The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 87, 4 September 1852, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

September 4, 1852. So the chapter " on the Provincial Councils' Ordinance of New Zealand" is ended. This ill-fated measure was published in 1850, and scouted by the people : it was enacted by a Council of Nominees in 1851, and again scouted by the people : in England it was disallowed by the Minister, and declared to be illegal and invalid by the Constitutional lawyers of the opposition. Notwithstanding, preparations were made for bringing it into force in the Colony; districts were laid out; representatives apportioned ; electors registered; nay, we believe, writs actually issued; when a ship sails into the harbour, and at the breaking of a seal the whole thing disappears like a sonp bubble, leaving nothing but a page in the, history of New Zealand mis-govern-ment, of fruitless talk, wasted pens ink and paper, foolscap and blotting, many vacant Gazettes and meaningless proclamations, much irritation of men's minds, and a dangerous mistrust of the Queen's representative lurking behind ; altogether a not uninteresting chapter recording the fru.s-

trated obstinacy of an imbecile government, and. justifying the successful resistance of a befooled people. Let us be thankful the chapter has ended. But a new and brighter page is turned. In little more than a month New Zealand will possess an entire and complete system of government, founded upon the type of the British constitution ; and if falling short in some important points of the matured consistency of the original structure, at all events presenting a 'nearer resemblance than any constitution which has yet been granted to a British colony. The main features of the scheme are as follows : there is to be a General Legislature for the whole colony; consisting of a Governor, a Legislative Council nominated by the Crown for five years, and a House of Assembly elected by the people. New Zealand is to. be divided into six provinces; >" in ;'6f' which the Government is to consist of a Superintendent, and a Legislative Council of not less than nine members wholly elected by the people. The franchise in both cases is the same as that under which the people have recently registered.

In some respects this constitution comprises everything for which we have contended, and which we believe the Colonists desire. The Government of the Provinces by a Superintendent, with the moderate salary of £500 a-year, promises simplicity and frugality in the administration of the local governments, without which the separation of New Zealand into provinces would be more injurious than beneficial: whilst the existence of a single elected chamber of a magnitude suited to the limited population of each province, seems all that is necessary to furnish the government with the advice and assistance of the men of leading rank and ability in the district, and to secure the assent of the people. With the form of the Provincial Government, then, we are thoroughly satisfied:, not so, however, with the extent of ;,their jurisdiction. In the first place there are fourteen subjects with which they are forbidden to deal at all, and to which many objections arise. At present we shall take but one, as an example. The Provincial Government is forbidden to entertain the subject of lighthouses or buoys. It is almost impossible to understand with what object the government at Canterbury is to be prevented from erecting a lighthouse upon Godiey Head, or laying down buoys pointing out the best anchorage in the harbour, provided it pays for such works out of the' funds at its own disposal. Waiving the question, however, as to the wisdom of these details, the principle of defining the jurisdiction of the Provincial Councils, that is, of specifying- what they may not do, is sound and right, but unfortunately this principle is wholly violated by giving the General Parliament a co-ordinate and overruling jurisdiction. What object can be gained by having two legislatures !o do the same work ? Two machines making laws on the same subjects?;, Jfe, it;not:inevi-, table that they will clash? The principle of confining the local legislatures to local subjects is admitted ; why should the principle of confining the general legislature to general subjects be forgotten ? By general subjects we mean subjects of common interest to all the settlements ; for these, and for these only, is a General Parliament wanted in New Zealand. Turning to the Constitution of the general legislature we find still less to admire. The odious and mischievous element of nomineeism is still retained in the form of an upper chamber— : a miserable mockery of the Hourfe of Lords. The peers of England are an independent body, almost vicing with the Crown in wealth and dignity ; they form an impassible barrier against the encroachments of despotism. A

Louis Napoleon tossed to the pinnacle of ambition by the caprice of a people is a phenomenon which could not occur in a country where an ancient, potent, and venerable order at once serves as a balance to the power of the Crown, and opposes a check to those rash impulses to which all popular bodies are at times subject. But some nine or ten miserable puppets of a Colonial Governor, new, impotent, and despised—what relation have they to an in. dependent and hereditary nobility ? Made and unmade as their master's caprice may dictate—-appointed for the nonce to pass an unpopular law, or frustrate a popular wish— their only real function will be to exercise the veto of the Crown without responsibility for the act of doing so. If a colony does not possess the elements of an hereditary peerage (and no newly created order could command.the. prescriptive respect which is the very essence of the English system)—if we.must have nomineeism—let us atle-ist have nominees for life ; we should then get one element of a peerage—its independence of the Crown. But we have always held that the only Upper House suited to the circumstances of a rapidly changing and increasing community, such as that of a growing colony, would be an elected one representing the more conservative elements in the state. The construction of such a chamber, really, and not nominally, an Upper House—that is superior in dignity to the popular assembly—an object of ambition too, and only attainable by the men of greatest consideration, worth, intellect, and attainments in the country, would, we conceive, be not impossible. In respect to the jurisdiction of the general legislature, two great strides have been made by the present Government in the cause of colonial freedom. First, it is to have the power of introducing any requisite changes in the constitutional law of the country; secondly, it is to have the management of the waste lands. The latter is, indeed,- a boon of such unmeasurable importance as almost to redeem any other errors which Sir John Pakington's Bill- may contain. This is a point which we have urged so repeatedly upon our readers, and upon which we have obtained such cordial acquiescence from our contemporaries in the other settlements, that we are well assured the boon will be received with universal joy and gratitude by every colonist in New Zealand. The Land question will at last be really and practically settled, and the greatest incubus removed which has hitherto obstructed the colonization of the country. Only two other points remain to be noticed, one in commendation, the other in disapproval. The Ordinances of New Zealand are no longer to be sent home for confirmation ■;- the veto of the Crown is to be exercised in the Colony. The Governor is, indeed, to be allowed to reserve bills in doubtful cases for her Majesty's assent, but ordinarily the allowance or disallowance is to be left to his own discretion. The other point is v the retention of the Civil List, in every form an objectionable, obnoxious and useless provision ; but the amount reserved, £12,000 a-year, is so small compared to the whole expenditure of the local government, that the colonists will exercise an efficient if not a complete check over the public revenues. We have entered as fully as space and time will permit, into the merits of the proposed Bill. Considering the circumstances under which it has been produced, and the position in which the Government stood, it is deserving of no limited commmendation. Wholly untried in office and under political circumstances of great difficulty, the new Minister has brought to bear upon the subject the manly courage and straightforward common sense of an English gentleman, and by availing himself of all the hiforma-

tion within his reach, as to the real opinions and feelings of the colonists, he has entitled himself to their gratitude and respect.

We abridge from the New Zealand Journal an account of a meeting of intending Colonists and others interested in the Canterbury Settlement, which took place on the sth of May, at the rooms in the Adelphi. Its purpose was to hear the particulars connected with the appointment oi the Rev. John Philip Gell, to the Bishopric of Christchurch, and of the plan propounded by Sir Thomas Tancred, for founding a New Township by a party of Colonists of which he was to be the leader. We publish elsewhere a full account of Sir Thomas Tancred's plan, and greatly regret that our limits disallow our giving as full an account as we wish of the meeting. The chair was taken by Lord Lyttelton, and long before the hour appointed, the rooms were closely filled to the disappointment of after comers who were unable to gain admittance. After expressing his regret at the delay in the matter of the Bishopric, and the various impediments in the vvay, the Chairman said that it was not till three weeks ago that the letters patent had been settled in a manner satisfactory to Mr. Gell, but since then an objection of a purely technical nature had been revived which would, he feared, for some short time prevent the formal completion of the appointment of Mr. Gell. Mr. Gell, however, had accepted the Bishopric subject to all difficulties being removed. Mr. Gell then addressed the meeting, and said he had always taken a warm interest in the Canterbury. Settlement, and that a nine years experience of the Colonial Church, and of the Colonial States enabled him to sympathise with the noble object they had in view. He attended that day simply as a member of the (,'ommittee of the Association to give the meeting an opportunity of judging of the soundness of the principles by which he hoped to be guided if it was God's will that he should hold the appointment. The Meeting was subsequently addressed by Sir Thomas Tancred, Mr. Powell (Surgeon of the Duke of Portland, who left the Colony in October last), the Rev. Mr. Thomas, and Mr. Deans, who gave an account of the general state of the Colony when he left. Mr. Adderley congratulated the meeting upon the constitution recently proposed by Sir John Pakington. He thought Providence had peculiarly blessed them in this, for they must bear in mind the difficulty of getting such a measure through Parliament, and how many Colonies had struggled for years to obtain the boon, which, he believed, nothing would have secured but the accident of the then peculiar state of parties. When he remembered how the measure was proposed and carried almost unanimously, all the most eminent leaders commending Sir John Pakington for so vigorously addressing himself to the task, he confessed that it was much better fortune than he had anticipated. Bearing also in miud the tacit understanding between the Government and the Opposition that nothing should be brought in but indispensable and immediately necessary measures, and that consequently every leading man in the House had admitted this measure to belong to that category, he was disposed to look fo£ ward with the utmost confidence to their soon having a constitution for the Canterbury Settlement that would form an epoch in the history of the Colony. The measure might be capable of improvement in its details, but he was thankful for its leading features. After some further remarks of a similar tendency he proposed a vote of thanks to Lord Lyttelton, which was seconded by Mr. Gell, and the meeting, after a brief reply from the Chairman, broke up.