The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume I, Issue 4, 1 February 1851, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times.

SATURDAY, Febuary ], 1851

We explained in our last number the position which tlie land-purchasers occupied in. relation to the Canterbury Association, and to the government. Our settlement is not, however, composed solely of those who have bought land from the Association. Even in these, the earliest days of its existence, there are other classes numerous and important—there are merchants' shopkeepers, persons who have rented land on leave from land-purchasers—perhaps those who have bought land in the same manner, —and possessors of houses of considerable value.

As the colony increases in population, the numbers of these classes will increase also; and, very probably, will bear a much larger proportion than at present to the number of original land-purchasers. Now although all these persons have no relations with the Association, and ought to have no voice in the disposal of the funds which are in the hands of that body for public purposes, because they have not contributed any portion of those funds, yet they have, all of them, a very distinct relation to the Government. Every one in the colony^ whoever he may be, will have to contribute his share of the revenue, which is made up of the custom duties ; because a part of the price with which he will buy every imported article which he consumes, will go towards the payment of such duties.

The question, then, of the form of government under which we. are to live, —of exercising an efficient control over the expenditure of the public funds, and over the appointments of the public officers, is one, the interest of which is common to all who have settled, or who may settle, themselves in this portion of the British empire.

Whilst then, the Society of Land-purchasers has wisely confined itself to the relations which it holds with the Association, and has avoided assuming a political attitude, we are convinced that each individual of that body will recollect the political character which attaches to him in common with every member of the community, and will co-operate cordially in any general effort which it may be thought right to make to secure for the settlement the blessings of good government. From documents which we have published in former numbers, our readers will have learned that tie question of government is agitating the minds of all the colonists in New Zealand. We shall therefore state in a few-words, what is the present condition of the political affairs of these islands.

New Zealand is divided into two provinces, New Ulster, and New Munster, each of which is under a Lieutenant-Governor, who enacts ordinances for the province over which he presides, with the advice of a Legislative Council, composed of the officers of Government, together with a few persons nominated i.y.the crown from amongst the inhabitants. A Gover-nor-in-Chief rules the whole of New Zealand, and is assisted in his legislation by a Council constituted similarly to the provincial Councils. At present, the Governor-in-Chief holds the subordinate office of Lieutenant-Governor of New Ulster, in addition to his higher Commission : and Mr. Eyre is the Lieutenant-Governor of New Munster, the southern province, in which Canterbury is at present included. Our readers will perceive that thiß form of Government is despotic ; that the inhabitants of New Zealand have no voice whatsoever in Ihe administration of public affairs, and no control whatever over the expenditure of tne public revenue, or the appointment of the public servants.

In addition to tins, it must be recollected that all laws at present made in New Zealand do

a = $ot come finally into operation until they have -feceived the assent of the Colonial Office at

home.

This is the ordinary course of Government; but the state of affairs to which it lias led at the present moment is peculiar and important. The law requires that the number of nominee non-official Members of the Council shall exceed the officials. But the whole of the nominees, except three, have resigned their seats ; so that there has been for some months no quorum of the Provincial Council of New Munster ; in fact, there has been no Council at all in this province. And such is the universal disgust of the whole community at the farce of a nominated Council, that the Governor has been absolutely unable to find persons of any respectability whatever to take the places of those who have resigned. Now the ordinance under which the revenues'of the Province are appropriated, is passed year by year; and the last Appropriation Ordinance expired last July. There having, then, been no Council since that time, the whole expenditure of the public funds has been made on the responsibility of the Governor upon an illegal authority. Again, the dislike of the inhabitants of the Southern Province to'a nominated Council, extends to the General Council of New Zealand ; so that the Governor has been compelled to nominate all the members from inhabitants of Auckland and the neighbourhood. The Southern Province is therefore at the present time wholly unrepresented in the General Council of New Zealand.

These circumstances, together with the promise of the Ministers given last session, that a bill should be introduced early this year, into Parliament, granting a Representative form of Government to New Zealand, forms the reason why the minds of the settlers at Nelson and Wellington, have been so much agitated upon the question of Government; —because the time has arrived when the form of Government under which we shall be compelled to live, probably for many years, is about to be settled, and the prosperity of these settlements, so far as it de"pencls~oii forms of government, is at stake. . It behoves us, therefore, to consider how we can co-operate with our neighbours at Nelson and at Wellington, for an object which is equally --rarpwtant tousall: And how we can do this without pledging ourselves to any of the details - which they may- conceive- indispensable, to-the . accomplishment of the common object we have in view. : We are glad to see that the subject is already attracting public attention amongst us: and we invite the attention of our readers to a letter in another column from " An Advocate for SelfGovernment." With the general tenor of our correspondent's observations we fully agree; but we think he hardly recognises the necessity under which we lie, to deal with the question of the New Zealand Parliament. -We must, after all, strive, not so much for what we think best in the abstract, as for what is possible under the circumstances to be accomplished. Now the form of Government is so far fixed for us, that we may be quite certain there will be a genaral or federal Council for all the settlements in these Islands ; and that each

province will have its own provincial Council to deal with its own local affairs. It is clear that

for the present we shall remain a part of the province of New Munster, and that as soon as Canterbury is declared a separate province, it will have a provincial legislature, exactly the same inform as those of the other provinces of New Zealand.

The practical points then to windfall our energies should be directed are these £first, to procure the separation of our settlement into a province of itself; and, secondly, to procure such provision in the Act which will be passed, establishing these Provincial Governments, as will give us really and practically the management of ouj: own affairs.

' But, independently of the fact that we are compelled to look at the question in this form, ■we hold that as there are Imperial interests with which it would he impossible to permit the colonies to deal, but which must be decided by the Imperial Parliament, so there are interests common to all the settlements in New Zealand, which can only be dealt with by a General Assembly in which all shall he represented. We perfectly agree with our correspondent that the powers given, to each provincial Council, sho.uUL be as large as possible, and should include every matter of local interest; that the only questions with which the Provincial legislature

should be debarred from dealing, should be such as are strictly speaking of general and not of local interest. Nor do we think it would be difficult to draw a line between the two.

We propose in our next to shew the particular features in the constitution proposed by Sir George Grey, for the Provincial Councils, in which it fails to give us what we want, namely, the real management of our own local affairs.