Untitled

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4175, 7 August 1874, Page 2

Opthalmia is not the'only ono of tho ills that flesh is heir to -which are involved in the discharge of the duties of members of Assembly in the curtained chambers in which they are obliged to sit and listen to the little they can hear. Loss of memory is another affliction from which they seem occasionally to suffer, through the severe strain imposed upon that faculty of the mind by the preparation of the mass of matter which they annually produce for the'benefit of the butter-man or of generations yet unborn. An illustration of their liability to this mental weakness has even happened thus early in the session, slight as has been the amount of party strife, or similar causes calculated to provoke forgetfulness of the past by the anxious interest taken in tho present; We made reference yesterday to a Bill which had been introduced in ; the Legislative Council j by the Hon. Dr. Renwick, for the purpose of delegating to the Executive of Nelson the powers of the Governor under the Goldfields Act. A similar measure had been introduced in the House of Representatives by the Superintendent of that Province, and member for Nelson City, Mr. Curtis ; and in that House it escaped the fate which it met at the hands of the Council: —it went through its regular course of readings, and was carried. Though passed in the Lower House, and thrown put by the Upper, there is not, however, due to “ the Lords” any more credit for clearness of recollection of previous legislation than can be claimed by ‘ 1 the Commons. ” The measure was opposed, on the ground that it was exceptional, and,for other reasons which were briefly indicated in our report of yesterday, but only by tho Hon. Mr. Paterson does it seem ; to have been remembered that what was sought to bo gained by it for one . Province had last year been provided . for all in which at any time a responsible Executive might be established. There was, in fact, no necessity for legislation on tho subject—a circumstance which seems to have equally escaped the' recollection of Mr. Curtis and Dr. Renwick, and which certainly cannot have been remembered by

the Hori. Mr. Bonar, who will probably learn without, any extraordinary amount of gratification that, although he contributed to the defeat of the Bill, the powers delegated to him by the Governor, in his capacity of Superintendent of Westland, are already de jure, if not de facto, shared with him by his recently appointed Executive. The particular measure to which we refer as having been thus early forgotten, is shortly known as the Interpretation Act Amendment Act, 1873, and seems to provide, in its one clause, and as plainly as words can put it, that in Provinces where there is an Executive Council, “ Superintendent” shall mean the Superintendent acting with the advice of his Executive Council, so that in Nelson and Westland, since the creation of such bodies of advice and counsel in the administration of affairs, their Honors have only in common with them held the powers delegated by His Excellency, or if they have not so held such powers, they ought to have done. The clause or, rather, the Act, for it consists of only one, is thus printed in the statute-book : “ Whenever by under or by virtue of the provisions of any Act of the General Assembly, passed or to be passed, any power or authority is vested in or conferred on, or any act matter or thing is to be executed or performed by, the Superintendent of a Province, then, within and for the purpose of any Province in which by»Act or Ordinance of the Legislature of such Province it is provided that the Superintendent thereof shall, in the administration of the affairs or government thereof, act by and with the advice and consent of an Executive Council, such power and authority, and such act matter or thing, shall bo exercised performed and done by such Superintendent with the advice and consent of "his Executive Council; and in such case the term ‘Superintendent,’ where used in any such Act of the General Assembly, shall hereafter be construed to mean the Superintendent with the advice and consent of his Executive Council.”