PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

Evening Star, Issue 4897, 11 November 1878, Page 4

PARLIAMENT OUT OF SESSION.

[From Odb. Auckland, Nevembei? 6.—ln the course of his speeclwit ParneJi.TLdi last night Mr Moss, £J h & opened .td^b'^'ripptiposition, and the,;GoYjernmynt'/ajppqKred[ to have everything in their favor ; in" fact,' all dpp )- sition to the ..Government.; was disavowal. That was the apparent state of parties ; but in reality'there was a very powerful and compact ©fiposStiofi'there from the day the j session b^gjan,. consisting of from twenty to thirty ? members. Had the Government beeu,;in a minority when the session closed it was very wetl known that they stood no• chance of getting a dissolution.. It wa,a, necessary, therefore, that they should move very slowly and cautiously. Every member of .their party understood"this,-; and it was also understood that Sir George'Grey 1 could not carry outthe programme which he hadJaid* out for himself, butj-was. prepared to go'as. far as he could with saie'ty,' trus"ftng' to. Ae'future session to enable him to cap'jrout his programme to thaextent hehftdiindicated." The, speaker next referred "to the Judiciat Commission Bill and Mr Bartonjs"charges against the judges, and said the country would riot rest satisfied jtfill an inquiry wag held. No human being was fit to Moid or exercise such powers as the, judges' felainud, and he would eay, without the slightest hesitation, that Pailiament would'have been justified, and would only have d6ne it* duty, had it instituted an investigation into the conduct of the judges. —<Ghe«ri). He also expressed his disapproval of, the censorship claimed by the judges over the Press. Referring to* the future, he said:— u The result of my experience as to the changes in the constitution of the country is that the Assembly is utterly incapable of doing ths work that it has to do. Piles of Bills are placed before, the members, numbering some during the session, and it is a labor to read , them alone, in addition to Borne, 500 reports of all kinds. The Assembly is' completely overburdened with work, and it is,,hnppssi'ble'to do'it properly and thoroughly," Ministers are'in much the same position,,, Jtjs., very, difficult to get at any of them in Wellington.' They, are always at work, and always being -deputationeii. The consequence of this a groat deal of the government of the country is falling O into .'thb' %an'd« of'the. under-, secretaries, whVtfre now the most important people cannot do wtfaf 'yott v tyan,t': ; serh '-'to- do, 1 they can always prevent f bujgel&ng what you want. ment and economy, Vit'l ami perfectly convinced .%!# under;, the new order,ot things you can have neither the one nor the other. You can have no retrenchment or economy until yon* hhve&lfered this system df centralisation, wli&ft'- aggrandißW the departments, and mates great 'men of officials and very small men of the rest of the community: The time o£ ,tliei Assembly"is taken up in disBilld, and there is a great expenditure ot tinje,that ought to be devoted to more important, and larger measures. The country was told that theVc are'no parties in the Colony; that party lines* have been obliterated altogether, but I can assure you there : *'are- and-always will be two parties in : the country at one time. Perhaps that argument might have applied when there was a.greater equality' of condition, when there were none of these enormous sums Of money made by individuals; but now the tendency is-to bring together a large number of wealthy men who believe it is their privilege to 1 govern the country, and think they.can do it a great deal better than the people themselves: ■• That is the tendency of the class which hasacquired political power, and is tr&re arid {hio>e anxious to exert itself than i.f was ;to gain power, and against which it is! the'duty of the people to guard. Sir George Grey has ; tjaken upon himself the leadership, of the party which desires to guard against the growth of a dominant ela;ss in the country. Do not imagine that the battle is oyer. Nothing has been accomplished ; there is nothing but confusion everywhere; you have yet to extend the franchise, to re-distribute the seat,3 inthe Assembly, and to settle permanently most important points, as the payment of members, upon which will depend whether you shall choose whom you like to represent you or shall be restricted in your choice to 'the wealthy, men .wh ; choose to go there. You will have v the, constitution of the Upper House, which at present is responsible to no one: It, ! however", does its work remarkably well j-.but,, considering the .qla-sts in it,ttheirr r sympathies must uisvitabiy 1 become more and more' estratfgKl from the people. Yojr, have also to decentralise the whole administration of the cquntry, and to create some more definite system of local self-goterWnienti You ; have all these thing.? to-'do; and • I"believe ..in doing them>-' ywu« • will-' have, after ; all; & go back to something like the old system of Ideal' legislation under which this Colony ho long thrived. That is my individual ppinion, and; that iijtKe opinion of a great many othe,r, menibers of" the Assembly. That is the Wany who voted for the Abolition of Provinces,, and who, if the same queatibn came before them : apain would; vote against; it. Many -are of opmioii that w« 4 nftajr' yej; find, ourselves with two Governments; one for each island, and a federal, Government at Wellington attending t,0...the0 gplnnial wants of- the" Colony. Something will have to, be . done to give erfect to those opinions. At the conclusion'of the session, Sir George Grey said he would take care that those views were considered, and would seek to do all he could to settle them next session. He will be in a better than he was during the session, just closed • he will be in a posf tion if his are rejected to gp to the country and see whafthe people think of his policy. It would be rather presumption in me to say more, because I am not' in the confidence ,of the. Government; but we may judge 'from'' whaV. feU. from Sir Grey on the last evening of the session that lie will care that none of those, purposes which he • a< L in , Z x ? w fr6m the fii: st shall be lost sight of if he can heh> it."