The Western Star. (PUBLISHED BI-WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1885.

Western Star, Issue 946, 9 May 1885, Page 2

The Western Star. (PUBLISHED 81-WEEKLY.) SATURDAY, MAY 9, 1885.

Pahliament is to open on the 11th June. It will be the second of the three sessions, and on that account should be the one in which the most practical legislation should be done. But we doubt greatly if it will be a very productive terra, and that for several reasons. Though the present Parliament is decidedly better in its personnel than its predecessor, and contains fewer utterly incompetent duffers, no men of commanding talent or superior constructive ability have yet shown up. And in addition to that drawback, vhe times are not favorable for much legislation of a permanently useful character. It has often been remarked by intelligent observers in the political world, that in war time there is generally a difficulty in carrying practical reforms. The war scare is still on in New Zealand and furnishes a fine opportunity for Ministers to take their ease and pocket their big salaries without troubling their minds much as long as a great fuss is made about volunteers, militia, torpedoes, big guns and other " defences," which will supersede probably almost every other subject. The blatant unemployed, alias the loafers in Duuedin and Christchurch, have now the two Premiers to represent their cities, and will, of course, take very good care to "get Government money spent in their districts." Already the recent cost of defences is said to amount to a quarter of million of money, and there are plenty of hangers-on of the present Ministry who have not yet been satisfied by appointments with good pay and very little to do. As for settling any of the really difficult questions which cropped up last session, there is very little chance of that - . On the local Government question. Ministers tried hard to solve the knotty problem, and ignominiously failed. The project of a grand meeting of mayors and countv council chairmen, about three or four hundred of them, in Wellington, was fairly laughed out of existence, and Sir Julius Vogel found out at last what a good many people knew long before, that the onlv real difficulty was about finding the money which the local bodies wanted in order to do their business properly. It has at last been discovered that the rousrh and ready way of settling the difficulty is to vote a stated sum of money annually, as has been done for many years past in Victoria. Another prominent question, that of administering charitable relief, presses itself still more urgently for solution, because of the gross inequality of the way in which under the existing system different towns and districts are treated in their hospitals and benevolent societies, the Government in some places finding all the funds, in some places subsidising the lo2al subscriptions in the proportion of £3 to £l, and in some in the propertion of pound for pound. Hitherto the "fertile" mind of the "Premier with precedence" has been unable to discover any more complete, or equitable, or expedient project that a Poor Law oP the fame description as that which for a good part of a century has been condemned in the Home country by politicians of all kinds of party opinion alike. Then of course the land question will need to be again limbered and an opportunity afforded for the airing of the numerous current crotchets on the question. Perhaps Sir George Grey may introduce somo of his great heroic reforms, such as the election of judges and magistrates by manhood suffrage, or the appointment of gaolers by the vote, of their prisoners. Another local

option liquor Bill may be introduced, though the Act already in force has been scarcely at all made use of in most districts. Perhaps some really important and useful measure, such as a Drainage Bill, may be introduced, only to be relegated to the waste-paper basket of the House of Representatives at the end of the session, as a Bill which has not gone through all its stages, and that will have to start afresh at some convenient season. Making allowance for the time to be taken up by the local Hills and by votes ol want-of-confidence, &c, the above subjects will probably take up the time of the House until honorable members suddenly find that they have been at work for the orthodox three months, which is now considered a sufficient term for the gigantic labors of the people's representatives, and it will bo the proper period to think of going home and pocketing the honorarium. Such will most likely be the course of events. Meantime the real management of the colony will perhaps take care of itself, and somehow New Zealand will slowly advance still, as it has advanced hitherto. As has been very well said, its resources are so good that scarcely any amount of mismanagement could swamp it, or even depress it for any lengthened season.