The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Monday, September 15, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 890, 15 September 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AND East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. Monday, September 15, 1879.

We are not quite sure whether we have a " Liberal Association " m our midst, or whether it is only that we are to have, one, and that nothing more than the initiatory step has been taken towards the accomplishment of the object. We presume that when it has blossomed into a full grown institution, we shall have some fuller programme as to what it is intended to lead up to than came out at the meeting m McFarlane's Hall. We can scarcely see what special object is to be obtained, when eveiy man of us holds to liberal opinions m matters political, and will not admit of anything that may be urged m favor of opinions which are called Conservative. For instance, there is the advocacy of Triennial Parliaments. Five years ago, had such a thing only been mooted, the advocates of such a change would have been denounced as rank Radicals, desirous of overturning the Constitution, and doing things highly ' dangerous to the Colonial State. However, triennial Parliaments we must have, because all men of varying, shades of opinion have agreed to this point m our charter ; and it mnst come as a matter of course ; indeed, when the duration of Parliament is limited to three years, we shall not be long before we agitate for an annual House of Representatives. If the people desire it, and ask for it, are we not bound to legislate m the interests of " the greatest good for the greatest number, and give'it to them." For many reasons we are favorable to annual instead of triennial Parliaments. General elections, it is known " do good for business," hotelkeepers, the owners or lessees of public halls, the proprietors of newspapers, and job printing establishments, electioneering agents, billstickers, cum rmdtnm aliis, know this quite sufficient to long for the much wished for change. Triennial Parliaments would assist to make the art of governing very Kim [ile. Heretofore, members of the House of Representatives have had to serve an apprenticship, and as a rule have learned something of the science and mystery of legislation. Ministers who wanted to do what the representatives didn't want, had to wait until the close of a whole session to do it, and then at the commencement of a new one, had

to justify what they had done ; but Triennial Parliaments, if they mean anything, mean a much more frequent change m the personnel of the House. It takes, as we have often been told, and may reasonably believe, a long time for a representative to become practically acquainted with even the forms, usages, and standing orders m such a 'deliberative assembly as a higher court of legislature, just as it does to learn blacksmithing or carpentering. So that with triennial ■ parliaments, Ministex's will have much less difficulty than formerly doing just as much or little as they may please, and m compassing those interesting and shady arrangements to which most Ministers are more or less addicted. It has, truly enough, been said that a member of Parliament has, after all, something more to do than merely to represent the views of his constituents upon great political questions. It is his duty to see that the Government of the Colony is as pure as it is possible for good men to make it \ but tyros are incompetent to exercise any efficient check upon the action of those m power, who are mostly old stagers. By all means, then, let us have Annual, or at least triennial parliaments ; but let us not be disappointed when we find that such a popular reform has certain very serious drawbacks, one of which we have hinted at above, and another of which is, that this reform will necessiate a much larger expenditure of public and private money than has been spent on elections m the past. But then, New Zealand is well able to bear an additional strain upon its resources. The above remarks apply, mutatis mutandis, to several other planks m the platform of the new Association, but it needs not that we should take them m detail, excepting perhaps the matter of Law Reform. The privileges of our Judges seem to be very obnoxious to some at least of the members. One speaker recently discovered that the Judges, who are irresponsible officials, were subject to like passions with other men. This, of course, is greatly to be deplored } and the discovery led the speaker m question to suggest that for the future they should be responsible to the Government. This was a truly admirable suggestion. The character of the present Government has been so unexceptionable that it would be a guax'antee for perfect purity m the administration of justice if our Judges were only responsible to them. But we ourselves have what we feel sure is a far more brilliant suggestion to offer on this subject,, and one that will commend itself to all really liberalminded men. It is this : let the Judges, like the Parliament, be chosen triennially. This, we take it, would be a step m the right direction. Judges who showed themselves obnoxious or unpopular could then be shelved, and more affable and popular men be appointed m their stead. The principle of Manhood Suffrage, too, could be brought to beai' m their election. The great truth underlying Manhood Suffrage we take to be this : that those who are affected by our laws should have a voice m making them. Let this principle be kept m mind when Judges come to be elected, and it will follow that persons who have come, or are likely to come, under the Judges' authority should be the persons empowered to elect them. The qualification for electors wolud therefore be very simple ; though the rule excluding from the franchise all persons tainted with crime would, m this case, have to be reversed. The electorate would consist of all litigious and criminal persons within the distinct over which each Judge should preside. And as the truth is great and must prevail, we commend this pi'actical working out of one important brauch of Law Reform to all Liberal Associations, besides, apropos of the present Government, there is a further special fitness m this proposal for the election of Judges. It may be m the recollection of our i - eaders that, recently, Sir George Grey and at least one of his colleagues strongly advocated the propriety of their having an Elective Governor. If then it is desirable that the highest official m the Colony should be appointed by the people themselves, how much more reasonable that the Judges, who are subordinate to the Governor, should be so elected. And although Sir George Grey and his colleagues met with but small success m their late agitation, it is but right that they should avail themselves of any means that would, as it were, lead up to that desirable end ; and what step so likely to help on the consummation devoutly to be desired as deciding for the future to nuke those ministers of justice who were hitherto as independent of popular control as the Governor himself responsible to the people from whom they hold their power, and by whom they could then be deposed at pleasure, as occasion required.