The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 395, 3 August 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1877.

Mr. Stout seems full}'' bent on distinguishing himself tliis session in the House

of Representatives. Amidst several cries of " Hear, hear," be lias given notice of his intention to move that the Governor should be elected by the people. We cannot, for one moment, believe that Mr. Stout seriously thinks that the motion will be carried, or that the Imperial Government would consent to it 5 even if it were adopted by the Legislature. To many the idea may seem an excellent one, but to the calm, dispassionate on-lookor, Mr. Stout's proposition must bear the appearance of being an insane notion. However much we may deprecate a system of nominees, we are bound to confess that the present mode of appointing Colonial Governors is the best that could be adopted. So long as the Governor of the Colony is free from party bias, he occupies to some extent the position of a judge between the contending factions. Once make the Governor elective by the people, and there is an end altogether to his independence and freedom from party influence and party feeling. To be elected, any man aspiving to the position of Governor would have to become a strong partisan, and fall in with the particular cry of the bulk of the people, no matter of what that cry might consist, and of however a transitory nature it might be. Then we have also to consider that what might for the time be the popular feeling of one part of tiic Colony would most probably be antagonistic to the desires of other portions. The same would hold good with regard to the candidates wiio might offer themselves. A man who might be popular in Otago, for instance, would scarcely be acceptable to many other parts of .New Zealand. Each and every portion of the Colony would have its own particular notions as to who was the most eligible man to be Governor, and the consequence would undoubtedly be the still further stirring up of local feelings and local jealousies. Instead of a national feeling being established in New Zealand, petty local jealousies would become rampant, ending most probably in the dismemberment of the Colony. The adoption of the course proposed by Mr. Sxorr would be tantamount to severing the connection of the Colon}' with the Mother Country, and this is a state of affairs which the majority of the Colonists are not willing to adopt. Altogether, we cannot think that Mr. Stout

is in earnest about the matter. We believe he has simply brought forward the motion for the purpose of giving the Marquis of Nokmanby a hard hit or two.