The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1869.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2603, 8 May 1869, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. SATURDAY, MAY 8, 1869.

The speech of his Honor at the opening of the Council yesterday, deals chiefly with the very difficult question of the reform of the existing constitution of the Provincial Government. His Honor approaches the subject with diffidence; he explains that he expresses his own personal views “ so far as they are formed,” and thus confesses that his suggestions are but immature. He, in fact, invites the public to inspect and assist at the interesting process of gestation of ideas that is taking place in his mind. His Honor commences by referring to the Bill for reducing the number of the Provincial Council, and for the redistribution of seats, which has been already published in these columns, and the provisions of which we have already criticised. He then goes on to say why he proposes to introduce this measure. He believes that the time has come when considerable modifications must be made in the form and dimensions of provincial institutions. Now this Bill says nothing at all about the form of provincial institutions, it merely reduces the numbers of the Council. We gather therefore that his Honor intends, in addition to this Bill to bring forward some measure that shall affect the form as well as the dimensions of our institutions. What kind ot a measure his Honor has in view we shall endeavour to deduce from his utterances which, by the way, partake somewhat of that dubious character for which of old the Delphic oracles were celebrated, and which in modern times so frequently pervades a speech from the Throne. So far as the question of Provincialism and Centralism is concerned, he speaks out boldly and honestly. The Province has still a great work to do. It has to promote immigration, to bridge rivers, to develop the systems of education, police, gaols, and charitable institutions. In these matters the Central Government cannot adequately represent or promote the interests of the people. It is only in the matter of internal reform that it is difficult to perceive bis Honor’s exact meaning, and this difficulty pro-

bably arises from the fact that his ideas on the subject are not yet thoroughly formed. He makes, in short, two suggestions—First, that we should simplify the general machinery of administration —Secondly, that the Superintendent should be brought more directly into communication with the Provincial Council. As to bis first suggestion, he gives no hint how it is to be carried out. Nothing is easier than to cry out for a simplification of administrative machinery, nothing is more difficult than to shew bow such simplification is to be effected. As to bis second suggestion, he says that it might be carried into effect under the existing constitution, by means of conferences between the Superintendent and committees of the Council, or, if the sanction of the Assembly could be obtained, by the Superintendent himself having a seat in the Council. We wonder that bis -Honor did not state in so many words that he considers objectionable the present system of an Executive selected from and responsible to the Council. Such a conclusion is manifestly to he inferred from the address, but when the head of the province comes forward to initiate reforms he should scarcely leave so important a point to be gathered from mere inferences. We submit that it is of the highest importance that the Executive should be brought into the closest communication with the Provincial Council, and we are unable to see how this can be effected satisfactorily, unless, either the present system is retained, or the Superintendent himself becomes a member of the Council. The information that the Council would derive from conferences between their committees and the Superintendent, would be scant in comparison with that which they could obtain from an Executive or a Superintendent present in the House and ever ready to explain or reply. We entirely agree with his Honor, that the Superintendent should be made more directly responsible to the Council than he is at present. If anything miscarries it is impossible now to decide on whose shoulders the blame shall be laid. There is the Superintendent elected by the people, and clearly intended to hare a substantial share of power. With him are associated an Executive, responsible to the Council. The power and with it the responsibility is divided between the two, and divided responsibility is no responsibility at all. The true principle is that, executive power and responsibility should be closely associated. The responsibility, too, should be real, not nominal. At present, two thirds of the Council can more the Governor to remove the Superintendent. This, however, is a power which would be exercised only in extreme cases. It would be only some glaring outrage on decency that would induce the Provincial Council to involve the province in the ferment of a Superintendents! election. A Superintendent who differed with his Council, would be aware of this hesitation on their part to exercise their power, and would take advantage of it. In ordinary cases it would be less disastrous to allow political sins to be committed than to .punish them. This should not be. If the Superintendent offends the Council, or if there is an incompatibility of temper between them we think that the Council in addition to the power of displacing the Superintendent, should' themselves have the power of nominating another in his stead. If this were so the responsibility of the Superintendent would become more real. If he sinned there would be hut small hesitation in inflicting punishment, while the fact of a majority of two-thirds of the Council being required to displace him, would secure him from the action of mere caprice. We gather from his Honor’s speech that he desires the whole Executive power to be vested in the Superintendent, that the present Executive selected from, and responsible to the Council should be done away with, and that the Superintendent should be brought as closely into communication with, and as directly responsible to, the Council as possible. If the responsibility is made real —that is, if a Superintendent who acts contrary to the wishes of the Council can be displaced without inconvenience and another substituted, we are inclined for the most part to agree with his Honor’s views, though, as he himself says, the question is one of great difficulty, and on which it is desirable that there should be a very full discussion. The other salient points of his Honor’s speech are the falling off of the land revenue, the railway expenditure, and the question of immigration. Would it not have been possible for his Honor and his advisers to have matured and propounded some scheme by which a continuous system of immigration could have been set on foot? He states that the land sales are falling off, and also that a steady system of immigration is necessary to restore our prosperity. Now, as the land sales are falling off, it will be impossible under present circumstances to carry on immigration on anything like an adequate scale simply for lack of funds. If, however, we have no money, we have a vast estate, of which pretty nearly a million of acres are fit for agricultural settlement. Why does not the the leader of the province look the matter boldly in the face, and suggest some mode by which we could utilise our waste lauds for immigration purposes ?

The address mentions that the news of the Poverty Bay massacre has deterred immigrants from coming to this province. Here is another effect of our disastrous union with the North Island. His Honor trusts that the united counsels of the colony may lead to measures which will remove the obstacles to progress that are created by the Native war. We should have thought that his Honor’s experience in the Assembly would have made him distrustful of so fortunate a result. Is there the smallest possible hope of such a result being obtained in the ensuing session of the Assembly if they were to sit till Doomsday ? The people of the Middle Island have

pretty well made up their minds to pay no longer for native ware; and if they have to fight, they would prefer rather to fight for their own indepen* deace than to fight for those who are in general unwilling to fight for themselves.

The paragraph in which his Honor alludes to the Eailway is worthy of notice. He says the receipts are in excess of the estimate, but that this excess will be absorbed by expenditure necessary on the tunnel. Why is any expenditure necessary on the tunnel? Mr Paterson was specially appointed as a commissioner to examine the work, and he made no allusion whatever to any necessity for further expenditure. We trust that the Government has had competent engineering advice on this important matter. The public has invested more than a quarter of a million in the tunnel alone, and no policy could be more fatal than to allow so great a work to be tinkered by incompetent bands. This latter is a subject which will demand and obtain the fullest investigation on the part of the Council.