, turnpikes all the necessary roads, and at the same time is subdividing the townships into allotments of 200 acres each, numbering them according to their position and order. Upon the basis of his report, the value of each allotment is fixed according to a fixed scale of government prices, ranging from five to ten shilling per acre. A government land agent, is then in attendance in each township, to whom all ap? plications for land are to be directed. The applicant is furnished by him with a number of tickets ; and thus furnished with the numbers of unsold allotments, he makes his selection ; he then returns to the land agent, with the ticket of the selected lot or lots, pays the money, obtains a receipt and a location ticket with a promise of the government deed in a month or six weeks free of costs. This plan cannot be surpassed, the stranger has no trouble, and can scarcely make a mistake, which he is far more apt to do than otherwise according to the present system here. I hope that the Council will do. all in their power to annihilate at once this very prevalent land speculation. This has proved a great curse to other countries, a great barrier to their progress and advancement, until uprooted by special acts of legislature. One good settler is better for the colony than ten absentees. I am, &c, __^ A British Subject.