Wanganui Chronicle.. and TURAKINA & RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. THURSDAY, 30TH JANUARY, I868.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XII, Issue 824, 30 January 1868, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle. . and TURAKINA & RANGITIKEI MESSENGER. THURSDAY, 30TH JANUARY, 1868.

The people of this country cannot do other than feel a lively iuterest in the working of political institutions in the neighbouring colonies, and more especially in those crises or constitutional hitches, which arise from time to time to test the worth or unwoitli of certain checks which have been set up. Twice in as many years the flourishing colony of Victoria has come to a dead-lock through the position taken up, rightly or wrongly by the Upper House ; it is a grave state of things, and deserving of earnest attention. Parliament has been dissolved to ascertain the feeling of the constituenci-. s on the subject, and at present preparations are being actively carried on for a general election. From the address of Mr Macculloch, the Premier, to the electors of the county of Mornington, we take the following authoritative statement and explanation :

The present dispute between the Houses of Legislature has arisen out of the proposed vote of £20,000 to Lady Darling, to which the country has been distinctly pledged by the Assembly, and on the faith of which Sir Charles Darling resigned his connection with and claims upon the Imperial Government. The Appropriation Bill for the year was rejected by the Legislative Council ostensibly because of the inclusion of that vote. It is true that that Chamber has a bare legal right to reject, but it is not permitted to alter an Appropriation Bill. It is, however, apparent —indeed it was admitted by the members of the Legislative Council —that the bill was rejected with the view of compelling the representatives of the people to alter the appropriation for the year. The rejection of the hill with such an object was a clear evasion of the terms of the law and an open violation of the spirit of the Constitution. Immediately on the bill being thrown out by the Council I deemed it my duty to put myself in communication with the representative of the Crown with regard to the embarrassing state of affairs caused by that action, and recommended that a prorogation should take place “ for a short period, in order that the Legislative Council may have another opportunity in a future session of considering the Appropriation Bill.” His Excellency, however, thought it “desirable that he should at once place himself constitutionally in communication with those who have rejected the Appropriation Bill, and who have thus declined to afford to the Government the funds requisite to meet the services of the year.” Thereupon my colleagues and myself tendered our resignation of the offices we held. After the failure of two of the gentlemen representing the majority of the Council to satisfy his Excellency that they could form a new Government which would remove or mitigate embarrassments, as well as afford a prospect of restoring harmonious action in the Legislature, I was requested to resume office, which I did, and recommended the prorogation of Parliament. In the new session, the Appropriation Bill was a second time rej ;cted. It then became evident that the people of the country, hy whom alone such questions can be disposed of, should be called upon to decide whether the course adopted by their representatives met with their approval. The Government, anxious to mitigate as much as possible the loss and inconvenience to the public creditors, and to be placed in a position to disburse the necessary expenditure, with the consent of both Houses during the tune necessary for a general election, asked Parliament for a sum of £500,000, with the assurance that no disputed vote wmuld be paid out of that amount. The Legislative Assembly freely granted the supplies necessary for the requirements of the country, but the Legislative Council refused to concur, notwithstanding, as I have already stated, an assurance had been given that no disputed vote would be paid until the reassembling of Parliament. The people of this country will thus see that, although the proposed grant: to Lady Darling was put forward as the pretext for the rejection of two Appropriation Bills, there were other reasons which the Legislative Council have not made, and cannot make, public, for the course of action they have pursued, otherwise they would not have stopped supplies with the assurance which they had, that nothing but the salaries and wages of the Civil servants, and such other expenditure as might be found absolutely necessary for the requirements of the State would be paid. It now rests with you and the other constituencies to decide whether you approve of the conduct of the Legislative Assembly and of the Government in resisting the aggressions of a body which is not responsible to the people. For the attempt to obtain the right of alteration, which has been set up by the Council, is a claim for co-ordinate powers with the Assembly in dealing with finances, a power which has always been successfully resisted in England, an l which, as a free people, you are not likely to tolerate.

This statement is distinct and authoritative, but it is made by a gentleman who has taken an active part in the struggle ; it is therefore the statement of a partizan, and although we have no doubt of its substantial accuracy so far as it goes, it must nevertheless be received cum grano salis. It is only the one side of the case. There is another side. All of us are very much like the man who picked up a chestnut and described it as entirely brown. It is always difficult to eliminate the simple facts, but we shall make an attempt to do so. In 18G5, it will be remembered, a wide and apparently irreconcilable divergence of opinion between the two Houses manifested itself on the question of Protection. The Ministry of Mr Macculloch brought forward a bill establishing a new tariff, the effect of which

was to be the protection of native manufactures, by the imposition of enhanced, if not absolutely prohibitive, duties on the import of certain British commodities. It is singular after all our experience of the past how a hankering for “ protection” still lingers among colonists. This policy, which we have no hesitation in saying, is incorrect in theory and injurious in its working, was immensely popular in Victoria. Mr. Mucculloch commanded —as, we presume, he will still command—an overwhelming majority in the Legislative Assembly. The Tariff Bill was passed by that body, though not without considerable opposition from a minority ; and the question arose, how it was to be got through the Legislative Council, the composition and disposition of which were known to be just the opposite of those of the Lower House. The Ministry, aware that to send up the Tariff Bill by itself would be to court its rejection, resolved to send it up as a “tack” to the Annual Ajipropriation Bill —which, under the Constitution Act, the Upper Chamber cannot amend or alter, but must accept or reject as a whole. To any one out of the melee, this course appears very objectionable ; to a Victorian, we daresay, it would be vain to say so. The Council, however, did not shrink from the responsibility of the alternative thus thrown upon it —either to stop the supplies and derange the whole machinery of the Government, or give its approval to a measure of which it disapproved. The Appropriation Bill was rejected, and with it the unwise tariff. Here was a “ fix.” The supplies were stopped ; the public exchequer was soon empty ; the public servants unpaid ; the public contracts were broken. In this dilemma, Sir Charles Darling, the then Governor, felt himself very much as a man at his wits’ end, but of two evils he thought he would choose the least, and so sanctioned the raising of money by borrowing from the bank, “ confessing judgment,” and thus legalising the loans ; and by exacting the duties of the new tariff while yet it was barely law, if it Avas law at all. We do not very well see how lie could have done otherwise, and done his duty, but the British Colonial office is a wonderful institution, and at the end of several months, a severe rebuke from Mr Cardwell reached the colony, in the shape of the recall of the Governor ; the two Houses thereupon compromised their quarrel ; and the administration of the colony resumed its former orderly course. This was the first of the drama, and may be taken as explaining all that follows. It was not likely that the people of Victoria would desert Sir Charles Darling in his defeat ; it Avould have been ungrateful of them if they had done so ; and thus it came to pass that, in consideration of his serA r ices, the Legislative Assembly passed a resolution to the effect that a sum of £20,000 should be bestowed upon him out of the public exchequer. No further action was at the time taken in the matter of the grant ; but in the next session of Parliament, the vote Avas formally recommended to the Legislative Assembly by the new Governor, Sir John Manners-Sutton. In due course, the vote Avas placed on the Estimates and carried —in the name, however, of Lady Darling, the acceptance of gifts or pensions by colonial Governoi’s being contrary to Imperial regulations and the Colonial Charter. This vote could not fail to be offensive to the Legislative Council, but the grand question was and is—can its members interfere with money votes, even Avlien they are offensive to them ? The answer or our answer to the question must be deferred to another opportunity.