The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 342, 28 October 1879, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28.

The recent " arrangement" by which the Hon. John Hall and his Cabinet have succeeded in securing the votes of four pronounced political opponents presents a most melancholy spectacle. Of course, those who regard all means as justifiable in the strugge for place and power are able to chuckle over the whole affair as a successful piece of generalship. Given a certain object to be attained, and there is a class of men who will justify all means adopted which are attended with success. Their motto would be— recte si possis ; si non, quomodo modo. But it must be a sad blow to those who believed in the sincerity of the Government, who attributed their fierce denunciations (from the Opposition benches) of "jobbery," " corruption," &c, &c, to pure patriotism to find that they have so soon descended from their apparently lofty pedestal, and engaged in the most open and shameless trafficking for totes which, we believe, has ever been practised in the New Zealand Legislature. But these gentlemen might have remembered the proverbial impossibility of the leopard changing his spots. Session after session the so-called " continuous Ministry " maintained itself in power by systematically recruiting from the ranks of the Opposition. It was not without a purpose that Mr Hall kept a " vacant chair "in his Cabinet. He appears to have judged human nature aright when he considered that its inviting soitness might allure one of his political opponents from the allegiance due to his party and constituents.

Before considering the other inducements which appear to have been held out to cause the change of front by the four Auckland members, we feel bound to protest against this system of offering portfolios to political opponents. It really amounts to corruption in its most dangerous form, and is calculated to render representative government, which must resolve itself into government by party, an impossibility. When a man comes before a constituency, and announces himself as a supporter of a particular party, he is certainly betraying his trust in tho grossest manner by taking office with the political opponents ot that party. A writer in the editorial columns of the Press advances such an astounding theory on this point, and betrays such an intense depth of ignorance (real or assumed) of all the laws of party warfare that we cannot forbear quoting his remarks on this point. Speaking of Sir George Grey, our contemporary says:—

"Of course he spoke of corruption, for it is upon that that his mind mostly dwells, and he is ever ready to suspect in others that which he most loves himself. Equally of course his absurd charge was scattered to the winds by the very simple statement of facts given by Mr Reader Wood. The same member went on to show that if any corruption had been attempted it was on the part of Sir Geooge Grey and Mr Macandrew, who had offered him the highest offices to secure his continued support. It is true that Mr Macandrew tried to wriggle out of the dilemma by alleging that the offer was an after-dinner matter. On which it is to be remarked that if Mr Macandrew is the habit of transacting important political business after dinner in a , manner which his morning reflections will not justify, he is even less fit to hold power in the colony than was generally supposed. It is evident that these charges of corruption are the mere shriekings of baffled place-seekers or their followers, that it is hardly worth while to discuss them serionsly."

It is difficult to conceive the state of mind of the man who can deliberately pen such rubbish as this. A party in opposition make certain arrangements among themselves as to the distribution of portfolios, in the event of being successful in ousting" the Government, and the Press calls this " corruption." The writer can see no difference between such arrangements, and a Minister going deliberately into the camp of his opponents and filling up vacancies in his Cabinet from the ranks of those whom but a week before he has denounced as enemies of good government. Further, we are told that Messes Wood and Swanson are not " political babes." Very likely not. But the Press must imagine its readers to be " political babes," to be the veriest muling infants, if it expects them to be led away by doctrines showing such intense ignorance. But there is another feature of this " unholy alliance" which is even more objectionable than the one we have referred to. We allude to the "Auckland claims," Now, either these claims are well-founded, or they are not. If the former is the case, we' must be asked to believe that the Government of Sir George Grey, which has been supported by the whole phalanx of tho Auckland members, has been persistently engaged in favoring the rest of the colony at the expense of Auckland. Such an assertion carries its own refutation on the face of it, to say nothing of the

persistent manner in which Sir George's opponents have always averred that he was disposed to do considerably more than justice ..to Auckland. Again, this were the correct hypothesis, tliecompact still remains a discreditable one to the GoVernment. For the inference is irresistible that the Government would be willing to perpetuate injustice, except on condition of receiving a certain number of votes. But if it be the case, as most of the rest of the colony will be disposed to believe, that these so-called, claims are mere bunkumrif it be merely on a par with the usual form in which Auckland has been accustomed to demand to be treated as a spoiled child-—if in fact it be merely a try-on for some unfair advantage ; what shall we say of a Government that shows itself willing to perpetrate, or engage to perpetrate, an injustice on the remainder of the Colony in order to procure a few votes by which it hopes to retain its position.

So far the manoeuvre appears to have been successful, but apart from the Nemesis that invariably, sooner or later, must visit the perpetrators of such shady transactions, it remains to be seen what the independent supporters of the Government will have to say to this bargain. It is at least tjpen , to question whether they ■ will allow the parts of the Colony they represent to be deprived of their fair share of public money ( and if Auckland gains an advantage, it is self-evident that other parts of the colony ... must suffer), even to keep on the Government benches such admirable strategists as Messrs Hail, Atkinson, and Co. have proved themselves to be.