THE NEW SUPERINTENDENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 715, 12 August 1865, Page 1

THE NEW SUPERINTENDENT.

(Fron the Dai&y Times, Augisfc 7.) Nearly the whole of the returns from the various polling places in the Province have now been received. The numbers we publish this morning will stand probably almost unaltered by a unit, when the official declaration of the poll is made on Friday. For all practical purposes the result of the contest was known with sufficient certainty on Friday evening. Mr Thomas Dick is the new Superintendent of Otajro. He has been elected to that office by a popular vote more than usually decisive in its expression. The most unsatisfactory feature of the contest is the comparatively small number of electors who came to the poll. The electoral roll, although falling: tar short in numerical strength front the more complete roll which will be in force from the Ist October next, is much more comprehensive than. the one upon which Mr. Harris was elected. Out of a total constituency of nearly four thousand voters it might have been anticipated that a larger number than fifteen hundred would have taken the troubje to record their suffrages. After all, however, the circumstance is one that may be easily accounted for. The office of Superintendent is one to which far less importance is attached than in the earlier days of the system of Provincial Government, when the undeveloped germs of a representative and responsible regime alone existed. The chief executive officer of a Province was in those primitive times a person of importance — a and substantial power in the community — and it was of great moment to the electors to take care that the man whom they preferred to the highest office in the State was a man not only of proper personal qualifications, but one holding political views, his enforcement of which. might prove of practical advantage to the country. How far this latter view of a candidate's qualifications should now be entitled to operate with the electors, i 3 a curious problem, seeing that under the constitutional system a Superintendent is supposed, the moment he assume* office, to divest himself of all personal politics and to become the mere executive instrument of a responsible administration. This system. is the political law of the Province, and. any Superintendent who had the boldness to attempt to rebel against it, would be quickly brought to his senses by the Legislature. The institutions that have been established here are a faint reflex of the older and more perfect institutions of the home country, but in this particular we have done the best we could to sake the imitation as close a copy as possible. What is at home the position even of the Sovereign — the long descended heir of an ancient monarchy —is well understood. The crowning capital of the state, the fountain of authority and honor, the Queen, is supposed and indeed permitted to have no personal politics, more especially on domestic affairs. The crown. " can do no wrong" because its conscience is " kept" by its advisers. So far is this, principle carried, that' the name of the Sovereign is not allowed to be mentioned in Parliament, in connection with any question under debate, or any proposed measure of legislation. Any allusion to the personal opinions and predilections of the Crown is resented as an interference with. freedom of discussion, aud as tending unduly to influence the decision of the House.

In the Colonies, where the same system of Ministerial responsibility has been established, a similar jealousy has always been manifested with reference to the introduction of the names of the Governors into the debates of Parliament. It may be said indeed that we are comparing very little things with very large ones. But the whole system under which the Province i« acting, is sn attempt necessarily small at a reproduction of a great and impressive institution. The system itself cannot be reproduced on however humble a scale, without importing all the laws that regulate its working. So long as the executive powers of a State, small or large, are ordered by law or by an equally binding established practice, to be absolutely guided and controlled by responsible advice, the question of the personal politics of the Executive chief necessarily fails to be one of paramount public interest, and we might even be justified in going so far as to say that it can hardly with propriety be imported as an element into the electoral contest. Whether under this system the Superintendent shall discharge more than strictly nominal duties giving official effect to

the wishes of his advisers, depends of course, to a great extent, upon the personal character and power of selfassertion of the man. A very strong development of the latter quality may have the effect of greatly embarrassing the action of the political machinery. The perfection of the responsible system is most likely to be obtained when the elect of the people is disposed to accept contentedly the simple role imposed upon him by our political institutions. It was no doubt the public sense that the contest between Mr Dick and Mr M'.Glashan was simply one of personal rivalry, that rendered a large number of the community absolutely indifferent to the result. Whatever might be the shades of difference between the opinions of the two, it wa9 very well understood that the special politics of neither gentleman would be furthered one step by his appointment to the office of Superintendent. The Executive of the day, instead of accepting its policy from Mr Dick, and imposing it at that gentleman's instance upon the Provincial Legislature, will receive it from the latter body and impose it upon the Superintendent. When his Honor meets the Provincial Council in his new capacity, the address with which he opens its sittings will not be the refltx of the speeches in which he has just favored the electors of the Province with his political sentiments, but an embodiment of the views arrived • at after mature deliberation by his Ministers. He will come down to the House, not for the purpose of giving the members a "bit of his mind," but simply to shadow forth the policy which bis advisers intend to submit to them in detail.

If there be any special significance attaching to this election, it is the evidence It affords of the present temper of the people to confer high public office upon men who have been long associated with the interests of the Province. At a time when no particular political excitement exists, men belonging to the Old Identity are contentedly accepted for political preferment by the great army of new coiners whose enterprise has done so much to advance the fortunes of Otago. The tno gentlemen ■who alone held any permanent possession of the field were both old settlers, but ■whatever opposition was offered to either of them was not based on that ground. Irxjrr.eriijt.l3 7 the merely personal elemtnt of difference was laid aside, and some political ground of object : on sought, the difficulty of the task was experienced. Mr Dick having been for many years, not only a colonist, but a colonist associated ■with the administration of the affairs of the Province, some things he had done and other things he had left undone, were urged against him. There was a tangible idea in this kind of opposition. It was to make the election to high office a reward ior past political conduct. If such wore the ground on which the contest was decided, it may be assumed that in the judgment ol the electors, whatever peccadilleos Mr. Dick may have been guilty of, are more than counterbalanced by the weight of his public services. Probably, however, the decisive majority he has obtained means even less than this. His name has been long familiar to the settlers of the Province, whilst Mr M'Glashan has failed to hold a position of equal prominence 5 and in the absence of overwhelming personal pretensions, it may have appeared a fitting sequence that the one who was known to be the most versed in official duties should be the one to succeed to the official vacancy. At a)l events, the election has been decided by no uncertain or equivocal voice ; and on one point the Province may be congratulated, viz — that a contest which has been conducted on both sides with sufficient spirit, was not marked by any display of angry feeling, or by the array of one class or party interest against another.