THE EXISTING FORM OF GOVERNMENT-IN NEW ZEALAND.

Otago Witness, Issue 50, 1 May 1852, Page 4

THE EXISTING FORM OF GOVERNMENT -IN NEW ZEALAND.

( From tks Six Cot&tiita of New Zealand, by WilUam Fttz.J

The form of Government established in New Zealand, as in all the crown colonies, presents an 'outward Tesemblance to a mixed monarchy, in fcvMch the absolute -will of the ruler is tempered and controlled by constitutional checks. Bat .-when these checks ..are examined they prove to be entirely inoperative, and the ■government praetieally.-exists a« a pure unmixed despotism.

The two powers which at £rst sight appear to control the absolutism oof the governor, and to share if not to over-iMe has authority, are the legislative councils .and the colonial office; but, for reasons which. I will proceed to state, neither of them havte m reality the smallest practical influence on his acts.

The legislative councils fail, and must necessarily do so, on account of the fundamental principle on which they are constituted. They consist solely of certain paid officers of government, holding ' ex-officio' seats, as the attorneygeneral, colonial secretary, &c, and of nominees appointed by the .governor and removable at pleasure. Formerly, the number of nominee members was less than that of ' ex-officio' ones but sinoe 1848 (the establishment of the provincial councils) this has- been altered, and there as now a majority of nominated members. The result however is the same in either case — the Governor passes whatever estimates, and carries whatever -measures he pleases. Under the former system the nominee members used commonly to make a display (possibly an honest one) of opposing the Government ; but their opposition was always overruled by the votes of the 5 ex-officio' majority. The same end is now attained in a different way. Care is taken in selecting nominees to secure only such as will give the Government unflinching support, and Thus, though often in a majority even on questions ih reference to which they speak against ■Government, their vote is always with it. In the session of 1849, at Wellington, with the exception of a single vote of £SOO on the educational question, the nominees supported the government in every particular of the slightest interest to it, and passed the estimates (which the colonists at large would have cut down by at least one half) almost in the very shape in which they were laid before them. One of the nominees (Dr. Greenwood) expi-essly stated in "council, that their presence there amounted to a pledge "not to oppose the Government." Another of the members (Dr. Monro) finding on one occasion that owing to the absence of some of the official members a motion of opposition on the part of the nominees must necessarily be carried, chivalrously proposed an adjournment that the Government might bring up its forces ; but the Lieutenant-Governor good-humouredly declined the offer, and the nominees, though in an undeniable majority, allowed him to carry his measures without any resistance except in words. This was the course of proceeding all through the session, and, except as far as it relieved the executive government from responsibility, the council might as well never have met.

And indeed Governor Grey seems to have arrived at the conclusion that it is not worth while to go through the form of calling it together. At the date of the latest news from the colony (the middle of March last) the legislative council of the southern province had not sat for twenty months, and that of the northern for nearly the same period. The revenue had consequently for eight months of that time been expended without any legislative appropriation, on the mere warrant and at the pleasure of the Governor ; an event which occurred also previously to 1848.

The legislative councils therefore appear to have been called into existence only to satisfy the provisions of the charter which prescribes their creation ; but the government is carried on, either without their being summoned, or if occasionally they are, without their exercising the smallest influence over it.

The other apparent check, the Colonial Office, (which is supposed to represent the British Government,) is equally ineffectual to control the governor, except in extreme cases, when action is forced upon it by Parliament, as it was in New' Zealand in 1845. It is perhaps natural that the office should, as a general rule, support a Governor of its own appointment. The presumption in the mind of Downing-street would be that a Governor is in the right, though it must be admitted that experience might have taught it a different conclusion. Consequently, so long as his acts do not get the office into difficulties, it seldom if ever interferes with his proceedings. But this is not the only cause of its inefficacy as a check. There are innumerable cases in which complaints of the Governor and of his acts are made to the Colonial Office by the colonists, and that in a sufficiently imposing form as regards numbers, facts and arguments,

to throw upon the office the responsibility of deciding between the Governor and colonists. And here occurs the weak point, the means by which the Colonial Office is brought always to decide in the Governor's favour. Every complaint, petition, or memorial, relating to him or his government, must be forwarded through him, and goes home accompanied by his own comments and explanations, which are never seen by the colonists or open to any reply from them, till perhaps they appear in a Blue Book twelve or eighteen months after the question involved has been decided against them. Of course under these circumstances, he always makes the best defence he can, whether it be of himself personally or his measures. And the Colonial Office invariably adopts his explanation, and decides in his favour. At least that has been the experience of the colonists of New Zealand, and more particularly during the last five years.

Nor is it any easy matter to bring public or parliamentary opinion to bear upon the Colonial Office when it decides wrong. So much of the questions in dispute as is permitted to see the light is to be found in the Parliamentary Blue Books. But the contents of these are only selections, and selections made by the Colonial Office. They contain a portion of the truth, but seldom the whole truth ; and what there is of truth is often mixed with what is untrue, or plausibly exhibited in a false light. We will suppose a memorial to have been addressed by a body of highly respectable colonists to the home government, complaining of a long series of acts of misgovernment, and dissecting previous despatches of the Governor. It will appear in the Blue Book, in small type, preceded by his defence in large, to which is certain to be appended a reply from the Colonial Minister, assuring him that the complaints of the colonists have in no way lessened her Majesty's confidence in him. The defence probably consists of a few holes picked in some subordinate part of the charge, and then a request that the writer may not be called upon to reply to statements of which these | are a sample. Or an attack will be made on the character of the chairman of the meeting from which the complaint emanated, and ,the charges ignored, because they proceeded from such a source. Or, if there is an opening for neither course, a bold front will be as- ! sumed, and surprise expressed that charges should be preferred, of the falsehood of which every respectable person in the colony has been long convinced. Or, finally, if the rottenness of the case is so apparent on the face of the documents that it cannot be otherwise concealed, they will be distributed in inextricable confusion and small type, up and down the book, while the Governor's denial, and the Colonial Minister's adoption of it, will be printed prominently, and in good large type.

And in addition to thus forming a weapon of defence to the Governor, they provide him with one of attack against his adversaries, with which he is constantly able to deal heavy blows without their being aware of it. Thus charges will be made against an individual, who, though in the colony and at the seat of government, is not there put on his defence, and only becomes acquainted with the charge from seeing it in the Blue Book a year after it was made.

And thus the Colonial Office, so far from constituting any cheek on the Governor, in reality only serves him as a shield and protection against public opinion in the colony. Colonial governments would have to yield to that opinion much oftener than they do, if they had not the opinion of the Colonial Office to exhibit in opposition to it. That department serves, ostensibly, as a sort of tribunal of reference between the colonists and the Governor ; but stands virtually pledged, as well as interested, always to decide in favour of the latter.

The only instance in which a decision has been given against Governor Grey was in reference to the abolition of the county courts, a matter of little importance, but which was clearly an illegal act. On no single question of policy have the suggestions or complaints of the colonists been listened to. For the last three years numerous and repeated complaints on matters of vital importance, supported by careful analyses of his published despatches, and emanating from large bodies of the most respectable and influential colonists, have been sent home from all the principal settlements. A bare acknowledgment of their recept, and an assurance to the Governor of the continuance of Her Majesty's confidence, are all the reply they have ever elicited from the homo government.

Nothing can be worse than the effect of this on the minds of the colonists. Possessing an overwhelming majority in the colony, they are continually defeated by a minority of one, who is enabled to stand his ground against them by the support of a distant ally who has never seen the colony, -and in whose capacity for judging

of the matter the colonists have no confidence. The certainty with which all differences are decided against them impresses them with a feeling that it is entirely useless to address their complaints to the Colonial Office; and they only continue to make them from a feeling of self-respect which prevents their submitting in silence, and in a sort of vague hope that in the pages of a Blue Book they may meet the eye of some colonial reformer, and elicit sympathy, if not redress.

Progress op the Americans. — In an interval of little more than half a century it appears that this extraordinary people have increased above 500 per cent, in numbers ; their national revenue has augmented nearly 700 per cent., while their public expenditure has increased little more than 400 per cent. The prodigious extension of their commerce is indicated by an increase of nearly 500 per cent, in their imports and exports, and 600 per cent, in their shipping. The increased activity of their internal communications is expounded by the number of their post-offices, which has been increased more than a hundred fold, the extent of their post roads, which has been increased thirty-six fold, and the cost of their post-office, which has been augmented in a seventy-two fold ratio. The augmentation of their machinery of public instruction is indicated by the extent of their public libraries, which have increased in a thirty-two fold ratio, and by the creation of school libraries, amounting to 2,000,000 volumes. They have completed a system of canal navigation which, placed in a continuous line, would extend from London to Calcutta, and a system of railways which, continuously extended, would stretch from London to Van Diemen's Land, and have provided locomotive machinery b) r which that distance would be travelled over in three weeks at the cost of 1 per mile. They have created a system of inland navigation, the aggregate tonnage of which is probably not inferior in amount to the collective inland tonnage of all other countries in the world, and they possess many hundreds of river steamers, which impart to the roads of water the marvellous celerity of roads of iron. They have, in fine, constructed lines of electric telegraph which, laid continuously, would extend over a space longer by 3000 miles longer than the distance from the north to the south pole, and have provided apparatus of transmission by which a message of 300 words despatched under such circumstance from the north pole might be delivered in writing at the south pole in one minute, and by which, consequently, an answer of equal length might be sent back to the north pole in an equal interval. These are social and commercial phenomena for which it would be vain to seek a parallel in the past history of the human race. — Liverpool Chronicle.

A Word to Old Maids and Bachelors. — " Men should not marry," it is commonly said, " unless they can not only maintain for themselves the social position to which they have been accustomed, but extend the benefits of that position to their wives and children. A woman who marries is entitled to be kept in the same rank and comfort in which she was reared." We entirely disavow these doctrines. It should be the aim of every married couple to make their own fortune. No son and daughter, who became man and wife, are entitled to rely on their patrimony, but should willingly commence life at a lower step in the social ladder than that occupied by their parents, so that they may have the merit and happiness of rising, if possible, to the top. Imagine the case of an aged couple, who by great perseverance have acquired the possession of immense wealth, and are living in a style of ease and splendour which is no more than the reward of their long life of industry. Will anybody say that the children of such " old folks" should live in the same grandeur as their parents ? The idea is preposterous. They have no right to such luxury ; they have done nothing to deserve it; and if their parents are honest in dividing thenproperty among them, they can have no means of supporting it. Yet marriages are contracted on the principle that the married couple shall be able to keep up the rank to which they have been accustomed under the parental roof. It is such notions as this — engendered by Malthusian philosophers, and fostered by lazy pride — that are filling our country with " poor old maids," with coquettish young ladies, with nice cigar-smoking, good-for-nothing young men. — North British Mail.

The Romish Controversy.— The controversy with Rome has gradually become the great controversy of the day. Two antagonistic principles are at issue — the authority of Christ and the authority of man — divine reliance and human reliance — the rock of ages or the seven bills. From the days of the Son of Man on earth, indeed, these principles have been in collision ; but frequently the collision has been slight or partial. The events of the

l&st three centuries — events called &>rth ,iiy Luther's noble exertions — have brought them into full prominence and broad contrast ; and the political and social tendencies of the present generation aggravate their hostility, .and force on a deadly combat Around these pi&eciples congenial powers arrange themselves. On the one side stand sons of light, on the other side 6tand sons of darkness. England holds the banner in the midst of the former ; Austria leads the van of the latter. Meanwhile the Pope, benefitting by the alarm struck into the hearts of tyrants by the revolutions of the year 1848, offers a centre of resistance and onslaught to all the espousers of reactioiftthroughout Europe, and is straining every aferve, first to sustain existing despotisms, and then to make his own yoke co-extensive with political enslavement. A conspiracy against the liberties of the world is fostered in the Vatican. Every day accelerates the issue — the Bible or Tradition? — the Messiah or the Pope? — British Quarterly Review.