New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4247, 30 October 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1874.

The Novo Zealand Herald, contrary to all its antecedents, has veered round to the Superintendental party. Not that tho change of front has been done without some little show of reluctance, avo admit. Thoro is still a hankering after its old political faith; and an attempt, by no means unskilful, to preserve at least tho appearance of consistency. But tho s6ep has been taken, and we now find that journal committed to tho support of a system, which it frankly admits, is neither useful nor ornamental. To quote its own words, writing of tho provincial form of government, "its best friends " admit,that regeneration or total aboli- " tion are tho only alternatives." But "regeneration," even on our contemporary's own showing, in his article of the 22nd instant, is altogether impossible; Avhorefore the only course open to tho country, if it would have an ofiicient system of local government, is to abolish provincial institutions, and provido some

simpler and more directly acting machinery. Yet, with this conclusion as the only logical outcome of its argument, the Herald veers round and enrols itself under Sir George Grey's provincial banner. it would be quite beside the question •to assign reasons for this desertion of principle. There may bo sufficiently cogent reasons, and we are willing to assume their existence; but it is a very difficult manoeuvre, and one requiring consummate skill, to desert one's colors and' change front during action. It may have been successfully accomplished, although we are not aware of the fact ; but at all events,,our Auckland contemporary, notwithstanding his skill, has signally failed. His 'leading article on Sir George GRsy's petition will not bear analysis. - His arguments against the Assembly, if they are good for anything, tell more heavily against Provincial Councils. In one breath the Constitution is extolled as perfect; in the next, when another point is to bo made, its defects are indicated as the cause of provincial decadence. Of. course, all this is supremely inconsistent; * but then it is not one whit more inconsistent than the Kawau memorial, which it sustains.* Tried by the hard logic of facts, neither the one nor the other can bo sustained. For instance, the Herald charges the Assembly with a violation of the Constitution (and rightly) by giving the land to the provinces ; but instead of being any indication of a design on the part of the Assembly to degrade provincial institututions, as our contemporary implies, it is clearly the opposite. The Assembly strengthened Provincial Government at the expense of the'colony, for we may take it for granted that, had the territotorial revenue remained part of the Consolidated Fund, subject to appropriation by the General Assembly, Provincial Government would long since have ceased from troubling. It was the much-abused and "aggressive Assembly," composed of "conceited and ambitious "men," who desired to "exalt their " theories above the Constitution," that gave vitality to the provincial system. In other words, it was the ultra-provincial party which, being in the majority in the Assembly, " effected this change in the " Constitution by a side-wind," the evil effects of which the colony has not yet realised in full, but which it will yet realise to its bitter sorrow. When the whole of the public estate has been disposed of by the Provincial Governments, and the proceeds have been dissipated to the four winds, the colony will begin to realise the incabulable mischief which the Superintendental party has inflicted upon New Zealand ; but, surely it is too bad to bring up " the compact of 1850" as a charge against the Colonial party in the present Assembly. The Herald makes some other points against the Colonial party, in its attack upon the General Assembly. The number of members was increased, Ministerial responsibility was adopted, and last, and worst of all, the goldlields had a special franchise conferred upon them. Unhappily, from various motives (writes the Herald), "new constituencies unknown "to the Constitution were created, " and the number of representatives "was increased without attempt at due " proportions, or without change in " the conditions under which they were " elected." These changes, we are told, are unconstitutional, .and our Auckland contemporary would "regenerate" our institutions by going back to the representation of the colony when the Constitution was first introduced. A popular House of 78 members " ba- " came necessarily an aggresshe body " (we quote from the Herald.) Mem- " bers, by no means the most eligible, " found ready access to a body which few " men could enter without great loss of " time and long absence from business at " home. It was necessary to their own " purposes that they should grasp power " and patronage, and with each aggres- " sion the hunger increased, until it be- " came,a matter of notoriety as to the " disreputable modes of securing sup- " port." Then again, we are told that so long as the House of Representatives " was kept down to 42, the As- " sembly worked in harmony with the "provinces;"—which is tantamount to saying, that there was then no independent colonial opinion in the Assembly. Now, this kind of writing does no good whatever. There was quite as much corruption and jobbery in the General Assembly, when the Lower House stood at 42, as ever there has been since. We are inclined to think that it was this elect number that did all the. mischief, laying the foundation for wars, and debts, and the squandering of the public estate. The Assembly has since then made ineffectual efforts to recover lost ground for the colony, but it has always hitherto been "thwarted by the " vested rights " created through and by provincial institutions. Our contemporary cannot have considered the effect of his argument. Does he really think that the miners I should bo disfranchised 1 Is it his opinion that the growth of a colonial public opinion is an evil ? Does he stippose that Superintcndentalism is -purity itself, and that tho Colonial Government and Parliament are utterly abandoned and corrupt 1 He knows far better than this. He knows that the time has come for amending the Constitution, arid that tho welfare of the people will best be promoted by abolishing provincial institutions, which, in the North Island at loast, have exhausted their functions for good.