Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28,1887. THE FINAL RESULT.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1674, 28 September 1887, Page 2

Ashburton Guardian. Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1887. THE FINAL RESULT.

As m the natural, so m the political atmosphere, "after a storm comes a calm," and we are enjoying a brief traoquility. Now that the successful candidates have been declared "duly elected members of the House ot Representatives," we have probably heard the last of the "roar for retrenchment," for a time at least. During the temporary lull which invariably takes place between the elections and the meeting of Parliament politicians are peacefully engaged m estimating the strength of the relative parties and newspaper-men m compiling lists showing this at a glance. These vary m the results arrived at according to the political views and the elasticity of conscience possessed by the various compilers. The list we publish m another part of the paper will be found to be a fairly accurate one. From this it will be seen that these are, according to our calculation 42 Ministerialists, 43 Oppositionists, and 10 " Indipendents" or M Railers." In this class there are a few truly independent members who refuse to pledge themselves to support any particular party. But the great majority of them decline to announce themselves until they see which "way the cat jumps." These are always a great element of doubt and uncertainly after every general election, and when the avowed supporters of the rival schools of politicians are pretty nearly equal, a no confidence motion is generally tabled to test the real strength of parties. It will be seen that, exclusive of the Independents, the Ministerialists and Oppositionists are very nearly equal, and either, by a large accession to its numbers, from the Independent class, might become sufficiently strong to carry on the Government, for New Zealand majorities seldom exceed four. Under these circumstances we shall expect to see a " No-confidence " motiontabled at the earliest opportunity, after the Address-in-Reply has been disposed of.