The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume VI, Issue 527, 2 August 1881, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. TUESDAY, AUGUST 2.

So thf* gii'iit annual No Confidence debate is over, ami I lie House and the tuu.itiy cjhi Itivatho figain. We have lu'vor professed'to be admirers of the policy of the present Government, but we must say that we teel gratified at Iho result of the division. We consider that a change of Ministry at the present juncture would be highly inopportune. Ihe days of the Assembly are numbered. In a few months the electors will be called upon to make their voices heard, and elect a new House. It is to be hoped, if the House does its duty, that before that time some of the glaring inequalities in our representative system will have been re-adjusted, and that the new House will be elected on a broader and fairer basis than the present one. Meanwhile we can well afford to allow Messrs Hall and Company to retain their positions until the electors pronounce decisively by means of the ballotbox either for s or against their continuance in office.

But if the hour had not come, neither had the man. Wo cannot join in the abusn which some of the Government press have been heaping upon Mr Ormond. We hold that he was neither traitor nor renegade. He has given the Government warning time after time that if they did not mend their ways, and do just as he told them, he should have to punish them, and he has but kept his word, We do not think the Government have any right to complain of his conduct, but at the same time ho is "not the man for Galway," It is impossible to conceive of his working harmoniously with such men as Sir G, Grey, Mr Macandrew, Mr Ballance or the member for Akaroa, A victory gained under such auspices would have been worse than a defeat, for it would have been the signal for the commencement of internecine strife among the victors.

And this last paragraph brings us to the consideration of what we consider a third reason for congratulation that Mr Ormond's amendment was not carried. We would not for a moment have it understood that we admit the justice of the taunt so freely indulged in by the Government. Press that the Opposition are disunited. " A disorganised labble" is one of the polite terms wnich has been applied to them. The Opposition, or the Liberal party, let their adversaries sneer a* they may, are just as united a body of men as is to be founds And their opponents know it, and know that they can only hojpe to succeed by uniting firmly against them. The grand question in which tney are united is that legislation and administration shall be directed towards the welfare of the people at large, and not for the benefit of a privileged few. In fact, as we have more that once pointed out, it is the old, old, question of monopoly against men. Let anything bearing on this question come up for discussion and there will be found a compact party fighting and Toting shoulder to shoulder. In the Honse as at present constituted that party is, we admit, in a minority, but when the electors have spoken out, when several of those who have betrayed their trust, and violated their husting pledges have been relegated to their native obscurity, we hope and believe that minority will be converted into a considerable majority. At any rate, the issue raised by Mr Ormond's motion was altogether too trivial to be raised to the dignity of a party question. Whether counties shall be larger or smaller, whether Road Boards are still to keep village pumps in order are no doubt very important matters, but they are mere matters of detail, on which members of a party may very well be allowed to have different opinions. The Government and their supporters in the Press attempod to to sbow that the debate was between Provincialism and centralism. A glance at the division lists will show the fallacy of any such assumption. No one ever accused Messrs Kolleston and Bunny of. being wanting in fealty to BroymeiaUsiri, yet they voted against Mr Ormond and Sir G, Grey, Mho were said.to be endeavoring to re-viyify the dead provinces. On the other side we find Mi Hutchison, the-Mayor of Wellington, a determined opponent of provincialism in any shnpe or form (as indeed are all the Wellington members except Mr Bunny) and the gold fields members in whose nostrils the names of the provinces stank long ago. The taunt of being disunited comes with a very bad grace from a party containing men of suck opposite opinion:; <>v the question at issue as that which voi.-c! tnuviher to save the Government from ilrfi'jit, ami the division lists simply > ho-.v thai i.'i». Kssvio rained was not the cue voted on.