PROPOSED SESSION of PARLIAMENT IN CHRISTCHURCH. LAST THURSDAY'S CHRISTCHURCH MEETING. THE LYTTELTON TIMES ON THE QUESTION.

Evening Post, Volume XVII, Issue 397, 18 April 1879, Page 2

PROPOSED SESSION of PARLIAMENT IN CHRISTCHURCH. LAST THURSDAY'S CHRISTCHURCH MEETING. THE LYTTELTON TIMES ON THE QUESTION.

The result of the meagre ' meeting of Thursday was not according to the drift of the speeches. That the assembled galaxy of senatorial talent failed to draw a better house does not. encourage one to hope that, i£ the resolution has the desired effect; ttho citizens will largely take*' advXntage of the interesting moans- pt public education provided by a session. "* qf Parliament. Ih - theory > a public meeting Is convened in order to listen to tho argument? placed' before it, to weigh them carefully one . against the other, and decide In favor *>i the side which shows the strongest logical poweij. ! Sometimes in practice there is <a 1 subtle feeling 1 which runs counter to the superior argum«nU. The meeting often hat its eye on something 1 that doev n6't appear on the face of discussion, nnd is guided by the invisible. This was the ; ca«e on Thursday. The' question beforo^tbe ' meeting was ostensibly tho advisability of holdfing the next session of Parliament at Chrlstchurch. That question either involves ; the objectionable 1 theory of peripatetic .Parliaments, or it means that Chnstchurch is to be eventually the permanent seat of Government. The balance of speaking power was overwhelmingly "igatast the ostensible qvestknt. The miad of the meeting was on the second . inferential question. The meeting, desiring to see the city installed as the seat of Government, decided against the opposing speakers, who had confined their arguments to the toniporary measure' recommended by a resolution of the Lower Hjuso. This is the only explanation of the meeting's apparent deafness to reason. The Mayor opened the ball by citing quite a brilliant .array of consideration* climatic and agricultural. He treated Parliament as a ¦ species of plant; a thing to take its place in the rotation of crops, rather than a mtfenne for governing and legislating. He enlarged on tbe suitability .of the Canterbury climate, , the fertility of the Canterbury soil, and the abuadanoe of the agricultural population. The result, in his mind, was that Parliament must be forthwith transplanted to such a pro- ' pitious locality. Mr. Gapes thought tbat as i wa possess a building in which Mats can be found for a hundred gentlemen, it is absurd to talk of the want of house-room. From which it may ho gathered that the hundred gentle- ; men— why a hundred? — are expected to do ; not only the work of both Chambers of tho ' Legislature, but of the Government Departments and Parliamentary Committee* likewise. Mr. Wakefield suggested the Odd Fellows' > Hall as a proper place for the mteting of the I Upper House, and straightway a vision arose of tho Bgoni»ed advertisements proper to that place. We wonder if the Council is expected - to pay it 8 rent by charging an admit- ' sion tee, and 'advertising itself as " the ' wonder of the age," increasing the energy of its appeals as the end of ita lease [ draws near, until we get to "the last j appearance positively for six nights only." j "benefit of Mr. Speaker," "benefit of black-rod ; " with other efforts of waning dramatic management. Mr. J. Evans Brown thought that as long as there are telegraph wires in the land it was absurd to talk of bringing the mountain of departments from Wellington to the Parliamentary Mahomet of Canterbury. We wonder if Mr. Brown hu calculated the awful quantity of extra work he -would place upon the unhappy Telegraph • Department. His proposal means simply % I stoppage of private business, which is now already sufficiently hampered. As ho does i not— at all events at present—occupy a posi- : tion of Ministerial responsibility, he can afford t to think nothing of the fierce Otttcry that is , aure to arise from North and South at any i undue increase of telegraphic work. And this • was one of tbe two points really made by the i party of which Mr. Brown wis a representa- • tive on Thursday night. If the assembling of . Parliament for next session at Cbristchurch is : to overweight the telegraph wire, then it will i cause »ucn a general outcry as can only be •Hayed by the doubling of all the wires in the colony. There would in that case be something to show for bringing the Parliament to Christchurch : a much better result than enabling a l few already prosperous citizens of ChTistchurch ; to make money by spoiling the Egyptians in i the shape of members from distant places, and hapkfcs Government clerks, whose plucking will, by the way, make no man's fortune The i other point was, that the number of useless [ and costly return* every year asked for would , be much reduced. This, like the other, is a ; good result. Both could be obtained without

the extreme measure of moving Parliament to Christchurch for one session. The arguments therefore for that course being shorn of chief points fall to the ground. The trtlth is that the arguments on the other side, and they were fairly advanced by the other speakers, are too strong. The first argument was rather against the manner adopted by some of the City Councillors than the matter the Council had in hand. Mr. Richardson very properly protested against the tone adopted towards the members of the city. It ft well for Councillors to be reminded that, the city members are not the delegates of the Council. There if no particular reason why. they should agree with every resolution of the Council, and none at all why they should be expected to forward every wish of the Cotlnftil of which they disapprove. The reasons thay gave- for disapproving of the present wishes of the Ctfuncll we*e, as we obn served 1 before, overwhelming. In brief, they are that ttie resolution of tne House to move Parliament was not a resolution on the merits of the question, btft a piece of Parliamentary practice not unusual) that it was a resolution -of one branch of the Legislature only ; that the removal would be expensive," and that" no money had been voted to defray the cost; and that Minhters ' have very important work to do in the North, which effectually prevents them from attending just now to the matter. This is the only answer that can be given to the resolution of Thursday's meeting, and it will probably bft given. The only doubt ever raised was as to the question of expense, and the array of facts marshalled by Mr. Richardson 'removes that doubt beyond dispute. Christcliurch has not rooms for the twe chambers^ ihe Legislature, for the various Parl/amentiry Committees, for the different Ministers, and for the several departments of Government. Private residence may be found for all concerned, but official quarters cannot be obtained even at great cost, if tho money bad been voted to meet that cost, and it has ' not beon voted. The question of changing the seat of Government is a very different thing, that fa not the (Jutstion at present. When it comes to be considered, and there is not the slightest probability that it will be fcdnMdered for - many yews to come, It *vHII navft to be discussed on public grounds common to the whole colony; grounds free from the local considerations that disfigured tho discussion in the City Council. The discussion of Thursday was to a remarkable extent free from them. The desire of the peophj-of Christchurch to get tho importance of the city recognised Is laudable and proper. The' t^fofi, however, for getting it recognised in the manner indicated by the few who attended tliursdav's, meeting has not arrived. Tli» attention of Ministers is too much occupied with, important affairs to enable them to consider how to move the impedimenta of Government before the next meeting of Parliament* ¦ At that meeting it will be highly inadvisable to distract attention from the important legislative and financial work requiring to be done. It is of the last importance to concentrate public attention on the necessity of financial and electoral reform. The change of the seat of Government is a minor matter, which can very well be deferred sine die.