COUNTRY EDITION. The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1881.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3150, 2 August 1881, Page 2

COUNTRY EDITION. The Daily Telegraph TUESDAY, AUGUST 2, 1881.

The position of the Ministry is pitiably weak. Ministers have shown as little confidence in themselves as members of the House have exhibited towards them, and even to a greater extent than last session tbe Government have been more content to follow than to lead. Nor is this to be wondered at, for Ministers are only bound together by the one tie of a common fear lest they should have to give place to feir George Grey. On questions of policy they are divided. With; perhaps, the exception of two Ministers-the Premier being one of them—the Government were favorably disposed towards the principles advocated by Mr Ormond as those upon which local government should be based, and, probably, not ten men in the House could be found who do not recognise in thera the key note of the reform which the country demands. What then was it that saved the Ministry ? Certainly not the confidence reposed in them. Nor was it a sense of what might be thought due to them for pulling the colony out of the mesa it was in at the close of 1879. Mr Ormond had no wish to defeat the Government when he moved his amendment to the Ministerial proposals. He was simply actuated by a desire to serve the country; he had no party move in view, any more than he had last year, when he was mainly instrumental in forcing the Government to cut down the cost of administration. His speech fell upon the ears of members as a bomb-shell upon the floor of the House ; it took all sides by surprise. Had his intention been to try conclusions with tbe " Ins " in order to give a chance to the " Outs," he would have exchanged confidences with those 'vho thought and usually acted with him, and the result would have beeu never for one moment doubtful. As it wss, the narrow majority of the Government was only secured by the promise to withdraw the obnoxious proposals, and it is more than likely now that others may be made in accordance with the lines indicated in Mr Ormond's speech. But the real salvation of the Ministry was due to the fact that the Opposition was not prepared to take the responsibility of forcing a dissolution before a Redistribution of Seats Bill was passed. The greatest feeling of disappointment and consequent dissatisfaction would have been created throughout the colony if the general elections had had to be carried out on tho old representative boundaries. Mr Ormond was well aware of public feeling on this

suVrjoct in Napier, aud from that he could conceive th..t similar opinions prevailed in ull other doctorates which had unsympathetic districts tacked r,'i to therii. The Ministry showed no su.u consideration for the pcop'.e, but boldly asserted their intention of dissolving the House in tbe event of defeat, aud of then blaming the Opposition for what they had done. It was that which saved the Government and nothing else; and we have it on the best authority tbat rather than obtain au easy victory Mr Ormond would have secured tbe absence of some of his supporters from the House when the division took place. It is necessary to put this matter iv a clear light because of the misrepresentations that are certain to be made on the eve of a general election. The Government have now been in office for nearly two years, and they have done nothing, and, if left to themselves, would do nothing, to improve the most unsatisfactory state of aftairs into which the administration of the country was thfofrn on the abolition of provincial institutions. In the three sessions during which the Government have been in power this state of things has been rendered worse by the withdrawal of the subsidies, until now the action of local bodies has become paralysed through want of funds and the uncertainty existing as to the future intentions of the central authority. This feeling of uncertainty, quite as much as the immediate want of funds, has had a most disastrous effect upon settlement. Certainty with regard to the provision of fund, and security in the stability of the sources from whence they are to spring, are a matter ot life and death in the pro* greas of a young community, and as long as uncertainty and insecurity prevail so long must progress and prosperity be retarded. The time had come when it was absolutely necessary for some one to take the bull by the horns, and in no better hands could such a task have been j undertaken than by Mr Ormond.