The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, NOV. 24, 1876.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XLVI, Issue 4920, 24 November 1876, Page 2

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, NOV. 24, 1876.

Ik these days of revolutions and rumours of revolutions, it is advisable now and then to pause and reflect how we are governed. It is difficult to' arrive at any definite conclusion oh the subject, but the difficulty enhances the interest. Few persons can describe the form of government during the last twelvemonths) fewer still can explain oar present Constitution; and no one is bold enough to prophesy what it will be a year hence. We are not, even yet, in full enjoyment of the Provincial Abolition Act. Out of tenderness to our fallen nature, it is given to us in instalments. Otherwise, unprepared for its sudden splendour, we might have suffered the fate of Semele. On the: first day of January next we hope to be able to gaze on its glory, as the eagle on the snn- Last year we lost representative. Provincial Councils) this year we have lost elective Superintendents and the natne of Province. : There 1 is, -however, for the present, balm in Gilead. The Crown presents us with its nominees.

who oombino in their persons the fanor; tiona of elective Superintendents aa«[ representative Provincial Councils; and the law kindly still allows ns to lire in “ Provincial Districts.” It is one of the things not generally known that, until 1 the end of next month, the Provincial Appropriation Acts are extended, and their deficiencies, which are many, as the appropriations were niade eighteen months ago, are supplemented by the decrees of the General Government and their Provincial Agents. That is to say, whenever a new office has to he created, or a salary increased, or a public work not provided for is thought desirable, the Nominee and the Minister appro* priate for the purpose, out of Provincial revenue, whatever they think desirable. Like the House of Commons, they have the power of the purse, and cheerfully grant supplies to Her Majesty. The Provincial Appropriations Extension Acts only contemplated the sanction of the Governor to the expenditure of money, already appropriated by the Provincial Legislatures, in accordance with such appropriation, but at present we are governed by the law of expedience, and not by the expedience of law. Mr Whitaker, before he was a Minister, stated in, the House that the sanction of the Governor to the expenditure of money outside the appropriation of the Provincial Legislature was illegal, and required the authority of the General Assembly. No such authority has been given. Major Atkinson, when Colonial Treasurer in 1875, told the House that the twelfth section of the Provincial Abolition Act conferred no power on the Governor to delegate powers which could not by law be previously delegated. On the advice of Major Atkinson, as Premier, in 1876, the Governor has under that section delegated powers given by Provincial Acts and Acts of the Assembly, and incapable of delegation. . In fact, the powers which could be delegated under Colonial Acts have only just now been delegated—perhaps owing to the bint in our article on the 18 th of this month—by warrants under those Acts respectively, and not under the twelfth section of the Provincial Abolition Act at all. What Major Atkinson said he could not do under the twelfth section, he has ddne under it, and what he said it would enable him to do, be has done without its aid. Thus we are governed in these enlightened days.

There is another shade which Ministers have,added to'our clpnd of Government. Two of the Ministers, Mr Whitaker and Mr Georg© M‘Lean, have been made under this' questionable authority the Governor’s Delegates for the respective Provincial Districts of Auckland and Otago. It does not appear to ns constitutional for any Minister to be at the same time the responsible adviser of the Crown for the whole Colony, and also the delegate of the Crown with limited powers for a part of the Colony. The Crown acts in all things for all New Zealand through a responsible Minister upon his advice. The delegate has a limited authority, limited responsibility, and a limited sphere. The two positions seem to ns to be constitutionally incompatible. Moreover, there, is quite enough for Ministers to do for the Colony without adding to their functions the duties of nominated Superintendents. If, as they said, tihey could not do their own proper work without an additional Minister, they surely are not able,, in the absence of that aid, to detach some of their number to act as Prefets of Provincial districts. They cannot properly discharge their trusts in both capacities, especially when in one they are obliged to reside away .from the seat of Government. Cabinet Councils ape essential to the good government of a country, but Cabinet Councils cannot be held when Ministers are separated from each other. The telegraph cannot supplement this defect. We want Ministers in close and constant personal communion with each other, united in counsel, and undivided in action, and not Oligarchs, each doing what is right in his own eyes, or Fantoccini set in motion by wires.

With the commencement of the new year another phase of government will appear. Provincial Agents, who are members of the General Assembly, except those who are also of the Executive Council of the Colony,' ate required by law to resign their appointpients before that date under penalty of Parliamentary disqualification. That is obviously the effect of “ The Disqualification Act, 1876,” and of the 36th section of “ The Financial Arrangements Act, 1876;” , But if the- 12th section of the Provincial Abolitioß Act of 1875 is sufficient—we contend that it is not eafficient, and Major Atkinson in 1875 contended to the same effect—to authorise the appointment of such agents, there is nothing to preclude the Governor, if he is so advised, from, appointing other Agents who may have no shadow of claim to our confidence. ExSuperintendents have at least about them some trace of elective character ; they are “like the Vase iU which roses “ have once been distilledbut our new Agents may be men of a different stamp, and not in such good odour. Be they who they may, we protest against the continuance of a system of Provincial Prof eta. Parliament never contemplated that system; the House of 'Representatives in 1875 rejected the clause which authorised it, and only passed the ;12th section on the distinct assurance of the present Premier that that section would not give such authority.

Well, when" the flood of Provincial administration pours into the Ministerial offices at Wellington, will Ministers and their Under Secretaries be competent to cope with it satisfactorily ? We doubt it very much. Wecannot in any case see what this Province, for example, will gain by the change. - We see much ; that it will lose. The venue ,of much of our local administration will be removed from Ohristbhujrch to Wellington. For domestic, we shall get foreign finance. For rulers to whom we had always personal access, whom we elected, over whom we bad effective control, whose interest was closely bound up in our own, and who had local knowledge and experience, we shall have in. (exchange, for much of our local affairs, rulers to whom practically we have no personal access, who are not elected by ourselves,

whoat we joaßaot interest,biften maynotVe our oiwn, i whose action must constantly be attested by political exigencies about which we know nothing, and who As a general rule, will have Ho local knowledge or experience of Canterbury. Altogether, this is not a tempting exchange. But it is the very exchange which Provincial Abolition forces us to make. We shall, in a thousand and one daily Provincial wants, find it unpleasantly thrust into our experience. It is impossible in the present epidemic of abolishing constitutional land marks to predict exactly how we shall be governed, but unless wiser counsels prevail and a more prudent policy be adopted, there can be little doubt that we shall be governed worse and at greater coai; than we have teen governed heretofore.