The Struggle for Responsible Government in the Province of Otago 1854-76

Abstract

The object of this thesis is to follow the struggle for responsible government in Otago not to consider the administration of the Province under a responsible form of government, except in so far as such matters are involved in the main theme of the thesis. For this reason most attention is paid to the years 1854-1863, during which time the Province was striving to attain legal recognition of what it believed was a constitutional type of government. This having been achieved by 1863, the remainder of the thesis is concerned with the practical working of this blueprint during the last thirteen years of Provincial government, and to a consideration of how far all the executive organs of the government were really responsible for their official actions. The events of the first decade are necessarily treated in greater detail than are those of the last period, it being felt that after 1863 questions of the form of provincial government ceased to be of such vital importance to the great majority of the leading men in the Settlement, and therefore a detailed study of these years is likely to prove unrewarding.