The attention of the whole colony was centred on the House of Representatives in Wellington. Its actions were watched by crowded galleries, and spectators looked down upon the contest with keen interest.
The Governor’s Speech, echoing the Premier’s platform utterances, expressed an earnest hope that the new Parliament would be distinguished for the enactment of measures that would promote the happiness and welfare of the people.
It was recognised that New Zealand had reached one of the most important epochs in its history, and that the future depended largely on the action of Parliament.
The Speech maintained that, in spite of the severe monetary pressure and commercial gloom which had prevailed throughout the world for some time, the position of the colony was thoroughly sound. It was announced that there would be submitted a Bill to amend the law relating to Parliamentary elections, in which the broad principle was affirmed that every man who pays taxes, and is otherwise affected by legislation, has a right to representation.
It was proposed to introduce a Bill to provide for representation on a population basis.
Among other measures briefly sketched in the Speech was a Bill to change quinquennial Parliaments to triennial Parliaments, which, it was urged, would make members more directly responsible to their constituents, and would secure to the electors the power of returning members so frequently that public opinion, which often in young countries takes a new direction owing to the rapidly varying circumstances of the communities, would be fairly represented in every phase which it might assume.
The Government believed that these three measures were strictly in accordance with the spirit of the people and with the advanced ideas that had been steadily gaining public favour, even before Sir George Grey began his famous campaign.
The Premier, using the Speech as a mouthpiece, expressed a belief that if those measures became law, there would be permanently established throughout the colony a feeling of general contentment. “The power of legislation,” the Speech
