The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, OCT. 15, 1880.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6127, 15 October 1880, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. FRIDAY, OCT. 15, 1880.

The political condition of the Provincial District of Wellington in relation to parties in the House of Representatives is singular. In other parts of the Colony there is, so far as Provincial Districts are concerned, a more or less representative voice, articulate and consistent in the expression of public wants, and, in general, able to make that voice heard with practical effect. The reverse is the rulo with our Wellingtonian friends. They prefer in their members a confusion of sounds. When two representatives are returned for an electoral district, the constituents like to have one in the Ministerial party and one in Opposition. When hard fate, allocating only one representative to a district, precludes the gratification of that amiable propensity, the next best thing seems to be to elect a half-and-half man, who talks in one way and votes in another. Let us shortly illustrate what we mean. Wanganui is a splendid example of the first-class of districts divided against themselves. One of its two members is a Minister of the Crown, and the other is an ex-Minister and a leading man in the Opposition, To make confusion worse confounded these two gentlemen were candidates on the same ticket, mutually assisting each other, and by that process ousting the third candidate, who was Sir William Fox, actually at the time the leader of the party which displaced the Grey Ministry, and has since substituted for it the present Ministry, of which Mr Bryce is a member. The city of Wellington comes next in this suicidal class of electorates. Mr Hutchison and Mr Levin are in opposite camps. The case of Wairarapa is of a milder type, but at the last election the electors there were certainly under the impression that they had returned a member on each side, and, naturally, they must have been much vexed at Mr Bunny’s late tergiversation. They are, however, consoled by the reflection that he is again veering round, and that probably next session wonld see him and Mr Bectbam once more in healthy antagonism to each other. Tho “ one horse ” Districts labour, as we said, under special difficulties, but they do their best to make themselves impotent. Sir William Fox hates Sir George Grey, but he cannot like Mr Hall, who has made a Minister of the man who practically turned Sir William Fox out of Wanganui. Mr Walter Johnston, tho Member for Manawatu, is in heart no Ministerialist. He would turn out tho Hall Government to-morrow, if ho were euro that the next one would not include Sir George Grey. Nothing does more to neutralise the influence of a Member with a Government than their knowledge that, on aoritioal question, his vote is sure on their side, while his general tendency is to disparage and embaraes them. Mr Brandon is, under any circumstances, of no account. Ho isamiable and apathetic, and his few ideas are rather muddled. Ho is a Tory of tho old school, and his vote may always bo relied on against reform. Wo had almost forgot Mr Mason, tho member for tho Hntt. Wo really must regard him as an exception. Until roused by something about a racecourse in his district, his voice was never heard. His vote has always boon a certainty for the Government, and apparently will continue to bo so, unless Mr Hall, in a rash moment, should oppose him on tho racecourse question. Generally summing up, then, tho parliamentary position of Provincial Wellington. we find that when one district returns two members, each does his best to neutralise tho political influence of the other, and that when only one member ia returned bis inconsistency and weakness similarly affect bis own influence: Tho consequence of this system of discord is obvious. Wellington, as a political entity, ia a chip in porridge. We are far from saying that Members from any district should be merely dele-

gates for local purpoucs. Bat iti» ti*elcß« to ignore geographical, political, and social facta. There are atlll at loaat six Colonies in New Zealand, Bach haa its own centre and ita own epcoinl ptiWio ncoda. Provincial Abolition, far from effacing, only intcniiued those obaractoriatio features, for it destroyed that local autonomy which on the spot satisfactorily dealt^ with them. Under any circumstances, if oolontsa* tion'bo our object, but especially in the absence of any proper local selfgovernment, parliamentary representatives from Provincial Districts, knowing best, as they must, the distinct circam* stances and public wants of tbo ‘respective parts of tho country which they represent, arc bound, ta the interests of tho whole Colony, and, of course, subject to those interest., to urge, discreetly but still with firmness and persistency, on the Government and on tho Legislature, the favourable consideration of those wants. In no other way can tho satisfactory progress of tho whole Colony be secured. Failure to take this course has for many years back been tho besetting sin of the Wellington members. And their constituents have reaped tho reward. In 1874 additional representation was added to certain electoral districts. Tho population at tho time of the City of Wellington fully entitled it to another member. But no local representative raised his voice on its behalf, and Sir Julius Vogel, then Premier, was not in the habit of wasting his gifts. The consequence is that the Provincial District of Wellington will have lost for seven years one-tenth of its proper electoral power. The public buildings in the Empire City, as it is called —imperium a noji imperio —are a disgrace to the Colony. Third-rat> towns would he ashamed of its Postoffice, its Telegraph Office, and its Custom House. But the Government, knowing those with whom it deals, refuse even to incur authorised expenditure for adequate accommodation. And to make tho affront more palpable, the Government are building, in a central and conspicuous place, a wooden shanty called the metropolitan railway station, but more like a cross between a bungalow and a cowshed. But the sting of the insult lies in the Ministerial excuse for this economy, that more money would be available for the WellingtonWest Coast railway I The Wellingtonian mind is at present much exercised on the question of this railway, That mind’s view of the subject may be briefly summed up as follows. It would connect a large, fertile and settled district with tho City and Port of Wellington. It would open up for settlement the whole waste lands, rich in undeveloped wealth, on the sea-board, and stretching far inland between Wellington and New Plymouth. A work of this kind is a Colonial, and not a mere local question. The Atkinson, the Grey, and the Hall Ministries have all recognised its importance. Tho present Government last year obtained an appropriation of £39,000 for this railway, and up to the end of June last about £35,000 had been expended on its construction. And now they sacrifice past expenditure and future prospects to a proposed line between Masterton and WoodviUe, which would run through a dense bush and an almost uninhabited country. If, as is alleged, the Government had no more funds, why should they devote, as they have dene, about £60,000 to the commencement of that new line, which will scarcely be wanted for a generation to eome, when the line from Wellington to Foxton has had already so much expended on it, and offers immediate advantages of such magnitude. The alleged want of funds is no excuse at all. The only plausible reason is that the Railway Royal Commission recommended the other line. But the Government are not bound by that report. The evidence taken in this matter by the Commissioners flatly contradicts their own recommendation, and the time they took for examining the country —three hundred miles or thereabouts in three days—altogether now to them with one exception, made their personal investigation worthless. Such is tho view which tho Wellington mind takes of the matter. Whatever the merits of the West Coast line may be, they were not put forward by the Wellington members. The truth probably ia that the Government cared more about Mr Commissioner Wright’s vote than for all the Wellington members. His loss would probably have been fatal to them, and he was not terrified by the threat of “ Grey.” The Foxes, the Johnstons, the Brandons and Levins, could be safely relied on at a pinch. They could always bo frightened into allegiance. Nurse Hall need only say that Bogey Grey was coming, and they would rush into her arms, penitent and perspiring. As it was, they only seemed halfhearted in their protest against the course taken by the Government in the matter of the West Coast Railway. They remonstrated, “ with bated breath and whispering humbleness.” Justice, now a-days, in tho political world, is not accorded to timid suppliants.