TehNelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1866.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume I, Issue 189, 12 October 1866, Page 2

TehNelson Evening Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1866.

During one of the recent sittings of the Assembly Mr. Whittaker moved that the next sessioa should be held at Chris tchurch. He said it was in favor of his motion that when the seat of Government was in. Auckland, the Assembly had sat both in Wellington and Chvistchurch. An argument in favor of «t change of locale was the meagre reports that had appeared iu the Wellington papers, au evil that would probably be remedied if the Assembly held its meetings by turn in Wellington, Duuedin, Christchurch, and Nelson. By the arrangement he proposed the people wo'uld get to know more of the affairs of Government than they did at present, their knowledge being now circumscribed by the , meagre .reports which appeared in. a still more condensed form in the various provincial journals, Mr. Vogel, on behalf of Otago, coutended that the Government ought to assist the newspapers in their reports of the proceedings in Parliament ; that the provinces which sent the largest number of members to the Assembly ought to be consulted in reference to the place of meeting ; that it would do the Wellington members good to see a little more of the world than they. .did at present ; and that the expense attendant on the proposed change was riot to be compared with the advantages that would follow. Mr. Stafford, objected to remove the members of the Executive from their various departments: said the correspondence and records would be lost if moved from one province to another ; and contended that the difficulty of printing would be increased rather than diminished by exchanging Wellington for Christchurch or Dunedin, unless the Government staff followed the Parliament from place to place. For the motion the votes were 27, and against it, 26. A motion by Mr. C. Wilson that his Excellcney be requested to place £40,000 on the Estimates, for the purpose of carrying out | the motion was carried, the ayes being 30, and the noes 25. If the Assembly is to become a peripatetic institution. Nelson has as great a right to share in the advantage of the novelty as any other province. It can furnish as good a place for the Assembly to meet in, and hotel accommodation for the members, as many other provinces, and its residents would be nothing loth to have the stillness of their city interrupted by the stir of legislation,- and the presence in their midst of the numerous bigwigs that the session would bring here. But, seriously speaking, the removal of the Parliament from place. to. place is a matter that ought not to be attempted without a greater show of necessity than the advocates of the measure now furnish. On the ground of expense alone, the removal of the Assembly from Wellington, cannot be too strongly condemned. The speculation would doubtless be a good one for a few hotelkeepers and lodginghousekeepers, at the newly selected towns, but the cost to the country would be too great to be tolerated if the removal can be avoided. No doubt the removal of the Assembly to some other place would be the commencement of another agitation in favor of dismemberment, and it would sow the seeds of a thousand jealousies to be added to those which already exist to the frustration of almost every enterprise of colonial interest. If Christchurch . and Dunedin are to be subsidised to enable the printing establishments of those places to do the work which could., nqt. b,e done in Wellington, it shows., the motives that influenced the members whoT voted against the motion that proposed the',* sum of £15,000 should be given to the, pro,-* prietors of the Wellington papers, to 'enab'l.e ' them to furnish full and efficient reports of

the /Parliamentary debates. ! The Government opposed the removal; of the Assembly to Chriatchurch, aud the" Legislative-Council gave it a direct' negative. It is not likely the present positiou will be surrendered without a struggle, or. that the contemplated change will be carried iritoeffect, "unless more substantial reasons can.be shown for its adoption. . . .... . .