The Lyttelton Times.

Lyttelton Times, Volume V, Issue 319, 21 November 1855, Page 6

The Lyttelton Times.

Wednes-lay, Nov. 21

The result of the general elections for the House of Representatives in the different Provinces is of great interest to us at this moment. We all know how much depends upon the next session of the General Assembly, but we have very few grounds upon which to form a judgment as to its probable consequences. An election has lately taken place for the town of Wellington, in which all the party feeling of that place was aroused, and which gave the local journals an opportunity for racy abuse, which, to do them justice, they seldom fail to profit by. As this election was determined more upon an avowed principle of general policy than-any of which we have yet heard, we will give our readers a short account of its origin and of the declaration of political faith which it elicited. The town of Wellington is represented by three members. Messrs. Clifford and Fitzherbert were first in the field, Messrs. Hart and Carkeek followed. The former candidates tried to form a league with Mr. Hart against Mr. Carkeek. who, it appears, is an avowed enemy of a Provincial policy ; ar.d who, it is said, carries his enmity to the Provincial Government so far as to have fallen into the views of the late General Government in thwarting the local administration. Mr. Hart vacillated, and finally a committee was formed to secure the joint return of Messrs. Carkeek and Hart. Messrs. Clifford and Fitzherbert, or rather the party to which they belonged, cast about for a third candidate of their own policy to contest the seals. A requisition most numerously signed was presented to the Supeiintendeut, Dr. Featherston, requesting him to stand. He threw himself into the contest with his party, and the result was that they were triumphant. Dr. Featherston's speech on answering the requisition was a decided ultraprovincialist manifesto, and we should be sorry to think that the three members returned owed their election to t)w. principles therein broadly enunciated. That two of those members honestly hold those opinions we have no doubt; the speeches of Dr. Featherston and Mr. Fitzherbe.it on various occasions are unmistakeahle. We cannot count Mr. Clifford in the same category. But we must not lose sight of the purely provincial feelings necessarily aroused by a

contest into which the Superintendent and the chief member of his Executive were thrown. Personal respect for Dr. Featherston, we hay« no doubt, did a great deai towards carrying the election. But we cannot shut our eyes to the fact that the successful candidates came in on an ultra-provincialist cry.

In the present state of New Zealand, it is undoubtedly expedient that the Provinces should enjoy as much independent, and unfettered power of action as - is consistert with the unity of the colony as a whole ; but the right of supreme control should never be lost sight of; it should not be tacitly thrown overboard ; on the contrary, this right should, we think, be diMinetly enunciated on the occasion of every temporary concession to the Provinces. How long it may be before the country is so fully populated and communication becomes so rapid as to make tiib Provincial Governments in their present' form unnecessary, we cannot, of course, conjecture; but we have no doubt that this will ultimately be the case. In the meantime it would be very impolitic to allow a feeling of total estrangement, to grow up between the Provinces; a leeliug which must necessarily arise from a total independence of each other, and a want of unity of action. There is a great deal of talk amongst the ultra-Provin-cialists of American example, and a federal Government is hinted at. The size of New Zealand alone makes such a comparison ridiculous. New Zealand altogether might have been stolen out of one of the American States. Again, waving the question of size, the case of the United States and that of the Provinces of New Zealand are not at al 1 analogous. In the former it was a question of how much independent power should be given up to a central controlling and legislative Government by sovereign independent states for the good of the commonwealth as a whole ; in the latter, it is a question of how much power*shou!d be ceded by an over-ruling central Legislature to Provincial Legislatures for the benefit of the separate Provinces. The difficulty of getting the States of America to cede sufficient powers to make a central Government sufficiently strong is well known. It is manifest that tlie greatest care should be taken by a central legislature, which begins by holding the chief control, not to throw away hastily the rights of a supreme Assembly—rights which will easily be lost, but which could not be regained without great difficulty. We ought never to lose sight of the time when the powers, now temporarily held with advantage by the Provinces, must return to the General Government. No difficulty ought to be thrown in the way of such a consummation. New Zealand is a very small country. If united, it may, in time to come, from its position, wield a power like that which the mother country now enjoys. The Heptarchy was a necessity of the younger days of England, and "war and bloodshed were necessary ere England was one undivided Commonwealth. Provincial jealousies are of rapil growth—once give the Provinces almost totally independent powers, and no one knows what scenes of tin moil, and even of violence, New Zealand may have to go through ere a General Government is formed when it may be most needed. A heavy responsibility lies upon the members of the General Assembly. Let them yield to the pressure of the Ultra-Pro-vinciulists, and the consequences will not be limited to their own generation. It is an unfair argument to assume, that when the Central Government is properly constituted, we shall be misgoverned as we have been. Ii Responsible Government is constituted on a proper basis, we shall have a guarantee for good Government to a great extent in our own hands, and the Provinces will be induced to take a healthy interest in the general politics of the whole country. Any-

thing that induces Provincialists to look beyond their own doors is an advantage in itself.

At the present time it will certainly be b;>t.h expedient and necessary to enlarge Provincial powers. We are prepared to go as far as Dr. Featberston in promoting a practically independent power of action in the Provinces ; but in principle we must differ widely from the school of policy to which he belongs. Lpt the Provinces at present have the practical management of everything which concerns themselves; but let there be a general controlling power left in the hands of the General Assembly nntampered with and undiminished. For the right use of such power we shall have a sufficient guarantee in the responsible tenure of office by the Government, and in the Provincial sympathies of men elected by Provincial constituencies. At the same time, we shall leave the central Government sufficiently strong to be able to suppress any sudden outbreak of mischievous legislation in any one Province, which might tend to injure its neighbours without conferring any practical benefit upon itself. We hold that policy to be the soundest, which keeps most prominently before the eyes of the people the common interests of the Colony as a whole ; which, while it secures to the Provinces the management of their own affairs, is not for ever thrusting merely selfish considerations before them, and which will educate a new generation to look upon New Zealand, and not Canterbury, or Wellington, or Auckland, as the country which gave them birth, and to which they owe their exertions and their allegiance.

The colonists of New Zealand are prone enough to become ultra-provincial. The isolation of the different Provinces leads men to take a narrow-minded view of political questions, and to look to those interests alone which they imagine to be peculiarly connected with themselves because they are constantly brought under their own eyes. They are apt to forget that the prosperity or adversity of one Province tells upon another, and that if each was to look only to what it fancied its own interests to be, an unseemly struggle would be the result, by which all must suffer more or less, from which none could gain any permanent advantage.

The " Zingari" brings no later European news. We hear it reported that the " Alma" brought a later mail to Wellington (which was not sent on by the " Zingari") with intelligence that Austria had withdrawn from the Western Alliance and joined Russia.