THE RESIGNATION OF THE MINISTRY.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1677, 1 October 1887, Page 3

THE RESIGNATION OF THE MINISTRY.

The results of the elections, combined with the Premier's defeat m Dunedin, and his refusal to accept any other seat will, to some extent, have prepared our readers for the intelligence that the Premier has placed the resignation of his Ministry m the hands of His Excellency the Governor, and that Major Atkinson had been sent for. Still the news will be received with regret, if not by the Colony generally, most assuredly by the people of Canterbury. The district is largely agricultural, and the farmers will regret to learn that the reins of Government have been transferred to the hands of that party by whom they were so harshly dealt with m the matter of the increase of the railway tariff. The Hon Mr Rolleston, when he last addressed the electors at Ashburton, denied that the party with which he was associated were the friends of the squatters. But there is no getting over the stubborn fact that the Atkinson Government, of which he was, at the time, a member, showed their friendly feelings to the wool lords by so timing the increase m the rates as to allow their wool to be carried at the old low rates, while the grain of the farmers was subjected to an additional impost which was calculated to brins m It is to thib fact more than to any other cause that Mr Rolleston owes his exclusion from the present Parliament, and that Canterbury returned such a grand united phalanx of Ministerial supporters.

It seems strange that Otago should have forgotten this little episode m the career of the last Atkinson Ministry. Still more strange is it that m Otago, where the *• roar of retrebchment" was loudest, the people by their j vote should have recalled to office that party who were m power m 1883, and who, when it was proposed to reduce their estimates by Ji£so,ooo, said that " it could not be done, and they would not do it " — the party whose Chief, last session said that the Government had done wrong m proposing to reduce the salaries, or m any way tax the Civil servants. This action of the Otago people shows how hollow was that " roar of retrenchment " invented by the capitalists, land munopolits, and importers, for the purpose of getting up an agitation against, and ousting, if possible, a Government which had proved itself so inimical to their selfish aims. They have succeeded m ousting the Government, but "we think that before long they will have cause to regret the course they have taken, when they find out how little the new rulers achieve m the way of retrenchment.