A LESSON OF THE LATE MAILS—A GENERAL DISSOLUTION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VIII, Issue 536, 23 December 1857, Page 3

A LESSON OF THE LATE MAILS—A GENERAL DISSOLUTION.

(From the ' New Zealander,' Nov. 25.)

What have the late mails taught? Nothing less than this, that we ought to have a completely fresh start in Colonial as well as in Provincial Legislation. The six Provinces —the Hexarchy—of New Zealand, are about to enter on a new lease of constitutional admins.tration :—the colony as a whole, ought to do the same. We will briefly give our reasons for the above seemingly dogmatic assertion. From one end of the colony to the other, we have had proof on proof tliat the constituency have vastly changed their minds since the last General Election:—proof from the intervening provincial electionsproof from prudent resignations of seats in the House of Representatives. At Otago there has been a provincial revolution. At Canterbury, the constituency are in the throes of change for better or worse —whichever Brittan or Moorhouse may turn out —now that Fitz Gerald is gone home in search of rest and restored health. At Nelson, affairs are evidently in a state of transition :—R. is nest door to S. in the alphabet; but the chief supporters of Stafford hardly seem pleased with Robinson as his successor—whatever may be the verdict of the constituency as a whole; and though the (Examiner' and the 1 Colonist' have shaken hands before commencing their first round for " the Belt " for Nelson, it is yet " all on the cards " winch party shall rule in the northernmost province of the Middle Island. At Wellington, as the details we have elsewhere quoted will show, "the prophets" are no longer trusted : they have no moral right to speak in the name of the people; they are (politically) "down among 1 the dead men"—-as flabby and flaccid as the empty " leathern bottles " which our roysteringRoyalist forebears so christened. At New Plymouth, a Superintendent who was one of'the mainstays of the two or three daj-s "Fox-Hall and Brown-and-Daldy Ministry " has been replaced by a settler whose name commences with the next letter of the alphabet. At Auckland we have had another trial of strength, at which not one of the Auckland men or " chickens " ventured to measure strength with the provincial Reformers; so that here, as at Wellington, every one who supported the treacherous " compact" between the Otugo members and the fustian sect-ions of the Wellington and Auckland representatives has been forced to retire from the contest a beaten man, or to decline the challenge to measure swords. And thus, in echo to the. two Cargills or Macandrew at Otago, to " the three F's" and Dudley Ward at Wellington, we have Garleton (Bay of Islands), and sundry of his onceboasted "chickens" who are now proved to misrepresent their assumed constituents in the House of Representatives. For if men dare not contest the Provincial Elections, or are beaten in the attempt, it is clear that they have no moral right, no constitutional right, to presume to represent those same constituencies in the General Assembly.

But further : there is hardly a province wherein resignations of^.sej&ts y in the.'lioiise of Representatives have. Up% taken place, or are likely to do, sio,:if not actually threatened. Again we commence with Otago —from whence we are likely to 1 aye three resignations. At Canterbury we have Mr. Fitzgerald going- home—Mr. Brittin gone—Mr. Sewell in England, but we hope likely to return. At Nelson ihae is less talk of change. From Wellington can " the three *Fs " or that smart youth "Dudley," or even the once highly popular Cliiford, again come, up with any grace as representatives of the. people, of Wellington? From New Plymouth, Mr. Charles Brown will not come—and we doubt if Mr. East will. In Auckland we are even woive oif. Mr. Beekham ha^ given notice of his intention to resign—if liis resignation has not already beau seat

in-; Dr. Campbell has bid farewell to the colony-; Mr. W. Broclie is selling off: Mr. C. J, Taylor is—where we know not; Mr. Hugh Carleton is rejected by " the Bay " —that is, knowing he would be rejected, he did not dare contest his seat for the Provincial Council, and consequently doss not fairly represent that district in the Assembly.

■ Then there is the fact of the £500,000 Loan having- been guaranteed by the Imperial Parliament—a Loan opposed by many of the present members of the House of Representatives. The colonj- ought, therefore, to have an opportunity of expressing* its opinion, whether those men who ?o opposed the financial policy of the Stairord-Seweil Ministry .are fit to be entrusted with the distributive appropriation -of that Loan.

Bat above all—rfar above _a!i —as the fact, that the Impsrial Parliament have now placed it in the power of the General Assembly to revise and alter the constitution of this colony, subject to the exceptions contained in the resolutions agreed 3ipD.ii in the last session of the General Assembly.

We have not space now to go into •details. But chief and foremost among the alterations which this last act of the Imperial Legislature empowers the Colonial Parliament to make in our constitution, is the mode in which the Superintendent of the provinces shall be elected or nominated or appointed. Nowhere is a distinct and a most important issue raised—ono entirely unthoug'ht of by the constituency throughout the colony, when ■the last election for the General "Assembly took place. The present members of the House of Representatives may take one view of the matter—the constituency may

-entertain a totally different opinion. The decision of the point at issue is one of vast importance to the colony—for every province is vitally interested in that decision, "whatever it mar be.

For all these reasons then, we hold that there ought to "be a "fresh general appeal to the colony," just as —-owing to the efiiux of time and other circumstances—there has baan an appeal to the constituencies of ■every one of the provinces.