THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1893. THE AMERICAN WOOL MARKET.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2473, 7 March 1893, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, MARCH 7, 1893. THE AMERICAN WOOL MARKET.

President Cleveland took possession of the Republican throne of the United States of America last Saturday. He was elected last November, but he did not assume the reins of Government until last Saturday. The election of a President of the United States is a complex and tedious procedure. There are three events connected with it: First, somewhere about the month of August—we forget the exact date just now—each {state in the union selects a number of men to vote in the Presidential election. The number of these electors shall be the same as the number of Senators and Representatives which the State is entitled to send to Congress. In order to understand this thoroughly it is necessary to remember that each State has its own local Parliament, just as we had Provincial Councils once, and that in addition to this they are entitled, to send, according to their size and nopulatiou, a number of Representatives and Senators to Congress, which is the supreme Parl.' a lQ®tß of the whole union of States. Say, therefore, that a State was entitled to twenty represen uitwes in Congress it would select twenty electors to v °t o in the presidential election, and if another State was entitled to forty it would select forty voters, and so on, but none of these must be members of Congress or persons holding positions of public trust or emolument. The first act in the drama of the Presidential election is, therefore, the election of the electors of the Pi’esident, and this, as we have said, takes place somewhere about the month of August every fourth year. The next is that on the first Tuesday in the following November the real election of President takes place, when the State electors cast their votes, and the final decision is made. Of course the election of electors makes it pretty plain on whom their choice will fall, as the persons chosen in each State intimate who they are going to vote for before they are elected. Very often a mistake is here made, for many are led to believe that the President is there and then elected, but he is not. He has to wait until the following November, when he is then finally and firmly elected, but even then he cannot take office until the fourth of the following March. Practically, therefore, the President is on tenter hooks for about half a year before he finally takes possession of office. But this is not all. His usefulness does not altogether begin even on taking office. We are in this colony expecting that President Cleveland will take the duty off wool, and open the markets of America to us. He may do so, but it will take him some time yet. He must first of all meet the Senate, which will sit for some time after his assumption of office to confirm or disallow his appointments to the public service. The Senate is much like our Legislative Council. It consists of two representatives from each State, who are elected for six years. It may be, therefore, that the majority of the Senators are opposed to Mr Cleveland, and we believe they are; but even if they were pf his way of thinking they cannot pass any the Representatives assemble This C ll tak , e place b . e f or t next December, unless t,be P l ' 6Bl^ oll desires to call a special Congress, W 11C .

is an unusual thing to do. This is another peculiar feature of the American constitution : The House of Representatives is elected every two years, and about the same time as the Presidential election took place the new House was elected also. How, the peculiarity is that the old members retain office after their successors have been elected, so that actually every second year there are two Houses of Representatives in America—the old members, who have not yet relinquished office, and the new members, who have not as.mraed it. In the United States a member is elected twelve months before ho assumes office unless a special Congress is called, and so the new Parliament of America is not likely to meet before next December. There is no' doubt but the new House of Representatives of America is thoroughly democratic, and can carry any law it may desire, as out of 332 members only 88 of them are Republican. But we all know what a tedious matter it is to pass an Act through Parliament, and more especially in the United States, where all the machinery is so complex that it is hard for persons accustomed to British methods to understand it. We may therefore safely say that there is no hope for our wool this year, while it is doubtful whether the duty will be taken off in time for our clip of 1894. It is, too, doubtful whether the relief which we are looking forward to will be as great as we expect. The democrats made all sorts of promises at tlie time of election; they

were going to sweep away duties, and adopt a policy of free trade, but there are not wanting facts which go to show that they did not mean all they said. Here is a passage from President Cleveland’s own address:— “Tariff reform is still our purpose. Though we oppose the theory that tariff laws may be passed having for their object the granting of discriminating and unfair governmental aid to private ventures, we wage no exterminating war against any American interests. We believe a readjustment can be accomplished in accordance with the principles we profess without disaster or demolition. We believe that the advantages of freer raw material should be accorded to our manufacturers, and we contemplate a fair and careful distribution of necessary tariff burdens rather than the precipitation of free trade.” This shows that there is no intention of adopting a policy of free trade, but it is clear that some of the tax will be taken off “raw material.” • Wool is “raw material,” so that will without doubt share in the advantage, and as that is what we in this colony want we shall bo contented with it. It is, however, useless to expect it all at once. It will at least take twelve months before anything is done, so that <mr next clip will be disposed of before the American market is opened to us. THE CONSTITUTION. It is fashionable very frequently to hold up the American Constitution as an ideal one, and to compare it, to its advantage, with the British form. We think that anyone who will take the trouble to study and think the matter out will find that the admiration for the American Constitution is based on ignorance. The American Constitution is complex and cast-iron in many respects. It differs from ours, inasmuch as that it is a written code, beyond the four corners of which Congress cannot go. The Parliament of America is to a certain extent manacled ; it cannot do everything it may like without first of all changing the law to which it is subject, else its action would bo reviewed and set aside by the Supreme Court. On the other hand the British .Parliament is subject to no law ; it can follow its own sweet will; it is above the law, and above everything except its creator—the British elector. This is because the British Constitution has never been written; it is a growth which is

developing as it gets older. lu America the Constitution was drawn up at the time of the Declaration of Independence, when restrictions were placed on the actions of the Legislature, but nothing like that has taken place in England. We have had our Magna Charta, and our Bills of Eights, and other things, which only extended the people’s powers, but no restrictions have been placed on Parliamentary action. This makes the British Parliament the freest in the world, and as Colonial Legislatures are modelled on it they are equally as free. Of course we are subservient to British dominion. Th*e power to veto and the appointment of governor are still Royal prerogatives, but in domestic matters we in New Zealand are the freest people in the world. We have manhood suffrage, and power to alter our laws as we may desire. There is no necessity for us, therefore, to crave for a republic. We have no royalty to support, no figurehead expenses except the paltry sum we pay our Governor, and we certainly could not expect a President for less money. We are perfectly free as we are ; we have every liberty which we could possess under a republic except the power to negotiate treaties with foreign nations, and a few other things of the same nature, but as a set-off to that we have the probation of the British flag. What we want is trl realise that we are all-powerful, S that we oa.l ■*»?■> o»r taw. a, we desire them. If our laws 0,10 1 Is our own fault. We have no one . our ' selves to blame. This is an important thing to think of just now when an election is pending, and we trust people will not forget it, and exercise their votes in the manner they may think best for the colony.