THE COLONIST PUBLISHED TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, AND SATURDAYS. NELSON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1876. PARISH POLITICS.

Colonist, Volume XVIII, Issue 2017, 8 January 1876, Page 3

THE COLONIST PUBLISHED TUESDAYS, THURSDAYS, AND SATURDAYS. NELSON, SATURDAY, JANUARY 8, 1876. PARISH POLITICS.

. .ect of It lias loner an d often been the suoj adcomplaint in this Colony by all our le beeu men that no great priuciples uave found with sufficient hold on the popular mind to determine the issue of any large number of elections, or to bind representatives to act with or against men who should be recognised as the living impersonations of a well defined set of political opinions. Leaving to a future occasion the consideration of government by party, the present seems a fitting time to mark, while the events are passing before us, the miserable extent to which petty local interests are suffered to control the choice of constituencies, and thus to foist into the Great Council of the nation men guided more by their own narrow prejudices than any broad and liberal views. When Sir Julius Vogei in 1874 derided, in his happiest manner, the sham demand to refer the question of abolition to the country, and asserted that however direct the appeal might be on the most important question, no direct answer could or would be obtained, he displayed as usual his marvellous insight into New Zealand political nature, as it has been corrupted by our baneful system of government. A population composed, as is that of thi3 Colony, to so large an extent of persons who have proved their possession of more than average enterprise and resolution ia the one act of breaking all their early ties to found a home in a distant land, might well have been expected to be guided by nobler motives than the mere drudges who have hardly ever dared to wander beyond the bounds of their uative parish, and that such expectation is too often sadly disappointed, springs mainly from tae paralysing influence of Sir Greorge Grey's idols — Provincial institutions. Two distinct and inconsistent functions have been exercised by our lauded local Government. Legislation on subjects large enough to demand the beat trained intelligence that could be procured has been practised by decent Bettlers and thrifty storekeepers, with all that form and parade which only escapes ridicule in the supreme Legislature from the magnitude of the interests involved, whilst administration, descending to the most paltry details, has aroused in these sham parliaments angry debates and party combinations, never pardonable save when the liberty of the subject or the security of property is at stake. Five pounds on the salary of a constable or the repair of a pound, has shaken a responsible executive to its very foundation; and the constitution of an education board has not merely produced a ministerial crisis and evoked a semi-regal message from a Superintendent to his faithful commons, but has also been the battle-cry in parliamentary elections. From the extreme North to the distant South the speeches of candidates, and the

questions put to them by the electors, alike exhibit strange mental confusion as tojany distinction existing between the duties of legislators and those of parish officers. One gentleman is applauded to the skies for procuring money from a Provincial Council to open a blind gully in which ,a few noisy voters happen to have property; another is depicted in colors black enough for the vilest traitor, because, with greater modesty or less skill in log-rolling, he has failed to obtain a bridge, the cost of which would almost equal the total value ot the land to be opened by its construction. Instances such, as these might be culled by the score from papers published during the last few weeks, and their contemplation ought to be enough to drive the most petrified Provincialist into the ranks of those who have been wise enough to proclaim destruction to his cherished system. It cunnot be denied that the bitter drop in the Public Works policy is its tendency to foster in some measure similar feelings in respect to the government of the Colony. Highly injurious as this has been, and will for a season continue to be, it will gradually and speedily die out. -Kailway lines are not in daily denaand, and where districts have been already served with all they require, they will virtuously back their members in resisting the importunity of those who have not been successful in the early stage of the scramble. The case was entirely different when, year by year, the meeting of the Council was the Bignal for members seeking popularity to use every effort to discover, not what works were necessary for v opening the country, but what would be most likely to please a great number of those on the electoral roll. If " our respected and popular member" was artful enough, by sly winks and knowing nods to his colleagues, to induce them to let him place a mere bogus vote on the estimates, he was perhaps better pleased than when he had convinced the Executive that his proposal was sound and secured the needful outlay, for then he had to hunt about for a fresh claim. However recklessly votes might be piled up, however clear it might be that no possible means could be found to defray their cost, it was all one to the " energetic representative" who delighted his deluded supporters by dwelling on the large sums for his district that had been voted but not got, and at some future meeting denounced the corrupt Government for not expending the money placed at their disposal—if they could get it. Miserably dishonest as all this was under a state of things now happily passed away, and clear as it is that the localisation of all such duties in Shire Councils, with fixed sums under their control, will for ever prevent the renewal, the country is now draining the dregs of the nauseous cup, and will, in too many cases, hare to mourn the presence iv Parliament of men returned because they are exactly on the level of the parochial mind. What are often spoken of as practical men are, without exception, the least fitted for dealing with abstract principles, and when framing or even debating a new form of government, such principles must be frequently referred to and applied with all the ability members possess. Yet in this election —the most important the Colony has yet seen, because the work will tax the highest qualities of every member—it is sad to see that, from end to end of the country, small local differences, springing almost entirely from those Councils which now sleep the sleep that knows no waking, have decided some, and will probably decide more, of the contests. Ifc is far to look forward to another similar occasion, but the hope of a higher and nobler public spirit springing from the ruins of tkat edifice, whose glories were described by Sir George Grey with so much pathos, demands expression at a time when the evil influence is manifest and threatens to mar the design of that which is to succeed. Unity of purpose among our public men, unity safest and best when existing with those differences whose discussion prevents stagnation; freedom from the rivalry of nine petty potentates, each jealous of his neighbor, and seeking to thwart, rather than promote progress, if on the wrong side of some imaginary line; Provinces swept away in fact as well as in name; then, and not till then, can it be hoped that representatives will be chosen for their principles and their ability to impress them on others, and that we shall never more see brought into active operation the degrading force of Parish Polities.