THE NELSON EXAMINER. Tuesday, December 3, 18G7.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVI, Issue 145, 3 December 1867, Page 2

THE NELSON EXAMINER. Tuesday, December 3, 18G7.

Journals become more necessary as men become more equal and individualism more to be feared. It would be to underrate their importance to suppose lliut they serve only to secure iberty ; the; maintain civilization. De Tocqujstill*, Of Democracy in America, to], S, 230. It is now, vre think, about two years ago since the Upper and Lower Houses of the Victorian Legislature came into serious collision. The war then begun has distracted the colony almost ever since, and is still maintained with unabated fierceness. Looked at from a public point of view, the altercation has greatly damaged the character of colonial Legislatures in the eyes of British statesmen ; while in its private operation it has entailed heavy losseß to individuals — ruined the reputation as well as the pocket of one Governor of the colony — and bids fair to make shipwreck of the public character of a second. The quarrel arose, as our readers will probably remember, out of an attempt of a protectionist Government to improperly carry

an amendment of the Tariff through the Upper Chamber (which contained a majority hostile to protectionist views), by tackiDg it on to the Appropriation Bill. The Council refused to consider the measure in that shape, and as it is the practice in our colonial Upper Chambers, following the example of the House of Lords, never to amend money bills, the Council was precluded from dealing with the proposed alteration in the tariff, and had no choice but either to pass an obnoxious measure or throw out the Appropriation Bill. Refusing to be coerced in the manner attempted, it took the latter course, and then followed the wretched plotting between the Government and one of the Banks in Melbourne to expend the revenue without appropriation, Sir Charles Darling, the then- Governor, making himself a partisan of Ministers. A reference to the Colonial Office resulted in the cemure and recall of the Governor, and Sir Henry Manners Sutton became his successor. In the session of Parliament that followed the arrival of the new Governor, the illegalities that had been practised were duly legalized, but a new question arose between the Houses, which, after a good deal of fencing, has brought the colony to the state it was in before the recall of Sir Charles Darling : for now again the revenue is being spent without an Appropriation Act, in open violation of the Constitution. The new cause of dissension between the Ministry of Victoria, backed by the Assembly, or Lower Chamber, and the Council, or Upper Chamber of the Legislature, has arisen out of a promise made by Ministers to Sir Charles Darling that he should lose nothing by supporting them in their illegal proceedings, and pledging themselves to obtain for him a vote of £20,000. A proceeding so monstrous was opposed by the British Government, but a vote of £20,000 to Lady Darling could not be objected to, so it was in this form the money was to be given. However this vote may be regarded in Victoria, persons at a distance can look at it in no other light than as a most discreditable proceeding from beginning to end — as an infamous bribe by an unscrupulous Ministry to a needy and facile Governor for maintaining them in office by violating the Constitution of the colony 1 . But again the difficulty arose of passing the vote through the Council. In the Assembly it was safe, because there the Government had a servile majority ready to carry all its measures, but, it was suspected that in the Upper Chamber a bill for granting £20,000 out of the revenues of the colony to the wife of a Governor whose great merit was that he had acted illegally, could scarcely be got through. Pledged to Sir Charles Darling (indeed it has been said the money was some time since remitted to him), the Government again resorted to the highly objectionable proceeding of tacking on to the Appropriation Bill a measure not connected with it ; and the Council has again resisted the attempted coercion, and refused to consider the bill to appropriate the revenue unless the vote to Lady Darling is separated from it. To avoid this second collision, many of the members of the Council who are opposed to Ministers were willing to support the vote of £20,000, if sent up in a separate bill, and there is reason to believe it might so have passed ; but whether the Government mistrusted this feeling on their behalf, or whether they are determined on pursuing their own headlong course, does not appear, but no attempt at conciliating their opponents appears to have been made. As the Government of Victoria is now again without money which it can legally spend, and as the arrangement formally made Avith one of the Banks for supplying it with the necessary funds cannot be repeated, a new method has been resorted to of evading the law. Persons to whom the Government is indebted sue for their debts, and as no opposition is offered, judgment is taken by default, and then judgment creditors get their debts paid. To this clumsy and illegal proceeding Sir Henry Manners Sutton has given his countenance, but we shall be surprised if he escape the censure which visited Sir Charles Darling. "We give in another column an article from the Argus, which states the whole case most temperately, and we recommend its perusal. The course now taken by the Governor of dissolving the Parliament, does not appear the proper one in the present state of affairs. It seems to us that he should have first tried a change of Ministers, instead of taking it for granted that the Opposition would be unable to form a Government able to carry on the affairs of the colony. The partisanship of the present Governor of Victoria is as marked as was that of his predecessor.