CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XI, Issue 4045, 29 October 1874, Page 3

CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES.

[ We are glad to hear, on good authority, that Sir George Grey-does not intend confining himself to the petition which has excited such deep and general interest in the colony, but that he is engaged in maturing proposals which will be likely to increase the interest felt, and to command attention from their comprehensiveness, grandeur, and simplicity. Every l one feels a change of some kind inevitable, ai:d it is satisfactory to find that we shall have, in such a crisis, the services of- one whose wide of Colonial and English official life, and: whose personal intimacy with all the earlier phases of New Zealand history render hiin peculiarly fitted for the task: of initiating a. measure for public consideration.

So far as we can leavn, Sir George's proposals embrace the adoption of the federal instead of the central principle in our future constitution. The Provincial Councils would he independent of. the General Government so long as they confined themselves to the local duties and local legislation allotted to them. Their Acts, once assented to by the Superintendents, would become law, and if they exceeded their powers, the question would be settled by the Supreme Court of the colony and not by the Central Legislature. The most startling change would be, however, if we have been correctly informed, the abolition of the Governor's office and of the two Houses of Assembly. For the latter would be substituted only one Council to consist of not more than 20 to 30 members, whose duties would be strictly colonial—that is to say, confined to matters of colonial interest, such as Customs, telegraphs, and post-offices. The members of this Cornell would be elected either by the people or by the different Provincial Councils, as might be thought, after due consideration, most suitable. They iu their turn would elect a President of Council who for four years would fill the office now held by the Governor, but with the important differencethat he would nominate his own executive, and that they would have no vote in the Council. Party Government would thus be abolished, and we should govern ourselves more on the American system. The party fights and tedious struggles, so unsuitable to our present condition and so injurious to our progress, could be well spared. Few will regret them, but it would, we presume, be necessqjy to give to the Council the power of passing, by a three-fourths majority, any Act that they considered advisable when vetoed by the President of Council- In lieu of the Governor, a Secretary of State, elected by the Council or by the people, would hold office in Loudon, and be placed in direct communication with Her Majesty in all JN"cw Zealand affairs. The Queen's right of veto would remain as at present, that of the Governor being vested in the President of Council. Party Government would also, we presume, be abolished in the provinces, and the Provincial Councils be endowed with the same power as the Federal Council, of enacting laws by a three-fourths majority in any case iu which they objected to the exercise of his light by the Superintendent.

We are only in a position to give a brief outline of the proposals, the details of which are yet unknown to us. It will, however, be sufficient to indicate some of their most important features. They possess, as we have said, a grandeur and a simplicity which will recommend them to the earnest consideration of every thinking man. Extended to all the colonies, sucli a system would get rid of many of the most objectionable features of the existing Colonial Ollice constitutions, and be much more suitable to their present condition. > t would also bind them together as parts of a great empire, relieve them from the control of the Imperial Ministry except in rare matters of Imperial interest and foreign policy, and enable them to make their influence felt in London by tiic joint action of their leprescntutivos, whenever such joint action might become advisable, it would be in every sense a cheap and, if properly elaborated, an effective form of Government, and it would no doubt secure the sympathy of that large party at home who desire to see the English-speaking people united more solidly than at present. In that sense it would be a grand step, and one in which New Zealand might be proud to have an opportunity of taking the initiative. To those who object to the small population of our provinces we might quote the words of one of the deepest thinkers 011 these questions, the late John Robert Godley. In an address delivered by him at Lytic Iton in ISSI, Mr. Godley said : "Iprotest altogether against the asssumption that the amount of population is in the smallest degree a test of fitness to exercise legislative powers ; it has nothing at all to do with it. Local position and peculiarities, not members, should determine the extent of political subdivision. I see no reason why the people conveyed first ship to jjan uninhabited country should not make laws binding 011 tliemsel\ es the day they occupy their new home. It was so at the time when America was colonised, and I can answer for it that the principle lias worked well there. The first body of emigrants to New England numbered but 123 souls, and yet from the hour of their landing I they exercised absolute and complete j power of self-government. There were only 350 colonists in Massachusetts when I the Charter was transferred to the colony. Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Haven had every one of them fewer inhabitants than this town of Lyttelton when they established their municipal independence. In the middle of the seventeenth century a population of 20,000 souls in New England was divided into five separate and independent colonies, and 1 find the historian of the United States remarking 011 this municipal subdivision and the variety of laws which it produced, that they ' exercised a beneficial influence 011 the colonists by prompting them to examine and discuss the merits of the different systems, and thus promoting a constant and animating circulation of political sentiment and opinion.' It is very remarkable, too, that the c<institutions which, were tlien framed have scarcely been altered since,while under their shadow those small feeble communities have been growing into great and powerful States." These were the well-matured opinions of one who tilled a liigh position in English political lift-, and who ranked among the most revered founders of the Canterbury settlement Wo forbear further comment until Sir Ueorye Grey's views are more fully before the public.