The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 2998, 3 February 1881, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1881.

The chance that has been brought about in the administration of the Native Office, says the Christchurch Press, which accounts for Mr Rolleslon being in his present position, is that which has taken place during the last eighteen months, under the auspices and in accordance with the clearly defined policy of the Hall Ministry. The immediate effect of the termination of tbe military regime was to constitute the Native Minister a very imf ortant personage in the Government of tbe couutiy, He inherited much of the prestige and the irresponsible power of the military. Peace and war were within his arbitrament, and the expenditure of huge sums of money was left to him almost without even any ostensible sontrol. One Native Minister after another stntohed these opportunities, and extended these prerogatives, until the office came to be a much more splendid oDe, as regards the external display of power, t*an that of the Governor himself. No single person, certainly, ever made such a show of authority in this country as Sir Donald McLean and Mr iSbeehan respectively did during their tenure of the Native portfolio. It is almost as difficult now to realise the things that they did, as it is to go a few years farther back and picture tbe scenes of military epoch. Sir Donald Mcliean undoubtedly cut the finer figure oftaetwo. He was a big, silent man, with a grandiose air about him that was very impressive; and it was a sight to see him on one of his progresses, attended by a " suite" of obsequious colonels and majors of militia, and followed by a troop of commission era, secretaries, interpreters, clerks, and retainers of both races and various. of color, all of whom he maintained in his train with the most openbanded liberality— at the public expense. He nobly represented the power and grandeur of the Native Office, at"? whatever he did, he did on a respectable scale. Mr Sheehan Bpent even more money than Sir Donald M'LeaD, and displayed quite as great a contempt for law or Parliamentary control; but he did everything in a low, unimpressive way. There was no style about him at all. It was the anti-climax of his lavish and reckless career, when bis accounts for cab-hire, to the tune of £800 or £1000 a-year, were dragged before the public and paid by his successors for very shame. After him came the deluge. Ihe personal government of the Native Minister had become such a crying scandal that the Hall Ministry, on assuming office after the general election of 1879, announced their determination, amid tbe applauße ot all parties, to sweep it away altogether. With Mr Bryce, to Hay a thing was to do it; and the result was that, after he had presided over the Native Office for rather more than a year, there was precious little left of the Native Office for anyone else to succeed to. It has been reduced to one of the routine departments of the public service, and the glories of the Native Minister have departed for ever. Mr Rolleston's task really is to complete the work of demolition which Mr Bryce necessarily left to some extent unfinished ; to merge the duties of the Native Minister in those of the Minister for Lands and the heads of other departments; and, above all, to watch unvaryingly for any signs of reaction against Mr Bryce's radical reforms, and to stamp on them, hard, as soon as they appear. It will readily be understood that coming from the Middle Island, and being removed entirely from North Island politics and North Island intrigues, he is very favorably situated for performing the thankless task imposed upon him. That he will succeed in it, no one who knows him, we think, can have the least doubt wh?tever.