The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume V, Issue 461, 21 December 1880, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 21.

Quos Deus vult penhre. prius demcntut. The above aphorism contains as great a truth now as it did when first penned in the misty regions of antiquity. We are strongly reminded of it by the action taken of late by the present Government. The manner in which thry scattered promises right and left during the session—the grants of public money made notoriously as the price of votes— all this might be considered clever manoeuvring, and its expediency might even have excused its lax morality in the eyes of many politicians. But when a Government deliberately bestows kicks upon its most loyal supporters, and reserves all its half-pence for opponents or half-hearted adherents, it is. to Gay the least of it, playing a very dangerous game. A worm is popularly supposed to be capable of resentment under pro-

longed ill treatment, and it is possible fur even the most docile adherent (say Mr Harry Allwright, for instance) to get tired of kissing the rod which smites him and his friends.

We are led into those remarks by observing the manner in whi.-h the Provincial District of Canterbury has been treated by Messrs Hull and Co. With very few exceptions the Canterbury members have accorded the Government a cordial support. The return has been that, evidently counting upon the continuance of their support as a matter of course, the constituents of those members have been treated in* the most cavalier manner, and Canterbury has been systematically despoiled to favor other parts of the colony whose representatives could not be reckoned upon as so absolutely docile, or shall we say servile ?

The Ashburton Mail, since its change of proprietary, has steadily supported the present Government. Its testimony is therefore that of an unwilling witness against a friend, and this is what it has to say on the matter : —

What, then, shall the people of Canterbury do ? The matter is reduced to a nutshell by the Lyttelton Times of Tuesday. "To bring pressure to bear ou the Government to reduce the new tariff to the ancient level is the duty of Canterbury representatives." This of course is the advice of a journal which has throughout been hostile to the present Ministry, and unable to recognise their unquestionable services to the country. It is, however, advice which is extremely sound in the present emergency, snid cannot be said to be in any way tinged with political venom. Weeks as;o it was urged in these columns that if the Government did not abandon their new and unconstitutional impost on Canterbury, the people of Cantprbury would have to reconsider their political opinions so far as supporting a Ministry distinctly hostile, not merely to Canterbury interests, but to the main industries of the colony, upon which two-thirds of its importing power, and consequently of its revenue, directly hang.

When we wrote in this strain on October 14th for thi first time we did not really believe that the Ministers would have allowed matters to go to the length they have. We were perhaps over-anxious to accept the tariff as merely one of the hundred-and-one blunders committed by Mr Oliver, which his colleagues would compel him to remedy or resign. They have not done either. In fact, it is plain that they are too afraid of offending Otago to do right to Canterbury. They believe the affection of Canterbury for them to be inalienable ; they know that what hold they have on Otago is of the most insecure character. Therefore they have chosen deliberately to sacrifice tho former that they may gratify the latter. They are political cowards of the most pronounced character, as they showed on half a-dozen different occasions during last session, and this is the latest exhibition of their cowardice.

If now the Canterbury representatives give the Government plainly to understand thtit tlie maintennnco of tins tariff means the withdrawal of their support in the forthcoming session, there is little doubt that Ministers will sco in the loss of the Canterbury vote a much greater evil than can be compensated for by the few supporters who may possibly be gained to them from among the Otago members. The position which has been taken up by the member for Coleridge (Mr E. G. Wright) on the tariff question is one from which the other Canterbury representatives might well take example. At present, among the members of the House, he is left to fight alone. This, possibly, may have been on account of his local position as a member of the County Council. But, as we have said, it is time that the members of Canterbury acted ns such.

It is on the subserviency of Canterbnry that Ministers rely. We do not say that such a representation should at present be made ostentatiously, as that would only place the Government in the new difficulty of being supposed to yield in a fright— a position by the way to which they are not unaccustomed. But it is quite clear that some action of the kind should be taken, however discreetly, and that the loyalty of the representatives to their constituents demands that it should be taken without further delay.

A Government which adopts such a course has undeniably forfeited any claim to respect or consideration. Their action constitutes the most contemptible display of political poltroonery and faithlessness that is to be found as yet in the story of New Zealand—and there were some queer pages in it before. The faults of their predecessors were dangerous to the reputation of the State and injurious to the cause of order ; but they were never the faults of cowards, or of such as betray their friends. If the representatives of Canterbury refuse to ponder these things, and hold their peace in this railway crisis, they may rest assured that there will be few among them who will be able to add M.H.R. to their names after the general election of next year. They need be under no apprehension of the obnoxious term "rat" being applied to them. It will be the Ministers, and not they, who will have shamelessly ratted in a body from their

supporters.