The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas e Prevalebit SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1884. Sir George Grey.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1250, 10 May 1884, Page 2

The Ashburton Guardian. Magna Est Veritas e Prevalebit SATURDAY, MAY 10, 1884. Sir George Grey.

If it be true that speech was given to man for the purpose of concealing his thoughts, then the greatest orator is he who manages to keep an audience spell-bound by his eloquence without telling them anything. Judged by this standard Sir George Grey stands not only pre-eminent in the colonies, but it is doubtful if his equal could be found throughout the whole world. 'I he speech he delivered at Christchurch on Wednesday last was an example of this, and the enthusiasm with which he was greeted shows that his power of swaying the masses has in no way abated. His polished rhetoric, his well rounded periods, his apt similes, and above all his suave and gentlemanly bearing, go to account for the fascination he exercises over men’s minds while he is talking to them. It is not what he says, (or the ideas he expresses are for the most part of a visionary and unpractical kind, but his manner of saying it that gives him his influence. Whatever may be the reason of Sir George Grey's present tour through the South Is'and, we fail to see that it is likely to do much good either to the colony or himself. Major Atkinson pretends to see in him the only possible leader of the Opposition, but the utter impracticability of his views of government must always stand in the way of his obtaining an influential following in Parliament. If the people of this island imagined that the Great Pro-Consul, as he has been dubbed, was going to give them an outline of his policy next session, they must have been woefully disappointed. His address was little more that a lecture upon abstract politics of an extreme radical kind, and he exhorted his hearers not to pay any attention to merely local questions, but to busy their minds with the consideration of wider issues. One is reminded by this of the old fable of which tells how the philosopher while studying the stars walked into a well. Those who attend the meetings held by Sir George Grey should take the moral contained in this fable to heart; let them applaud his eloquence, and accord him as many and as hearty votes ot thanks as they choose, but when he has returned to his island at Kawau turn their thoughts to more practical business than indulging in vague visions of an impossible Utopia. The eloquence of Sir George is of the florid school, and his arguments are of that kind which entrance the ear of the mob, but when the reports of his speeches come to be calmly considered in print, the shallowness of the logic is only too apparent. On Wednesday he spent a-good deal of time in trying to prove that the system under which the province of Canterbury was colonised is accountable for .the many evils which the people of New Zealand are. 1 supposed to be suffering from at the present time. The remedy advocated by Sir George Grey is “ Tax the unearned increment in land,” and he drew a graphic picture of the state of the poor in England, and prophesied that this colony would sink even lower than the Old Country it his advice were not taken. Does any reasonable person, in their calmer moments when they are not led away bjr the influence of turgid oratory, really believe that the early colonists of Canterbury were the purse-proud tyrants Sir George Grey describes them ? On the contrary, it must be admired that it was these men who really made New Zealand what she is, and now forsooth because wealth has accrued to them they are to be specially taxed (or the benefit of the idle and worthless. The only outcome of preaching this doctrine of equality will be to set classagainstclass,for nothing is easier than to convince the man who has nothing that he has some sort of right to share the riches of his more fortunate, and it may be more provident, neighbor. It is not exactly an edifying spectacle to see one who is an aristocrat by birth and breeding using the last years of what has undoubtedly been a useful life in sowing the seeds of dissension by preachingan ultra-democratic creed. It is almost impossible that a politician of the vast experience of men and books that Sir George Grey possesses, can honestly believe in the doctrines he promulgates. They are permissible enougi in a young man, who has only studied the speculative theories of philosophical radicalism, and has not yet recognised that they are inapplicable to the present universe, but we suspect that Sir George is laughing in his sleeve at the gullibility of the mob whilst he is propounding his Utopian schemes to them. One thing his speech at Christchurch proved, if proof were wanting, and that is that his day for leading any party in Parliament has gone. In spite of the gift of eloquence which he possesses in so high a degree, the utterly impracticable nature of his theories of government will prevent him from being anything more than a brilliant speaker, who will always be listened to with pleasure, but whose real influence will be purely transitory.