A CRISIS AT THE ANTIPODES.
LIKE all the Australasian group, New Zealand has proved its capacity for producing a monstrosity ; only in lieu of the ornitho- rhynchu8 paradoxus, or the lamertine ".devil," its monster is a poli- tical anomaly of a very complex description- We have all heard of triangular or circular duels; the Romans, like some modern Mongolians, had a form of suicide by proxy: It is reserved for New Zealand to produce an autocratic and Infallible version of "responsible government" which finds its euthanasia in a triangular or rather circular suicide. The plain story will show that our description is not forced or exaggerated. TattglitIeeeir. Edward Gibbon Wakefield the nature and value of responaibleleovernnaent, Mr. Fitzgerald and certain coadjutors, newly .aisembled in the
House of Representatives at Auckland, urged it upon the acting Governor ; Acting Governor unexpectedly acqiiiesced; a responsible Ministry was formed, and all went merry as a marriage-bell. But even in the new responsible Ministry a leaven reniained of the old irresponsible. This was unavoidable. Responsible Govern- ment, although the rule in this country, adopted with official sanction in Britiala North America, and begun in New Zealand, is not embodied anywhere in a statute it is a usage of that kind which is net less binding than statutes, where the men that enforce it are accountable beings, politically. The Colonial Office, how- ever, is not the depositary of the sacred lire; and that department bad sent out to New Zealand certain Royal instructions, which told the acting Governor to appoint certain officers in a mode incompatible with " responsibility " in the Government. Thus associated with incongruous colleagues, the Ministers, new in office, having only a provisional existence, upon sufferance, at once initiated a mass of legislation to remodel everything, from the Government residence ti the working teen's allotment. They were proceeding in this course of Constituent-Assemblyism, when the triangular or circular suicide began. The author of the theory of responsible government obtained the ear of Acting Governor, and arrested the responsible Ministers in their career of irre- sponsible legislation ; the political children of Mr. Wakefield retaliated by a political parricide ; Acting Governor, who had suicided himself out of irresponsibility, cut his own throat as a constitutipnal disciple of responsibility, by virtually dismissing the Ministers who boasted the majority in the Representative Chamber; and the irresponsible Ministers of the old regivae were always at hand to supply each party with the requisite amount of rope.
The tale is .very ludicrous, but it is also very sad. Really re- spectable and able men have stultified themselves, ancl perhaps delayed the day when New Zealand might naturally develop responsible government, In the mean time, it is an interesting question—why responsible government should succeed so well in Canada, and so fail in New Zealand; the process of introduction being in each case superintended by the principal author of the theory. Two obvious reasons occur, and there may Ike others less obvious. In the first place, Canada had gone through the fiery ordeal of civil war, which preceded the development of responsible government in our own country. In the second place, the popu- lation of British North America is considerable, resident, born on the soil, and in amount scarcely less than that of many ancient states—Egypt for example ; while that of New Zealand is small, immigrant, residing in great part upon the ocean highway, or still in England, unvoyaged. A band of humble emigrants, with a gentry of keen speculators or ardent theorists, New Zealand °Quid only afford an official responsibility. to individuals,—eminent ana able persons, no doubt, but not a native and settled commu- nity. Probably this last is the reason why responsible govern- ment, so perfectly successful in Canada, is in New Zealand such a "fiasco."
Borne will say that the untoward result was aided by the in- consistencies of the author of the responsible theory ; who, sore at being overlooked in the organization for managing his own political method, turned upon its mismanagers. His disciples a4opted his theory ; but with a machinery imperfect from the beginning, and not seasoned in working,—with their own position unstrengthened by experience, they so far miscal- ep lated their .powers as at once to launch into a breadth of legislation which would have been a great task for a powerful and 'settle,d Ministry. Mr, Wakefield may have attempted with too much finesse to save the wrecks of responsible govern- ment, thus unfortunately broken up ; but that scarcely justifies those who suffered themselves to be led into personal hostilities, and even to be associated (in debate, if not in councils) . with one who descended to foul and cowardly personal reviling. Granted the utmost extent of error in Mr. Wakefield's recent pro- ceedings, we cannot withhold from him the admission, that to him the Colonial empire owes the best of services, each quarter that very thing which it most needed,—North America that respon- sible government in fall success which has converted rebellious provinces into affeetinnate volunteers sustaining the Mother- country in the hour of "trial ; the West Indies, that recognition of their labour difficulties which wes the first step to retrieving the mistakes of Emancipation; Australia, the rescue from convictism before the discovery of the gold; and New Zealand, existence as a British colony. And all the world owes to him a great and valu- able step in the advancement of a right understanding of some fundamental principles in political economy.
.Nor, because responsible government has been proved of doubt- ful practicability in New Zealand, has the opposite principle any better promise there. On the contrary, since Sir George Grey escaped to a higher post, it has been discovered that he had left affairs in so complete a mess, that even the accounts of the finances would need much labour to disentangle them ;-everything having been sacrificed to the political kite-flying of winati Who had already resolved upon leaving the scene of his industry. If responsible government is in its tutelage, irresponsible government is dead and bankrupt. The ease of New Zealand, then, shows us, thftt although ir. a very M.& i
young colony, existing almost in the em- bryo state in W it s fed by vitality from the parent, the ma- teriels for perfect nonstitutional government may be wanting, the spirit of responsibility is still the only safe rule, and the servants of,the Imperial Government must administer local affairs so as to 'am the utmost amount of moral support from the governed. There is the same sort of distinction between growing colonies and
established colonies, that the Americans have observed between " state " and "territorial" constitution ; though in the case of our young plantations the geographical remoteness renders the distinction wider. It is, however, never so wide as to render it safe or dignified for the public servants of the Imperial Govern- ment to depart from the spirit of that constitutional administra- tion which rules their superiors in England.
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