The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 131, 19 October 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19.

The personnel of the new Ministry is such as to convey the idea of weakness and early dissolution, rather than of strength and long life. Sir George Grey is, doubtless, an able man ; he is a statesman well versed in the administration of public affairs, moreover he is a gentleman of high honour, but he is erratic and impulsive, and many able men, therefore, who joined in turning out the late Ministry, stand aloof, and decline to act as colleagues with Sir George Grey. Mr Macandrew, as SuperI intendent of Otago, has shown considerable skill as a public administrator, but of Mr Larnach's abilities as a public man, little or nothing is known. Mr Sheehan, from his connection with the Maoris, and his intimate knowledge of Native affairs, will probably make as good a Native Minister as could be selected from the Opposition ranks. The dual office of Postmaster-General and Commissioner of Telegraphs is filled by the Hon. Mr Fisher, or, as ho used to be fond of calling himself, " Farmer Fisher." A more upright, honourableminded and kind hearted man than Mr Fisher does not exist ; but a cow on parade, handling a musket, would not seem more out of place than is " Farmer Fisher " sitting on the Treasury Bench as a Cabinet Minister, or as the head of two such important departments as the Post Office and the Electric Telegraph. The Grey Ministry, even on its entrance into life, shows signs of internal weakness. The fact that Messrs Montgomery, Rolleston, Ballance, Brandon and Travcrs, although asked, would not join it, and that Colonel Whitmore, although at first. consenting to become the exponent of the. Mm

isterial policy in the Upper House, afterwards backed out, that the Hon. G. Buckley refused, and that Sir F. D. Bell has only consented to fulfil that office until some one else can be got, looks as if those gentlemen had no confidence in the stability of Sir George Grey's Ministry. Still, it is said that there is a disposition on the part of the House to give the Ministry a trial. Sir George promises large retrenchment, commencing with the salaries of Ministers, although in this it is said that he is not so disinterested as he appears to be, as being in the receipt of a pensioi. from the Imperial Government, lie is precluded from receiving pay as a Colonial Minister ; be this as it may, Sir I George's colleagues certainly deserve credit for not having shown too great a hankering after the loaves and fishes— those sweets of office. It may be that, | seeing the late period of the session, and f:he undesirabilifcy of another Ministerial crisis, as well as the natural wish of honorable members to retire to their homes and the bosoms of their families, that the present Government may tide over the session, time being thus given to them to mature those schemes which have, to a certain extent, been shadowed forth in Sir George Grey's address to Parliament. There is, however, a contingency which, should it arise, would very quickly culminate in their rapid discomfiture and permanent deposition from office. It is rumoured that the Hon. E. W. Stafford is about to give notice of a "no confidence " motion ; if he does so, it is almort sure to be carried, and the result will be that the Grey Ministry wilL have to retire from office, and Mr fedfffbrd, as the mover of the resolution upon which they retired, will be expected to resume the reins of power. He will have no difficulty in forming a Ministry which will command the confidence of the House, and be what is usually termed a strong Government.

A cry for help has readied us from India. The Supreme Ruler of the Universe has, in His inscrutable Providence, permitted famine to visit that fair land, pestilence stalks in the train of the destroyer, and together, they are doing deadly work. Thousands, nay tens of thousands have already succumbed, and still the work of death goes on, the King of Terrors triumphs throughout the length and breadth of the land. What ghastly s]oectacles of haggard want must be daily presented in. the crowded cities, and sights not less fearful must be of daily occurrence in -the country. For a strong man to die from hunger is terrible, to feel day by dny the gnawingpangs, to see the frame wasting, until the man is but a shadow of his former self, to feel the strength ebbing away, until at length death releases the sufferer, is bad enough, but the matter is agravated a thousandfold, when we think of the miseries which the helpless women and children have to endure. How agonising must be the feelings of a mother, to liear her children crying to her for f00d, 4 and she has none to give them, to listen to the feeble wail of the babe nestling on her bosom, vainly seeking sustenance, to find, alas ! that the fount of life is dry. The

pangs of hunger which women thus situated have to endure, are as nothiug, when compared with the mental anguish, the intensity of woe, which torture them worse than.the famine and pestilence. Such scenes as these are of daily occurrence, amidst such horrors, the miserable survivors exist until death kindly numbers them with those who lie in ghasly silence aronnd them. These are no ideal pictures, they are stern realities, so terrible as almost to surpass belief, tales of human woe, which would not be believed were they not burnt into the very heart hy the impressive eloquence of facts. The cry for help lias come to us, and, we now ask, in the name of suffering humanity—shall that cry be heard in vain ? It is true that those who thus suffer, may not be all Christians, but they are members of the great human family ; alike with us, children of " Our " Father," men and women, for whom Christ died, and, shall we then, who live in Christian New Zealand, a land flowing with milk and honey, pass by that cry unheeded, and refuse to stretch out the helping hand ? We do not believe it to be possible, for us to do so. England has already nobly responded to the appeal to her benevolence. The sum of £270,000 has already been subscribed, and of this sum £200,000 has been remitted to India. The Lord Mayor of London is not willing that this philanthropic work should be confined to England, he wishes that the colonists should aid, and he has telegraphed to New Zealand to that effect. It is our duty, nay more, it is our high privilege at once to respond to the call, and we sincerely hope that the inhabitants of Akaroa, and its vicinity, will be no laggards in the mission of mercy, indeed, we are sure they will not. Let a public meetiug be called with as little delay as possible ; let a committee, including several ladies, be formed to canvass for subscriptions, and we believe that the result would be that such a sum of money would be raised as would prove that the dwellers on the Peninsula had borne in mind, that •' it is more " blessed to give than to receive."