RAISING A BOGEY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1349, 23 September 1886, Page 3

RAISING A BOGEY.

Just as certain wicked nurses frighten timid children by the terrible “bogey” which is supposed to lie in wait for the poor little morsels of humanity in dark cupboards and other eerie places, so, we observe, some of our Northern contemporaries are filling the political souls of their readers with alarm anent the supposed wicked intentions of the South. For example, the Auckland Herald , writing of the rejection last session of the Bill to readjust the Representation, screams and scolds away In the following fashion ; —“ The motives which induced the opponents of the measure prepared by the Premier last session will not fail to operate with equal force during the one which will succeed it, and which, disguise it as they may, is neither more nor less than a determination on the part of the Government supporters to prevent, by all possible means, any present diminution in the numerical strength now wielded in the House by the Southern members. This is a matter which very nearly concerns all the North Island constituencies. We warned them at the time the Bill was before the House that, unless they brought pressure upon their representatives, the measure would be in danger of being thrown out, and that this would be morally certain to be followed by such contingencies as those which are now being practically foreshadowed at the headquarters of political scheming. But, despite the warning thus given them, they slept upon their rights, took no active steps to secure at the proper time the larger share in the representation of the country which is their due, and the Bill was actually lost by the votes of three Northern members. We now again warn the constituencies of the North Island that the consequences of their inactivity, of the treachery of the three representatives in question, as well as of the Cabinet’s crafty conduct, are beginning to develop themselves, and that the same attempts which were successful last session in preventing an expansion of their privileges are now being planned to perpetuate the wrong then done. Nor let them imagine that the Ministry will even in the least degree scruple to countenance the projects that are being formed to secure that result. In fact the hatching of these projects takes place within the Ministerial circle itself. There is absolutely no guarantee that it will happen otherwise than it did last session when the burking of the Representation Bill was a well-understood Ministerial arrangement. Sir Robert Stout knew quite as well at the beginning as he did at the close of the debate on the question that the Bill introduced by him was doomed by virtue of adroit management previously determined on. Of this Sir Julius Vogel made no secret. He explicitly avowed that the Ministry made it an open question because their supporters, who are almost wholly Southern representatives, were adverse to the measure, and yet he gave as bis reason for the action of himself and certain of his colleagues in voting against it, that the Government did not wish to have it carried by those whose duty it was to be in opposition. That is to say, the device was adopted of allowing the members of the Cabinet to vote as they pleased, but with the precaution that the Bill should be defeated all the same. And the secret. of all this manoeuvring—this subtile combination of affected liberality with deliberate cunning—was to postpone as long as' possible the dealing with a measure which would increase the voting power of the North and proportionately reduce that of the South. Thus the interests of the North leland were deliberately

sacrificed because, torsooih, the bulk ol the Ministerial supporters are drawn from the South.” Now we do not hesitate to say that this is the veriest rubbish that ever was penned, and that this supposed desire to withhold from the North its fair share of representation has no more real existence than has the “ bogey” of the nursery. Southern constituencies and Southern members are perfectly willing that a readjustment of representation shall take place, no matter what number of members the North may lose or the South may gain thereby, but the measure will be passed in ample time for the elections when passed, as it will be, next session. Why it wasn’t passed last year is easily explained, without resort to such far-fetched assumptions as those of the Herald , and if our contemporary enquires why it was that the entire Opposition for once (and this once only) supported a Ministerial Bill he will have found the key to the mystery. The fact is simply that Ministerial supporters desired that Parliament should expire by effluxion of time, and that the present Ministry should remain in power until after the elections ; aud they plainly saw that had the Bill been passed last year it was quite on the cards tnat a totally different position would eventuate. It was, further, almost certain that the country would have been put to the cost of a double session next year, and as a double session means a further cost to the country of not less than £20,000 or -£25,000 —a sum which represents a year’s interest on half a million of money — that reason alone, had there been no other, was sufficient to justify the postponement of the Bill. All this is so thoroughly well known that there is no excuse for framing such theories as the Herald's, which have absolutely no better foundation than have the childish legends of Puss in Boots or Little Red Ridlnghood, and which, like them, can only serve to amuse or terrify children of a larger growth.— Mail.