THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Tuesday, February 5, 1856.

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XII, Issue 898, 5 February 1856, Page 2

THE SOUTHERN CROSS. Tuesday, February 5, 1856.

LUCEO NON VB.Q. "V I have been cxtinsruished, ret thPTs n>e A thousand befleons (torn the sparlc I bore

The debate of Friday last, oil the reply to the Superintendent's address, will afford but little satisfaction to those who are merely anxious for the general advancement of the Province. The simple fact that nine days of the Session have elapsed, and that the" business of the Province has not advanced a single step, will apeak for itself. The first object of the Executive had been to avoid the splitting up of the Council into opposite parties. It had been hoped that by^ conciliation, and. by manifesting a yielding disposition, all might.^bare been brought to work together, excepting on some few well known questions. With this view, the reply had been purposely toned down, so that every member might vote for it, without the slightest inconsistency, or abandonment of political principle. In this view, not a single meeting of the Progress members had been held, even to consult upon? the general business of the Session, lest it should be thought that they had banded together to carry all before them, reasonably or unreasonably, by force of a majority. QPhe offer of conciliation ha 3 been rejected ; an opposition has been organized, and the Province, as usral, is the sufferer. Whatever comes of this, let them bear still in mind that it is their own doing, and theirs only. We have been able to furnish but the merest outline of a debate which was hotly carried on for nearly four hours. We may state, however, that Mr. Merriman was the most pointedly acrimonious ; that Mr. J. O'Neill, in imputing to the Government " a foul attempt," went far beyond the conventional licence of debate ; and that Mr. Dilworth, in lamenting his disappointed hope of finding honour, straightforwardness, and English feeling, in the Executive, must have sufficiently astonished the gentlemen composing ifc. Such a charge, coming from such a quarter ! Tn our opinion, the opposition tactics were none of the best. Their demonstration was premature ; they declared hostilities too soon for advantage. It would have been more prudent to have professed moderation at the outset, — to bave "assumed a virtue, if they had it not," and to have lured on the Executive into some false position, if they could. Had they appeared to accept the overture to conciliation, (we confine ourselves to the question of tactics,) had they shown patte cle vclour', they would still have been able to make their demands, — to put their queries, not as a mere section, but as an integral portion of the Council. Now, however, it has become the plain duty of the Executive, to oppose the opposition. Otherwise, no work will be got through. * They seem to be not yet fully aware of the position to winch they reduce themselves by declaring open war. They forget that the Government must, always bear in mind the marked difference between complying with the wishes of the Council, and yielding to the wishes of the oppn - ition. They forget that tbe fact of a request for infom ation emanating from the opposition is the best possible reason for refusing it ;for it must be assumed that they are merely seeking weapons to assail with. They seem to forget that tbe Executive may see reason to consider their own supporters first, and defer to the wishes of their own supoi ters only. And they seem to forget a more important matter still— that by all this blind violence of attack they are losing their moral influence in^the community. " The old story over again, — stopping the business of the country,"" was the general impression left by the debate. Their object was apparently twofold,— to create an impression that the Government kept some great mystery in the background, that the Executive bad something to tell, more than was contained in the Superintendent's address, but would not; and also, to persuade the Progress members that they were not free agents -that th^y were being " led" by the Executive. As the Progressmembers happened to know tbe contrary, persuasion was of none avail. f , With regard to the mystery, the Provincial Secretary declared himself ready to answer as many queries as the opposition liked to put. Still they were not content : they objected to question and answer : they nrust have a speech. The Provincial Secretary offered to analyse the Superintendent's address, olause by clause, and to speak to it for three hours, if they wished. Still they were not content ; they wanted something supplementary to the address— something which may have existed in their own imaginations, and which his Honour was supposed to have kept back from them. In short, as they did not come there to be pleased, there was no pleasing them. It appears to us, that they had expected the Provincial Secretary to open the debate with a set speech, upon which they would be able to fasten a debate, instead of upon the reply to the address, which they felt \fas unassailable. In this they were foiled, for the Provincial Secretary waited for them to begin; obliged them to sprak, or else submit to tho question being put at onco and carried ; took notes, verbatim, which is disagreeable, and reserved himself for the reply. Accordingly, they found themselves all at say — desorientes; the whole plan of oporations^vas dsarranged. Their attack was concentrated on the Provincial Secretary, who consequently had to sustain the burden of the debate. They put him on his defence, and now complain of being " hectoied." Certainly, he carried the war into their own camp told them roundly enough of their own shortcomings, and reminded them of some of their own deeds in former days. Their long monopoly of attack was at last broken in mpon. But those who speak of " hectoring," should recollect tho time when they themselves, as a body, joined in full cry against the one supporter of the late Superintendent, in tbe former Council, and 1 Tinted him, with perfect satisfaction to themselves, from the first day of the session to the last. At last the opposition moved an adjournment of the debate until to-day. This was opposed by the Executive, on the ground of its being time to begin the work of the Province. Being in a minority, they threatened to move a succession of adjournments— a device for stopping business, which succeeded so well in the second Session of tbe But the Standing Orders of the Provincial Council had been revised, and a remedy provided The Provincial Secretary warned them not to persevere— that he would turn their own weapon against themselves. They

thought that they knew best, but were mistaken. They had forgotten the Bth rule ; the Provincial Secretary took advantage of it; forced them to the verge of a division ou the reply, ana then, having "hois'ed the engineers with their own petard," withdrew his motion, and moved an adjournment himself, lest it should be said that the Executive feared a renewal of the debate. It is a curious and instructive fact, that when the opposition resorted to the forms of the House, they considered such a course to be perfectly correct. But when the Provincial Secretary did the same, though with better success, their indignation was unbounded. It then suddenly became an unfair advantage — an unconstitutional proceeding.

Our Southern files, for which we are partly indebted to the courtesy of Captain Diary, of H. M. S. Pandora, bring up intelligence to January 23.d. At Wellington, the Superintendent hid opened another Session of the Provincial Council, in an able address, with the views contained in which, however, it is needless to say that we cannot altogether coincide. The Council had passed a bill for its own enlargement, by a majority of 11 to 5. At Nelson, His Excellency the Governor appears won much popularity, by his settling of certain "vexed questions which have interfered with the proper working of the Constitution Act " These, as being of general interest, we shall advert to upon another occasion. .> i At Canterbury, Messrs. Fitzgerald, SewcHj ITall, and Brittin, had been elected members of House of Representatives. Mr. Fitegerald declined to pledge himself on the question of the removal of the seat of Government, because the question ought rather to be entertained as a part of their whole policy There was the Canterbury land fund to be considered, and he did not think the removal of the seat of Government to Wellington worth £10,000 a year. The return from Akeroa had not been yet received. At Otago, three candidates for the Assembly had been induced, with some" difficulty, to come forward, — Captain W. Cargill, Messrs. John Cargill and McAndrew. They were elected without opposition. A curious constitutional question might have been raised had that province failed to supply her quota to the House. Mr. Cargill, in addressing the electors, stated his opinion that by a proper adjustment of the Company's Debt upon the Southern Settlements, "Auckland might be induced to relinquish the power which was held by the Governor under the Constitution Act, so that the Otago land fund would be freed from the intolerabe burden of purchasing the lands of the Northern Island." In answer to the ques tion whether he would support a resolution to pay the whole of the Company's Debt off the funds of Otago, he replied, that under the same circumstances he would rppeat the offer. We extract the following from the 'Otago Witness.' Most of the New Zealand papers are filled with election intelligence. We observe that the Superintendents of each of the Provinces in which the elections have takan place have been elected member* of the House of [Representatives ; and there seems every probability of the rule being followed in the other Provinces. The ultra-provincial policy appears likely to prevail. The defeat of Mr. Hart, at Wellington, is a clear indication of the view of that Province on this subject. Kelson is chiefly represented by new men, whoso views we do not know. The defeat of Mr Mackay (who immortalized himself by causing the disturbance in the Hou^e of Representatives, in the first session) by Mr. Domett, who was Colonial Secretary for New Munster. under Sir G Grey's government, and whose " talent alone " renders him a desirable representative, is an indication of the strong feeling of the Nelson electors upon Mr. Mackays conduct. The only other election which it is necessary to notice is the return of Dr. Campbell to serve as Superintendent of Auckland. The second defeat of Mr. Whitaker says as plainly as any public demonstration can do, that the ' Southern Cross ' and not the ' New-Zealander,' represents the views of the majority in Auckland. It is necess-aiy to bear this in mind, as it enables the public to form an opinion upon the conflicting statements that appear in the Auckland papers, — a matter of importance, as in them are recorded the proceedings of the General Go- i vernment and the Assembly. !