THE NELSON EXAMINER Wednesday, June 30, 1858.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XVII, Issue 52, 30 June 1858, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER Wednesday, June 30, 1858.

Journals becuin> more necessary itt> me n become mutt equal »nd indiVNlualinii) mure to he feared It would be to underrate their importance to suppose thut they nerve only to serurr liberty: they maintain civilization Ds I'ocquevillk, Of Denwcracy in America, col. T.,p. 2311 We think we may at present look upon Local Self-Govern meat as fairly established among us, not only in theory, but in practice ; and iiow that the heat of the contest is over, that angry feeling and party prejudices have had time to subside, we are at leisure to examine into the real value of what we were at so much trouble to obtain ; to criticise the proportionsj and even to fiud fault with the

behaviour of this child of our own exertions. We sat out with a strong predisposition in favour of all the institutions we had left behind us in Great Biitain, and have striven, not without success, to reproduce them in New Zealand. Oar official seal, as we once before observed, has faithfully set before us our proceedings, and the tendency of our thoughts. There, Britannia, seated as we see her on our copper coins, with trident in hand, and shield by her side, is looking on quietly at a chubby little child, very badly off as v to , clothing, who is running away from her as fast as he can, with a little trident over his shoulder, the exact copy of her own. So we, at first almost as scantily provided with an ! outfit as our little representative, not without many fractious screams and noisy expostulations with our good old Mother, at one time, because she took too much upon her, ' and was always interfering with our play ; at [ another, because she paid no attention to us 1 at all, even when we kicked as hard, and t roared as loudly as we could ; have, for some ■ years ;;ast, been busily engaged in cutting out and fashioning our little trident, with such 1 tools as we could find, and such materials as ' we had at hand, undeterred and uninterfered , with, except now and then by a gentle remnrK, 3 or a quiet admonition not to cut our fingers fin the operation. And we have succeeded in , carving out a very tolerable representation of our model; rather too heavy and clumsy ? perhaps in some parts, capable of receiving some alterations and improvements, and , requiring a good deal of work to be laid out • upon it even yet, to make it a really handy and useful instrument for our purposes; but , after all, for a first attempt, not at all a bad specimen of workmanship. Thus, to begin with the head, we have succeeded in trans- : forming the autocratic despotism of Sir George Grey into the mild consti utional imonarchy of Colonel Gore Brown, with a [responsible ministry, directly accountable for its conduct to the representatives of the people, dependent upon their support for continuance in office, and removable from it at a moment's notice by a single adverse vote We have our Provincial Councils too, which answer to our Corporations and Muncipalities at home ; and which, in our opinion, would be quite as efficient for good, and work out all their legitimate ends and purposes quite as effectively, if they adhered more closely to their original model ; if we got rid of the new fangled title 0!' his Honour the Superintendent, the nature of whose office and the extent of whose powers we are even yet at a loss to make up our minds about, our absurd Executive Council, Speaker, and other highsounding titles without corresponding functions, and substitute a plain Common Council, with its Mayor at its head, its Treasurer, its Law Adviser, and a sufficient number of clerks to do all the requisite business. Again, we have our local Road Boards, ai d our Educational Committees, and lastly, we have our Associations of a less comprehensive character, as, our Religious bodies, our Literary Institutions, our Chamber of Conn' merce, Oddfellows, Freemasons, Teatotallers, Musical Amateur Societies, and the like; so that on the whole, we think we fairly deserve the character given us by a late visitor, when he said, that', "if it had not been for the weather, he could have fancied himself in England." With so much then that is good and characteristic of the race we belong to (for, be it recollected, that the greater number of the Institutions we have spoken of, are either unknown or prohibited in most other countries, even those which approach most nearly to us in manners and civilization), our future course is a comparatively easy one, and we are called upon merely to improve upon and fill up the the outlines of our first rough sketch; to supply the details, and coriect the smaller errors and defects which become apparent on a closer examination. This, whatever the more sanguine of us may imagine, is no holiday task, which, once done, leaves us nothing afterwards but to enjoy ourselves and take our pleasure ; but the labour of a life-time, one which, when we have done our part of the work, we must still leave to those who come after us to continue and persevere In but not to finish. The -work ot' liumfin ; improvement; is never-ending; the duty of , maintaining unimpaired what we have had ! entrusted to our care, requires our continued ] attention ; and additional watchfulness, that ( the alterations which we are called upon to make, and the improvements which are daily 1 pressed upon us, are really what they pretend 1 to be, and are worthy of the original , structure, J Thus, when we are young in politics, it is • enough for us to have some defects brought to ' our notice, some palpable mistakes pointed out, or gross mismanagement detected, to in- \ duce us to vote for sweeping every thing away and substituting something else in its stead, 1 for the "lets and inevitable hindrances" of , every form of government, we have " not, ordi- 1 narily, the judgment to consider; " but, as we grow older, we become more tolerant, and \ torgive many mistakes and shortcomings, when once persuaded that we ha\e men in authority ] willing and anxious to do their duty. y Following up the spirit of these remarks, let c

us inquire how our machinery id working, beginning with our puiely local arrangements. Beiore these sentences see the light, th. j dif- \ ferent districts will have elected the committees for managing their schools during the next twelvemonths; and each committee will have appointed a representative to the Board which has the general supervision of the whole. Have they chosen the men best fitted for the tasK, and who will t«ke the greatest interest in promoting the efficiency of the schools? Or, have they chosen the first names offered to their choice, without asking themselves how far they have already performed their duty, or are willing to perform it? We ask the question, because we know that, while the state of the schools and the attendance in some districts sufficiently show that they and the masters have done their duty, others are spoken of as showing but little improvement ; where the committees look upon their office as a mere nominal one, entailing upon them no responsibility at all; where the masters lose heart, and the schools languish in consequence. It is not sufficient that they evidence no falling off in attendance or in numbers: they should show positive advance; for our community is a young and growing one, and the school, which is creditable to a village of five hundred inhabitants, is no longer so when there is an addition of one or two hundred more to the population, with no corresponding increase in it. Connected with this subject, we would offer one observation. The grant in aid of erecting school-houses and masters' dwellings is about to be expended. Let the committees look forward to more than the present wants, and lay out their plans so as to provide for future extension. In old and long settled countries, a town, a village, vv a hamlet may remain stationary for many years : in Switzerland there are instances where, for centuries, neither increase nor diminution has taken place. But it is not so here ; and although we do not advance with the mushroom rapidity of some places, let any one compare the spot he resffles in, as it now is and as it was five years ago, and he will see the necessity of what we have referred to. Governments and national institutions of all kinds reflect the spirit of the people among whom they exist, and the schools will improve in proportion to the call for improvement ; not, indeed, in answer to the voice of every solitary grumbler or visionary enthusiast, hut in response to the general demand for more education, and for that of a better quality. Again, who constitute our Road Boards and what have they done, and what do they intend to do? But the subject has too many ramifications to be now disposed of; and we leave it, intending to return to it at an early oppor tunity. Through the kindness of Captain Ilavs, who arrived last night in the Tfism >.nian Maid from Wellington, we are enabled to place before our readers the state of the poll for the election of Superintendent, so far as it ivns kuo»n iv Wellington at four o'clock on Monday, viz. : — St. Iliil. Featherston. Town of Wellington . . 218 227. Country Di-stric's . . 'ifi 60