The New Zealand Herald. AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, 1865.

New Zealand Herald, Volume III, Issue 645, 6 December 1865, Page 4

The New Zealand Herald.

AUCKLAND, WEDNESDAY, DEC. 6, 1865.

SPECTEMUn AGENDO. " Give every man thine t-nr, but fvjwtliy voice : Take each man's censure, but reserve thy judgment. This above all,—To thine ownsellbe true; And it must follow, as the night tho day, Tlioa canst not then be fulso to any man."

At the public dinner given to tho Auckland Members of the General Assembly ou the 23rd ult., his Honor the Superintendent, in replying to the toast ot'hishealth, announced his intention of convokiug the Provincial Council for a short session, to be held in the middle of this month, for the express purpose of deciding the question whether or not the Provincial administration is henceforth to be carried on according to tho system that is commonly named, that of "responsi ble government." And accordingly a proclamation was issued on Saturday last, whereby the Provincial Council is summoned to meet on Tuesday next, the 12th instant. The Superintendent on the same occasion intimated that after sitting a few days in December, the Council would adjourn for about a month, during which interval tho new Executive will prepare its policy aud measures. "Whether during the December sittings the Council will be called upon to take any new action in the great question of Colonial Separation, we have not as yet ascertained ; but at all events these two special subjects, or else the former alone, will furnish tho matter of discussion to be entered upon on Tuesday next. Whatever, may be the conclusion arrived at on the question of the immediate adoption of Parliamentary responsibility, we have littlo doubt that the decision of the Council will be cheerfully acquiesced in by the public. And there can be as little doubt of a similar acquiescence being accorded by his Honor himself. Mr. "Whitaker, previously to his election to the Superintendency, took occasion to say that ho was prepared to carry out fully whichever system the Council should approve. We can readily surmise reasons why it might bo supposed that tho system of Parliamentary Government should be the reverse of disagreeable to the present Superintendent. He lias been called to his present odice in circumstances of peculiar difficulty, and it would, of course, be felt as a relief that the main share of the real responsibility should bo virtually transferred to others ; while at tho same time it is impossible that a man of Mr. Whitaker's commanding abilities and high official experience should in any case fail to wield a potential inlluence. It is certainly a happy circumstance that whatever the decision of the Council may be, it will at least engender no distrust nor occasion any soreness ; but still it is highly desirable that tho question should receive a very careful consideration. It will be conducivo to a clear apprehension of the subject, if we notice distinctly that the application of this term " responsible government " to the proposed change iu the Provincial administration docs not appear to be altogether accurate. The term is borrowed from the example of the Colonial Government, and has been derived from the working of constitutional monarchies ; but the analogy fails when wo como to tho caso of tho Superintendent of a Province and his Council. Tho Governor of New Zealand is nominated by tho Imperial Government exclusively ; aud so long as his Excellency's Ministers were dependent upon him alone, we had really no responsible government of the Colony—responsible, that is, to the people of New Zealand. The change that made tho Colonial Ministers dependent upon tho Colonial Parliament, was really tho establishment of responsible government for New Zealand. But not so as to the projected change in tho Provincial administration. Here tho question is not between responsibility and irresponsibility ; the question is, whether the Provincial Executive shall bo removable by the Superintendent or by the Council. The Superintendent himself is elected by, and is, in a manner, responsible to his constituents, the electors of the Province. By the same constituents, taken in their several districts, are the members of the Council elected, and to thorn similarly responsible. AVhether the Provincial Executive shall be amenable to tho Superintendent alone, according to the Constitution Act, or to the Council ultimately, according to the change proposed, each alternative is one of responsibility. The appropriate name for the system under discussion, as applied to the Provinces of New Zealand, is not " Responsible Government," but Parliamentary Government. The change sought is tho conversion, in so far, of the Provincial Council into a Parliament.

It is a. decisive condomnation of the change, but still it is ■worth adverting to, that the proposed change is fraught with anomalies. Tho Parliament thus established —for the Council would thus be exercising the functions of a Parliament —consists of ono House, not of two. But there is a yet moro considerable anomaly. In every instance, throughout the world, outside of New Zealand, of the executive being responsible to the legislative body, the head of the system is either a hereditary sovereign, or else the viceroy and nominee of a sovereign. "Wherever the supreme head of the administration is a magistrate elected by the people, there the executive is not responsible to. nor removable by, the legislature, fcsuch is tho case iu tho tmited Stnies of America, »nd in

the other American republics, which have been moulded upon the United States' model. A constitutional monarch, being hereditary, reigns but does not rule, and a Colonial Governer is the nominee and counterpart of tho sovereign; but the great business of electing a President in America, or a Superintendent in Auckland or Otago, is not to have the central figure of an imposing ceremonial—it is, or ought to be, to put the wisest and most efficient ruler into a position of practical working. In making these remarks, however, we do not by any means disparage parliamentary governments, wherever it may bo thought proper to be applied. We merely, in the first place, have thought it desirable to remove some misapprehensions that lie in the way of the question being considered on its proper merits. Eor our own darfc we think that the political system of New Zealand is far too complex, as it is. There can bo little doubt, iowever, that this system is destined to be very speedily overhauled. The present complicated system has not worked well, and the cure will lie, not in the introductions of counter-complications, but in reverting to greater simplicity. Mr. Firth well remarked, in his recent speech at the public dinner, that we New Zealand' people have been vastly over-governed. Sepabitiox, which is so requisite for other purposes, will bring on a reform in this matter of overcomplexity and over-government. Now the fact of this being so, and of the prospect of Separation—we are happy to say—being_ now imminent, suggests the propriety of pausing ere we make at this time so great a change in our Provincial Institutions. It is not, we think, worth while to introduce just now a new machinery that must occasion, at the best, a considerable amount of experimenting, and not a little expense. The latter consideration is no slight one in the present condition of Colonial and Provincial finances. Mr. Whitaker himself is not exactly the sort of man to whom it is urgently requisite that we should apply the checks of a system that would diminish his power and efficiency. If Mr; Whitaker's Government had been unchecked, and not been insidiously undermined, when that gentleman was Premier of New Zealand, the Province of Auckland would be to-day in a vastly more flourishing condition. What he wanted—or rather, what we wanted for him—was a power more unhampered and longer continued. Wo shall do well to pause before we needlessly hamper him now. lie may, for ought we know, personally prefer tho restriction—but the question is, not what the Superintendent may personally prefer, but what is best to be done ; what is best for the Province at a time when we really cannot afford to be playing Parliament. Not such was the practice of tho greatest and most prosperous republic that the world ever saw—auy more than it is the practice of the mighty republic in America. In times of special difficulty or danger, it was the custom of the Romans to appoint a temporary Dictator, armed with extraordinary powers. The powers entrusted to him were vast; but he was carefully selected, and the duration of his dictatorial power was limited. In the present Superintendent we have precisely the man that would be nominated, if such an expedient were resorted to among ourselves, and indeed the recent election of Mr. Whitaker was just of such an exceptional kind as to establish such a sort of analogy. Such a juncture is not a fitting one for frittering away the personal efficiency of the chief magistrate. In periods of crisis the Senate of Jiome sometimes decreed " that the consuls should beware lest the Republic sustain detriment;" and this was a formula that was understood to convey dictatorial authority. It will be for our Provincial Senate next week to determine whether the present or a future period shall be adjudged to be the more fitting one for recasting the Provincial administration. Most men naturally covet power, and it is natural that the members of tho Provincial Council should approach the discussion of this question with something of a leaning on one side. At the same time we have so much confidence in the present Council that we shall be thoroughly disposed to defer to their judgment. We would only beg of them not merely to consider which would be best in general or in the abstract, but what is most fitting now in the face of existent circumstances and in the prospect of a speedy separation from tbc extraneous interests of the Southern Island.