WELLINGTON.

Lyttelton Times, Volume IV, Issue 165, 4 March 1854, Page 5

WELLINGTON.

[From our own Correspondent.] Febmary 4,1854. Yesterday the Session of the Council was brought to a virtual close ; having been" adjourned for a fortnight to enable the printers to bring up their arrears, at'the end of which time the mere formal completion of Acts will be gone through, and no further business involving discussion or difference of opinion will delay immediate prorogation. The Government, backed by a majority, has refused to establish a real and efficient audit, on the model of that of England. The Audit Act of this Province authorizes the Superintendent to appoint so many Auditors, but makes no provision for any tenure of their office more secure than the pleasure of the ministry of the day. It then provides for a yearly examination of the audited accounts by a Select Committee of the Provincial Council—an unnecessary piece of legislation, since the Council has that power without any Act. Two anditors have been appointed, viz.: Mr. F. Dillon Bell, the Commissioner of Crown Lands and member for Wairarapa and Hawke's Bay ; and Mr. Karkeek, the Collector of Customs. Thus the two principal Collectors of General Revenue in this Province, receiving high salaries from the General Government out of the funds so collected, are to audit the Provincial accounts. Remembering that several departments are paid out of the Provincial revenue, but are only in a doubtful and incomplete degree under Provincial control, this arrangement seems likely to be attended with some inconvenience. It is quite true that, should the new Auditors so favour the General Government, in any cross accounts between it and the Province, as to be discovered by the Provincial Government, the tenure of office during pleasure will enable the Superintendent to remove the auditors ; but, then, they have a divided responsibility, and their largest salary is paid by the General Government, so that their interest naturally leans that way. Every one that considers this matter seriously, and especially persons of mercantile and busi-ness-like habits, would have preferred to see a Board of Audit composed of men quite independent of both General and Provincial Governments, and not to be removed except on proof before a jury and court of law of dereliction of their duty;—such duties to be laid down by legislative enactment. This subject is of interest at Canterbury, where the Provincial Auditor is not only, as such, a member of the Executive Council and one of the responsible advisers of His Honor, but also Collector of Customs under the General Government and a member of the Provincial Council. In this respect, neither Province appears to have appreciated the marked manner in which English legislation has separated the Auditors of the public accounts from any dependence on either Parliament or the Ministry of the day, and from the turmoil and temptations of party politics, by giving them a tenure of office during good behaviour, and large salaries, and forbidding them to sit in the House of Commons. English legislation, too, takes care to give the auditors great power of procuring verbal and documentary evidence on oath, and to prescribe the duties of the Auditors, by legislative enactment ; whereas, both here and at Canterbury, the powers of procuring evidence do not exist, and the duties are to be prescribed by the Superintendent,—that is, by the very ministers whose accounts are to be audited. The inefficiency of the arrangement actually made has not yet struck people at Canterbury, because the revenue to be expended has been small, and chiefly devoted to. salaries, so that the audit will be simple and easy: but here, where, besides a revenue of £18,000, the Council have authorized the Executive to borrow and spend chiefly on public works of various kinds, fifty thousand pounds during the year, there is an increasing conviction that it "would be well to take precautions similar to those of the British ■1 arliament for the proper examination and audit of the public accounts. The Canterbury colonists, however, will remember an example *« point. I mean the review of the Canterbury Association's accounts by My. Wedgewood, the Government Auditor; who, totally independent °f both the Association and the colonists to whom an account was to be rendered, made an impartial and thoroughly reliable report on the application of a portion of the funds to purposes fullering from the appropriation originally proOne of the latest Acts of the Session has

been the " Officers' and Contractors' Act." It answers to the "Limitation of Patronage" Ordinance of Canterbury. In principle, it contains one provision of marked superiority over your law- II provides that every member accepting an office of profit under the Superintendent, or a seat %n the Executive Council, shall pass through the ordeal of a fresh election. The minority in opposition was here of signal service to the cause of legislative independence: for the Bill introduced by the Government did not contain the sentence which I have underlined ; and it was only inserted at the urgent and repeated instance of Messrs. Ludlam, Wakefield, Brown, and the »ther independent members. At Canterbury, it is only an office of emolument or a contract which renders re- | signation necessary; so that, as no one member of your Executive Council receives any salary from the Provincial Government, no one of them went through the ordeal of a fresh election. This omission has been observed here by those who are anxious to see real independence of the Executive in all the legislative bodies; and accounts, partly, for assertions which have been made here, to the effect that responsible government is not well understood by the Canterbury legislators. But in the practical means of carrying out the principle asserted, the Canterbury law has the advantage in efficiency over that passed here. The Wellington law declares that a member of the Provincial Council accepting an office of profit or a seat in the Executive Council, or taking a Government contract, shall vacate his seat in the Provincial Council. There exists a grave doubt whether the Provincial Council has power to disqualify any of its members duly elected according to the Constitution Act; and therefore, some member taking office or a contract may refuse to obey a law, possibly null and void from its repugnance to the Constitution Act. In the Canterbury law, this difficulty has been avoided, by making it unlawful for the Superintendent to give office or a contract to any member of the Provincial Council, unless the member shall first have resigned his seat. The Wellington law, attempts, but with doubtful power to enforce it, a close imitation of the English proceeding by which a member, having accepted office, can no longer sit or vote, until his constituents shall have had the opportunity of declaring whether such acceptance of office has impaired their confidence in him. The Canterbury law, by a provision undoubtedly within the limits of the Legislature's jurisdiction, attains the same object by making it impossible that any office or contract should be accepted by any member, unless he shall first have afforded his constituents such an opportunity. The Canterbury law is superior in the form of its provisions, but requires the addition of the important provision contained in that of Wellington, against the influence of unpaid advisers of the Superintendent over the deliberations of the Legislature. With some men, dignity, the confidence of the Head of the Government, and a participation in the actual government of the country, may be stronger temptations than a salary; and, moreover, an unpaid member of Executive Council n?ay possibly obtain a large share of indirect patronage, whether in inferior appointments, or in the distribution of temporary employment and contracts among his friends. I intend no reflection on the three perfectly trustworthy members who compose the Executive Council at Canterbury ; but it is clear that, although not receiving any salary from the Provincial funds, their acceptance of dignity and executive power ought, on principle, to have received the special sanction of their constituents : and, moreover, future cases should be provided for as well as the present. One particular case has not been provided for by the law of any Province. Neither of the Councils has enacted that its Speaker shall not be a member of the Executive Council. Such a provision, however, seems very necessary to secure the independence of the Council and the impartiality of the Speaker, especially in such small Councils, where the casting-vote is so much more often required than in larger assemblies. At Canterbury, the Speaker is also Provincial Treasurer without pay. holds two salaried offices under the General Government, and is a member of the Executive Council. Thus there is presented the strange anomaly of a Speaker being avowedly one, not only of a Ministerial party, but of the Ministry itself; responsible for the acts of His Honor, and bound of course, on every occasion, to support

those acts, which he has joined in advising, by his whole influence, as well as his casting-vote, in the House. At Otago, this anomaly seems to have been viewed in a correct light. Mr. James Macandrew, the first elected Speaker, on being appointed one of the Executive Council, resigned the Speakership as " incompatible" with his new duties. I informed you in my last that Mr. Godley had been appointed, by an Act of the Legislature, political Agent of the Province in England. A stormy debate took place on the last sitting day, in consequence of the Government's determination to appoint a Committee of Correspondence, for conducting the communications with the Agent, which should consist of the Provincial Secretary, the Speaker, and Mr. Revans. The last-named gentleman, though not holding office, and, it is believed, thoroughly independent in his opinions, yet happens to be a determined supporter of the present Ministry. The Speaker, although allowed by all to be impartial as the mouth-piece of the House, is known to be in other respects biassed in favour of the Superintendent's advisers. It was, therefore, plain that the Committee was intended to represent the views only of the present Government party, or majority, to the Agent, and through him to Parliament, and Her Majesty's Government at home. The opposing minority protested against this injustice; urging their claim to be represented by one, if not two, members on that Committee; so that no communication with authorities in England should appear as the views of the Provincial Council, unless first examined and discussed in the Committee at least as much as the report of any other Select Committee: especially as it was to sit, and probably write to England, in the recess, whereas the reports of other committees were all liable to discussion, and to rejection or adoption, by the whole House. It was also urged that, if the Government avowed the intention of instructing the Agent entirely in the spirit of their own party alone, it would be better for them* to undertake to advise the Superintendent in the conduct of such correspondence, and to be responsible for their advice. But the Secretary stuck firmly to the original proposition ;. supporting it, however, by rather inconsistent arguments, viz.: first, that the Speaker being the mouthpiece of the House, and MivKevans,a perfectly independent member, the Council was fairly represented in the Committee; and, secondly, that it was necessary to convey to the Agent an uniform set of views ; —those of the Government majority ; and that as the Committee included the Provincial Secretary, ex officio, sufficient responsibility was provided. Mr. Eenall moved, and Mr. Wakefield seconded, an amendment to place Mr. Ludlam on the Committee. After much discussion, the amendment was negatived by only 8 to 7, although all the silent Government voters were specially sent for. The two absent members,. Mr. Waitt and Mr. Watt, would probably have increased the Government majority; but the first has been absent for nearly a month, and the second had gone home to Wanganui, believing that no further questions involving a division would arise. Mr. Sell now proposed another amendment, to the effect that the Committee of Correspondence should consist of those members only who represented His, Honor's government in the Council; in order to throw upon them the entire responsibility of conducting the external, as well as the internal affairs of the Province. Mr. Wakefield seconded the amendment as a pis aller only, because he would have preferred enacting that the Superintendent should conduct the correspdndence, by and with the advice of his Executive Council, in the same manner as any other administrative function, instead of embodying the Ministers, or their party, as a Committee of the Council, and thus making the opinion of one party alone appear in England as the opinion of a Council in which the parties were so nearly equal in number. [The remainder of our Correspondent's letter will be inserted in next week's publication.] NELSON. A lad named Neale, who with his parents had a short time Kince arrived from Sydney, lias accidentally shot himself while incautiously handling a loaded gun. The boy died in a few hours.' About £2,700 had been realized from the sale of town allotments. Most of the sections were sold at the upset prices. A concert was given on the 26th of Januarys

by Mr. and Mrs. Auguard iv Mr. Dartualls new store, assisted by several of the settlers, at which upwards of 400 persous were present. The entertainment appears to have given very great satisfaction. The brig "Spray" brought a cargo of horses, and some choice bulls, on the 28th of January. Owing to heavy weather, 10 out of 46 of the horses were lost on the voyage. A new reaping machine had been introduced. According to the Examiner " it does its work admirably." Nelson Mining Company.—At an adjourned meeting of the shareholders of this Company, the proposition of the Committee to dispose of the interest the Company had in the Pakawau coal fields to the representatives at Sydney and Melbourne of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company was confirmed. The advantages to the settlement of this proposition were forcibly dwelt upon by Mr. Elliott. -' The steamers of two ocean lines," said Mr. Elliott, " were now tolerably certain to visit New Zealand in a few weeks, and within the same time a vessel, built expressly for intercolonial trade, would arrive from England. If they had no fuel with which to supply these vessels, nor could hold out to them any prospect of the power of doing so within a short time, the expense of getting coal from other colonies might cause them to abandon our shores, and the consequences of this he need not point ont. Looking to the question in its broad and public bearing, he was sure that the best thing for the Province, the best thing for the shareholders themselves, was to offer every inducement to the agents of the Peninsular and Oriental Company, and the other companies interested in obtaining fuel for their steamers in New Zealand, to come here and work the coal, and trust to the increased trade of our port for all the advantages which the presence of valuable coal fields in our neighbourhood can afford us." A new copper mine Las been discovered at D'Urville's island, on ground belonging to the natives. The ore is of good quality. Wairatt Races took place on the 10th and 11th of January last. Notwithstanding very heavy showers of rain and hail, accompanied with thunder and lightning, the sport was continued, and the spectators stood out the tempest " with the pluck of Englishmen," says the correspondent of the Examiner. The Wairau Jockey Club PLate was won by Mr. Freeth's " Kick-np-the-dust;" The Wairau Turf Plate by Mr. Freeth's " Deceiver;" The Handicap Hurdle Race by Mr. Redwood's " Wild Harry ;" The Selling Stakes by Mr. V. Hewitt's " Strop;" the Handicap Hack Race by Mr. Johnson's " Primus ;" the last, the Hack Race, by Mr. Wilson's " Blunderbuss." _ An address, signed by many of the settlers in Nelson has been presented to Major Richmond, on the occasion of his retiring from the position of Superintendent of the Province. " When you arrived iv Nelson," says the Address, " the land in cultivation amounted to 2,800 acres, it is now 7,200: the number of horned stock was 1500, it is now 7,500 : the number of sheep j ■was 10.000, according to the last census it was 114,000. Before the same period we were ! Avithout roads, now, it may fairly be doubted whether any colony of the same age and numbers can boast of equal facilities'" of internal communication." A correspondent of the Examiner, after criticising the laudatory style of the Address, appositely remarks :—" Whatever has been gained in t'ne progressive advancement of the Province, has been by the indomitable perseverance of the settlers themselves, in overcoming the mischievous, and worse than mischievous obstacles, everywheie thrown in their way by the subservient tools of a despotic and arbitrary system of colonial policy, carried on by a succession of military martinets, put in authority over us by our blessed mother country, eich, if possible, improving upon the vexatious system of his predecessor. No. sir, 1 say all our progress, ali our hard-earned comforts and improvements, social and political, have been ac- <! ared m spite of those hindrances which met us at every step of our progress, and I would ask any unprejudiced observer, if, as I readily admit, mi spite of all such obstacles, we have made such process, what might we not have accomplished if We had been permitted to pursue our career unimpeded by the nolilical (Irair-chain in inai-aiiministiation?" We ar« compelled to postpone our notice of the proceedings ii» the Nelson Council.