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POLITICAL.

The Injunction.— The most importnnt topic tlintlius, recently excited attention is the second injunction moved Cor in the Supreme Court on Wednesday lust, lo restrain llie Superintendent from spending the Public Revenue without an Appropriation Act. The circumstances which have led to this step ure as follows. In October and Ncveinber 18. r ;7 a General election took place, when Dr. Feutherston, was returned as Siipetinlendent professing one policy, rind a majority of the Provincial Council professing another. On tlie; Council meeting in Mnrcli, the old Executive or that representing the Constitutional patfty, resigned, an<l what'is culled the Radical op Wajtefield party, were culled upon to form a new ministry. This [hey were'umihleto do in consequence of their inability to' induce either of their two legal /Inenihcrs to take office. The old executive re- ' turned to.pb\ver,and the Superintendent and the Conncil hot bei ig able to work together, the ..former' 'resigned. In the iriteneguum the speaker assumed the office ofSuperiiitendeiitand formed his Executive from the Radical members, one of the,legal profeession who had previously refused having consented to become Provincial Solicitor. The poople endorsed the policy of the Superintendent by. returning him with a .largo majority^and on the Council refusing to consider the Estimates for the current year, which had heen before them for five months, the Superintendent prorogued them in September last, and applied to His Excellency the Governor for a dissolution, by which both the Superintendent "and Provincial Conncil would have to be again elected. The Stafford Ministry refused to advise the Governor to dissolve, although Mr. Stafford, the Premier, had privately told a leading member of the Constitutional party that it should be granted if asked for. Under these circumstances, as the Council if called together again could not be compelled to consider tlie Estimates and pass an Appropriation Act of any kind, the .Superintendent continued to cany on his Government without; it being in the power of the Radical Members, at any time they pleased, to bring about a more seemly state of things by calling on the Governor for a dissolution, which he could not refuse to grant when thus asked by both parties Instead of adopting this course—instead of showing their desire to appeal to the electors, the Radical Members moved the Supreme Court for an Injunction to restrain his Honor from all further expenditure. This motion was made last September before Mr. Justice Grcsson. who refused it on the ground that such injuntion would be illegal, and productive of monstrous inconvenience inasmuch as it would j suspend the whole machinery of Government. Since that date the Superintendent ha 3 concontinued to carry on his Government, throwing the responsibility on those who have caused and who alone perpetuate it—the Radical Members of the Council.

■ Lust week a second injunction was argued before Mr. Justice Johnston, who dismissed it on the ground that counsel had failed to show that there was. any illegality on the part of the Superintendent. ■■-"

That the piesent slate of affairs is one much to be regretted cannot be doubled; but it cannot be argued fur a moment that the Superintendent is therefore a dictator, a tyrant, and so forth, —epithets in which the Jt-idical press indulge without mercy. We have befoie said that the Radical party alone perpetuate this undesirable state of things, and that they do so must be readily admitted when it is remembered that, by the Constitution, the Superintendent is an integral part of the Legislature, a substitute for a second chamber—and elected on a more liberal franchise than the council, because an individual elector may have thirty votes for the council while he can have only one for the Supcrintendency. The Superintendent, by his resigning, dissolved himself and was re-electe-J, and even sought a second appeal to the people when he memorialized the Governor to grant a general dissolution. The Superintendent can do no wore. The Council can. If they want to put an end (o the present slate of things they have only to resign like the Superintendent did. But this they dare not do because they know that a majority of the Constitutional party would immediately be returned. It is not for the Superintendent io ask again. It is not for the Governor, having onue refused to interfere, to do so until he is again asked ; but it is for the Council to make this application ; it is for them to request a dissolution, and then peace and harmony will once more be restored by the people returning a majority who will not fuctiously oppose the Superintendent.

The TTctt and Waiiubapa Elections.— Two elections for the Provincial Council have taken place, at both of which the Constitutional Candidates have been returned without opposition.

One of the Hiitt members having: taken a contract, Mr. Fitzherbert the Provincial Sccre tary and a resident in the District, -vas requested to come forward. Only a year previously, at tho General Election, Air. Fitzherbert had been defeated; five Radical Candidates having been returned. At that date the Radicals swept everything; before them ; but less than a year's trial has been sufficient to turn the popular tide in favour of the Constitutional . party. So great.is the reaction that notwithstanding Mr. Fitzherbert ohailanged a trial of strength, and declared his -intention, if defeated, to resign his office, nud retire from the Government, while if successful he should take it as a direct vote of want of con6dence.iuthe opposition.members— tie- eballange was not accepted and he was allowed to wait the course.

The other election was for the Wairarapa. The scat occupied .by Mr. Carter, became vacant in consequence of his huving undertaken to finish the Wniohinc Bridge, in that neighbourhood, for tlie sureties of the previous contractor. This gentleman again offered himself and was re-elected .without opposition. Mr. Carter belongs to the Constitutional party. It is-worthy of-remark that, all the seats vacated by the Radicals since the .election of the present Council in 1857, have been contested by the Constitutional party and won, with the solo exception of those for the City, which in consequence of ii daily expected dissolution were, allowed to take place without opposition; In the Country Districts Mr. Schultze was successful when Mr. MoMaimvay accepted a.contract; in the Wnirursipa dipt. Smith'hada.liuve majority over Mr. Borlnso, after the la tier's acceptance of office during tlie Speaker's -.temporiirary icigii ; and now Mr. Fitzherben quietly sits' in Mr. Covbelt's. seat for the Hutl,and Air. Carter was unopposed. The.feeliug is quietly giiiniug strength eyery

day, that Itadicalism, or more correctly speaking Wakefieldism, is fast dying out, and though fresh cries—fresh "unmeaning empty sounds" may be hatched in what the Wakefield organ, in a (it of spleen or candour, has admitted to be the "heated brains of faithless lcadeis and place-hunting parasites." yet if the Constitutional purty are only true to themselves; if those who have the real interests of the Province at heart are only careful to expose the hollowness of the cries, we may rely on the good sense of the people not to'allow themselves to be again deceived by what the Spectator has unwittingly told us, were in the first instance, never regarded hy Mr. Wakefield and the other leaders as anything else than mere stepping .stones to power ; v power which, fotunately lor the Province, they have nut yet been a hi/: lo obtain.

lliDioat- Economy.—The Blue Book.— It will be -remembered that one of tbe first acts of the Provincial Council when it met in March last, was rudely and unjustifiably to dismiss the Clwk oi the House aiid appoint in his stead, Mr. Welch,'the defeated candidate tortheSupcrintendency. To say theleastit was somewhat infra dig in the candidate for the highest office of the Province to accept the lowest the Council could give : but as it had been evident from his pievious urgent solicitations fur any office " with a salary attached," that place was tbe foundation of his patriotism, it did not excite surprise. Whether Mr. Welch' had the necessary qualifications even for the subordinate office of a Clerk, has received an unexpected answer within the last few weeks. The Blue Book, containing ti )e Votes and Proceedings, has just made its appearance, and on examination is found to be so full of errois as to render it perfectly unfit for reference. On some days more members are represented as being present aud absent than constitute the Council, and on other days less. A Bill is stated to have been passed on a day when the Council did nut sit. Petitions are stated to be presented or otherwise dealt with on incorrect dates, the most perfect contempt is shown for the rudiments of arithmetic, and the whole book abounds with errors, of the most glaring character. So much is this the case that for most of die purposes for which such publications are referred to, the bool; is entirely useless and the £000 which it is reported to have cost, is completely wasted. Mr. Welch, whose salary was to prove so great a saving to the Piovince —being a year less than his predecessor's, £100 instead of £ 150 -has resigned the Clerkship, after giving this sorry practical proof of what bis party consider to be economy. The Speaker, Mr. Ludlam, who is also responsible for the correctness of the Blue Book, accepts no pay. Not a few of those who were amongst the most strenuous in the cry for Economy now see that efficient services properly remunerated are considerably cheaper than those of inefficient persons who are glad to take any salary however small. Better have paid a Speaker and Clerk i! 300 a year each, than to be served for nothing by the compilers of this Blue Book.

This Libbbtv of the Press.—A Pnhlic Dinner was given at Barretts Hotel.on the 20th uIL-i., to William Fox Esq., as a compliment to that Gentleman for the very able and triumphant manner in which he vindicated the Liberty of the Press in defending the action for libel, recently brought against this Journal by Messrs. Bowler anrl Vurnham, the venue bavinsbeen changed to Canterbury. The dinner was intended to be rather of a private than a public character, and it \vas'ori K inall.y arranged that covers should he laid for about thirty, but it was found impossible to refuse the numerous friends who applied for admission. The company numbered about sixty, and had the dinner been advertised a very large number would have assembled to do honor to the occasion. The Chair was occupied by the Father of the Press in tins Colony (Samuel Rev ass, Esq ) In the course of the evening Mr llevans mentioned that in conjunction with Mr. Chapman now of Melbourne, he had started the first Colonial daily newspaper, The Montreal Advertiser, and was the proprietor of the first pross in New Zealand, the New Zealand Gazette published in Wellington in 1840.

Mr. Fox made a very excellent speech on the occasion, and concluded as follows : "He felt that he well might he proud of the position in which he stood that day, surrounded as he was by men, who if not possessed of the most money, the most sheep or cattle, or the most acres of land in the colony, were rich in the possession of a love of freedom and sound ideas of constitutional liberty. He saw around him men who had perilled their lives and sacrificed their property in struggles ■ for constitutional liberty elsewhere—who had fought in the van of the battles of Constitutional Kefonn in the old country and in other colonies. If he was in any way entitled to fill the position he llien stood in, it was because he had'always, in his humble political career, been the advocate of some great principle—he had sever taken his stand on grouud of expediency—it was therefore tbatmen of political principle had clone him this honor. It was the principle that triumphed on this occasion—the great principle which he had so lately had occasion to defend, the principle of the most absolute, perfect, unlimited freedom of public speech on the public acts of public men. And while there were men ready to rally round, him in defence of that principle they should al-' ways find him ready to lie its. champion, and when the time should come when he might be removed from these fields of political struggle, there would ever be among them champions to be found, more able than himself, but not more willing, if only they kept the principle pure and undefiled.

Permanent link to this item

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Bibliographic details

Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1326, 23 February 1859, Page 3

Word Count
2,093

POLITICAL. Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1326, 23 February 1859, Page 3

POLITICAL. Wellington Independent, Volume XV, Issue 1326, 23 February 1859, Page 3

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