A GLANCE AT THE LATE SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 133, 5 November 1867, Page 2

A GLANCE AT THE LATE SESSION OF THE ASSEMBLY.

[From the Nelson Examiner, Oclober 26.]

The Parliamentary session which has jusfc ended is far from being one of the least important in its results which the history of the colony has yet recorded. In some respects, indeed, it may well be regarded as being more so than any which have preceded it. The natural progress of events in a new country like this supplies ample reason why every session of the Legislature should be r ccstcris pariuus, more interesting and important than its predecessor. The increase of population, of industry and enterprise, of commerce and of wealth, implies a corresponding increase in the magnitude of the political and social interests which annually become subjects of discussion in the General Assembly. Where this natural order is interfered with, it is by the occurrence of accidental or unexpected events, which assume a temporary importance out of proportion to the influence which they are destined to exercise. Such was the case with this colony at the outbreak of the Maori war. Prom the quiet but useful employment of nursing ayoung community in its early and peaceful infancy, the Legislature suddenly found itself confronted with a crisis of no slight gravity, and called upon to undertake a task requiring no little skill and judgment. How the crisis was met it is not our present purpose to discuss ; but its qccurrence in the form which it assumed gave to the counselsof the Legislature an unwonted interest, the 1 tendency of which could not be otherwise than to dwarf the importance of subsequent Parliamentary sessions for some years to> come. It might well have been expected that the sessions immediately following the exciting incidents of the war would have wanted relish, and have seemed to the country flat, stale, and, if not unprofitable, at all events uninteresting. And yet this has not been the case. On the contrary, sp great is the advantage which the interests arising out of the steady and natural growth of the country possess over those which are temporary and accidental, that the late session, has equalled, and probably surpassed in the general interest with which its proceedings have been watched by the country, all which have preceded it. It is true that this interest cannot be altogether attributed to a philosophical appreciation of the bearing of the questions which were to come before the Assembly upon the permanent well-being of the country. The public expectation had no doubt the zest usually imparted by the mixture of a sporting element, and the anticipation of a fight. There was not only the annually recurring question of the probability of the Ministry maintaining its ground, and if not, who were most likely to be the successful assailants, but there was also the special question between the Ministry and the Superintendent of Otago, on which nothing short of a pleasing and exhilirating contest was confidently expected ; and there was the broader question — of which the last was only a part — the question between the General Government and the Provincial Governments as such. It is this last question which appears to us to have been in ideality ' the question of the session, the one most closely and intimately connected with the mode in which the political fabric of the colony is likely to expand, and the shape it is destined to assume ; and, moreover, the question which has received the nearest approach to a solution. The common phraseology which speaks of the issue between the General and Provincial Governments as an issue between centalization and local self-government, is, as we have repeatedly pointed out, erroneous. But the thing signified was real. There was at the beginning of the sessionareal issue to be tried between the General and the Provincial Governments, and of this what was commonly called the Otago question, was only a particular manifestation. There is no doubt that the time had arrived when it was generall} r felt that the constitution of the colony required some modification to adapt it to the change of circumstances caused by increased population, and the formation of new centres of industry and activity. It was felt, in fact, that the Provincial Governments must either gain or lose, must either become more of small General Governments in themselves, or must give up something of their own powers to the new towns and local centres that had come into being. In such a state of things, the ultimate result of the dispute could not be for a moment doubtful to any one accustomed to take anything approaching to broad views of the course of human affairs. Whatever the efforts of faction might do to impede the natural course of events, there could be no reason to doubt that the tendency of a country like this must be to unity and amalgamation. There

were, of course, not wanting persons who were indefatigable in trying to represent it otherwise. There were even some oracular authorities, who, whilst most of our neighbours were laughing at us for our one big and nine little Governments, persisted in gravely speaking of New Zealand as if it was, like the great American Republic, a federal union of several free and independent States. Such arrant nonsense could, of course, only be uttered by a political party in the extremity of despair for want of more plausible arguments, but if the provincialists were weak in reasons they were strong in hope, and confident in the result of the battle. At the beginning of the session, indeed, it certainly looked as if argument would be a little longer overborne by clamour, and as if true statesmanship upon this subject would have to wait another year. Upon tne first onset the Government gave way, the point in dispute in the Otago controversy was ceded, and an ardent supporter of Provincialism announced with exultation the realization of his prophecy that the provincial party would be strong enough to hold its own when the question came to be tried. This triumph seemed to culminate in the defeat of the . Local Government Bill, but from that moment the tide turned. With the successes they had achieved the energies of the provincialists seemed to collapse, and they who had appeared so powerful were now able to do nothing except to repeat in doleful tone and style their old stock phrases, whilst position after position was stormed or occupied by the vigilant and enterprising foe. Even the Otago question was fought over again, and half of what the Government had conceded was virtually resumed. With the Local Government question, the case was much the same. What the House had declined to sanction as a general rule, it was quite ready to carry out in each particular instance, and that which it shrunk from doing to the provinces it had no objection to do to each particular province. No doubt the desperate condition to which so many of the provinces had reduced themselves was not without its effect in producing the conviction that a continuance of the existing status and claims of Provincial Governments was absolutely inconsistent with the harmonious development of the colony as a whole. Hence the decisive check which ultra-provinpialism has met with during the past session. If the signs of the times have any meaning, provincialism is going to pieces. There is good reason to expect that several provinces, and among them the large and important one of Auckland, will before long spontaneously give up the game, and resign their provincial existence. Some will last longer than others, and Nelson will reap the reward of its temperate prudence in a healthful decline, in a retrospect of good work done, and in an euthanasia which will form a striking contrast to the confusion in which some of' her sisters seem likely to make their exit. We believe the provincial system has been productive of much good, and but for unprincipled and scandalous mismanagement it might have been productive of much more ; but at the very best it never bad in it the elements of permanence, and before long everybody will wonder that anybody should ever have thought otherwise.