The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 4.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 4, Issue 391, 4 May 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, MAY 4.

The electors of Rangitikei ought to feel greatly honored at the treatment they are receiving at the hands of Major Willis and Sir William Fox. It is not every constituency that can afford to be buffetted about between a Major and a Knight-Templar. Independent electors, as a rule, don't care about having their confidence and esteem converted into a transferable commodity like tea, sugar, or .bank notes. Of coarse, as regards the Rangitikei seat there has been no transfer of the kind as yet, for does not Major Willis indignantly deny that he has been keeping the seat warm for Sir William ? i>ut if the transfer is not direct it has been effected in an indirect manner. . Major Willis was full up with politics, and hence he abandoned them, as such a retiring gentleman might be expected to do ; Sir Win, Fox was needy, and wanted a constituency very badly, hence he appropriated the vacancy, if we can take the Major's word for it, there was no understanding between him and Sir William, and the fact that the one retired and the other stepped forward .simultaneously was merely the

accident of circumstances. Still, it is fortunate for Sir WilJiam that, just as Parliament is approaching, such a nicefitting constituency should have been placed at his disposal. It is considered equally fortunate for a Ministry, one of whose confessedly weak points is its want of argumentative ability, that at a critical time an aged gladiator, who has never been nice as to weapons, or means, and in whom there is believed to be a good deal of fight left, should find his way to the front. The adventitious opening in the Parliamentary ranks created by the doughty but undesigning Major commends that gentleman to the everlasting gratitude of the Ministry ; and the honor that the late member has done his constituents in making a convenience of them fairly entitles him to a leather medal at their hands.

But what shall we say of Sir William ? Already certain Ministerial journals are jubilant, because they perceive' in the restoration of this old file a chance for the Ministerial axes being ground afresh. That the} , should endeavor to whitewash that pitiful weathercock—the member for Lyttelton, is only natural, but we fail to perceive what peculiar virtue there is in Sir William Fox to gush over. So far from bringing strength, we imagine Sir William can only prove an element of weakness to his party. At the best he is only a broken reed. His best friends doubt his sincerity. We question if there is a politician in New Zealand so universally distrusted. He is a poor conjuror that shows his hand, and Sir William Fox has been too frequently detected to inspire confidence in those that know him. There is invariably something suspicious about his movements that believers in straightforward conduct detest. No other public man has had so many chances or made 60 many failures. If we mistake not, he has been five times at the head of a Ministry, yet now we find. him sneaking into a seat beneath the political coattails of an obscure representative. Five times he has been kicked out of office, and the last time he declared he should give up politics for ever. After a pilgrimage, however, through Jerusalem and Yankee land, he forgot his vow, and returned to his forsaken love. About twelve months ago he made a stumping tour, lecturing everywhere in favor of a Temperance Alliance. His subsequent performances when he entered the political arena showed how much he cared for the Temperance cause. His Temperance Alliance was a Political Alliance, by which the Otago and Canterbury Liberals might be broken up, and Sir William promoted to the position of a leader. His conduct in connection with the Beer Duties Bill showed how much reliance could be attached to his professions. The Temperance Societies of New Zealand have already recognised him as a treacherous friend, and a treacherous friend is the worst of enemies. What has he done to promote his Temperance Alliance since he was rejected by the Wanganui electors ? Simply nothing ! If he had the cause he professes to have at heart, would he have remained inactive ? Certainly not. Sir William Fox, like certain members of the present Ministry, is a firm believer in cant. The Permissive Bill he has used repeatedly, just as certain of the southern members have used the Bible in schools—as a stepping-stone to political preferment.

The case of the Ministry must indeed be somewhat desperate when they pin so much of their faith of a further lease of life on a factious and severely distrusted representative like Sir William, Fox. The circumstance shows that they are fully aware how critical is their position. By inviting to their assistance one who has so oft been weighed and found wanting, whose political reputation is thoroughly threadbare, who has invariably sacrificed professed principles to faction, and whose only argument is abuse, they have confessed their weakness. The fate of the members of the Ministry and the majority of their supporters has been pretty cleared indicated during the recess. After the experiences of Messrs Swanson, Hurst, Allwright. and others, we presume that not a few of those who, for reasons best known to themselves, seceded from the Grey party and gave ia their adhesion to the Hall-cum-Atkinson Ministry, feel themselves in the position of offenders awaiting trial with the almost certainty of a conviction. The introduction as their champion and advocate of a gentleman whose intemperance of language has hitherto made his presence in the House most objectionable, can only precipitate and contirm their final doom.