The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1883. The Member for Ashburton.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume IV, Issue 1005, 26 July 1883, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas et Prevalebit. THURSDAY, JULY 26, 1883. The Member for Ashburton.

At the beginning of the week a statement appeared among the Parliamentary correspondence of the Christchurch Press which those who came across it must have read with astonishment. We were told on the authority of this Wellington correspondent that Mr E, G, Wright was reported to have definitely joined the ranks of the Opposition, and trhat the Government had offered to Mr J. Evans Brown the new porfolio of Railways, but that that gentleman had not accepted it owing to his disinclination to take office. It was not likely that a statement of this

kind would remain long uncontradicted, and the member for Ashburton yester-, 1 day sent the following telegram to our ’ Christchurch contemporary :—“Having j read your correspondent’s report dated , •Wellington 21st July, I desire to say there is not the slightest foundation for the impression said to prevail, unless it exists in the mind of the member for St Albans, who is so reluctant to accept office, and who appears to have taken your correspondent intohis confidence.” Some color was afforded to the rumor by the fact that Mr Wright’s name appeared among the minority in the division taken upon Mr Swanson’s motion to send back the Estimates with a view to their reduction. The Government, indeed, chose to view this as a vote of no-con'idence, but it* did not necessarily follow that all the members of their party should look at it in the same light. Mr Wright may differ with the Ministry upon the question whether retrenchment in the public service is not a better method of meeting a financial deficiency, than an increase of the already heavy burden of taxation which we have to bear in the colony; but this could only be construed into an intention to desert a party of which he has been so able a member by those who are anxious that such an event should take place. The truth is, we suspect, that the correspondent in question simply reflects the desires of the Wellington people. We have been afforded ample evidence that in the Empire City the acceptance of such a post as that of Minister of Rail" ways by the member for Ashburton would be looked upon with anything but (favor. The people in that part of the colony know only too well that Mr Wright would not countenance the perpetration of those political jobs for which the North Island is so notorious. As to what the correspondent says about Mr J. E. Brown and his reluctance to accept office, there is in all probability not the slightest reason to believe that the Government ever intended to offer the new portfolio to the member for St. Albans. The rumor to which the Press gave currency is so absurd as to scarcely need contradiction, although it is easy to see that it is simply the outcome of a strong desire in Wellington not to have Mr Wright in office. Even if our member had reason to disagree with the policy of the present Government, the idea that he would join the ranks of such a disorganised Opposition as exists in the present Parliament is a thing imagination boggles at.