The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE. THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1893.

Waikato Times, Volume XL, Issue 3259, 18 May 1893, Page 2

The Waikato Times AND THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE.

THURSDAY, MAY 18, 1893.

Equal and exact justice to all men, Of whatsoever state or persuasion, religious or political. .

In tfao London Times of March 17th appears- a letter from Mr Goldwin Smitb. headed " Democracy, American and British." So full is it of subject for' serious thought that we purpose quoting it pretty freelj. It affords a useful lesson to us at this stage of our existence. To commence with the opening passage: " The pomp, immense and impressive, though Republican,of a Presidential inauguration must bring home to the mind of every thoughtful Englishman who witnesses it the momentous fact that America has the safeguards of a real Monarchy, while Great Britain has only a Monarchical pageant, and the difference which this makes between American democracy and the democracy into which England is drifting. The President lias an immense patronage; he has a legislative veto, which so .long as one-third of the Senate is on his side is practically absolute, and gives him a powerful control: over legislation. *■* * Besides the Presidency there is the Senato—uiiilike the House of Urds, a really co-ordinate branch of the

Legislature, powerful to revise and control. There in tho written Constitution. In that Constitution is the inestimable clause forbidding any legislation which would impair the faith of contracts. Americans start when you toll their, that in Ireland agrarian legislation is not only impairing the. faith of contracts, but virtually confiscating property brought under the guarantee of recent Acts of Parliament, and in some cases of tho State itself." Alluding to Mr Gladstone's Home Rule Bill he writes: " What you are going to do is to make the House of Representatives a sovereign power absolutely without bounds to its will or limits to its revolutionary tendencies." Tlu last sentence we have quoted, although somewhat in the nature of a prophecy as regards Ireland, depicts exactly the position in which this country stands at the present time. The Upper House is powerless to check legislation in *ny direction so long as the parly promoting it commands a majority in the Assembly. The recent decision of the Colonial Secretary, if truly interpreted by the late Government,degrades Her Majesty's •representative to the position of ft figurehead more or less ornamental, and the Council to a farce, ; Aside from the absurdity of the position, it is impossible for any man not blinded by party spirit to ignore its' 'danger. The old adage, vox populi vox Dei has so often proved erroneous, that it has been clearly the voice, if of a god at all, that of a fallen one. The great constructors of the American Constitution, recognised this fact, and created an elective Senate, and a powerful President, as being preventive of the probability of the volume of sound produced by numerous throats under uncultivated minds working evil to the State, Surely it is time, that we began to bestir ourselves in the direction of setting up one of these safeguards in New Zealand, in the shape of an elective Council, in place of the recording machine we are blessed with at present. There are some amongst the leaders of the party now dominant, and many in the ranks who laud the republican form of Govornment, these should certainly be staunch supporters of a measure which would establish one of the prominent features of the model Republic, There are many others who advocate the election of the Governor by the people. Would they be prepared to vest the man selected with the same power as has the President of the United States. They may rely upon it, that there would lie considerable difficulty in finding a iiiun in the colony willing to occupy the position on the same terms as; does Lord Glasgow. Hp would want to be something more than a puppet, subject to manipulation by the party temporarily uppermost. If the elected Governor were vested with real power in con junction with the Council, there would only remain, to our mind, the one objection, that the principle of appointment would weaken the tie between the colony and the Mother. Country. The form of appointment of Governor is not, however, a pressing question, but it is urgently necessary that there should at once be a Council created with the power to exercise the functions for the performance of which a second chamber was included in tho constitution,