The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 2992, 20 September 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 1872.

We regret much that our limited space does not enable us to publish the whole of the late debate on the “ no-confidence” motion. It is, in fact, one of the disadvantages of a limited population that the Press cannot afford to provide space for a particular class of readers without encroaching upon that devoted to information on other subjects. The publication of full reports of Parliamentary debates should, however, be interesting to all; for, notwithstanding the political acumen of many of our citizens, ideas respecting immigration, public works, and general administration by the late Ministry have been adopted that are far from true, and which have, in fact, originated with men and journals either blindly ignorant of facts, or who have wilfully misrepresented them. One of the most amusing and instructive speeches was by Mr Ormond, the Minister of Public Works for the North Island. We in the South are so far from the seat of Government that we know little about Northern, log-rolling. We hear about this and that honorable member, and what he said, and because the words are those of an honorable member they are supposed to be words of truth. We have heard it said many times that no advocate pleading for a prisoner should know too much about his client’s case ; for if he knows that which does not come out in evidence, it may tend to weaken the fervor of his advocacy. We apprehend that this must have been the case with many members who led and many more who followed in the late debate. We, therefore, desire to be charitable enough to believe that many assertions were made in ignorance, wilful or accidental,

but it is to be feared many more were uttered, knowing them to be utterly untrue. The speech of Mr OIiMOND was the last before Mr Stafford’s reply, and was a most convincing refutation of most of the charges so industriously urged against the Government. It moreover is an expos 6of many of the fallacies which are held to so tenaciously by the opponents of Mr Fox’s Administration, It is perhaps unavoidable in countries having representative Governments, that Ministers are supported by men who are actuated by very mixed motives. In fact, narrowness of thought and object are the great drawbacks to public usefulness. Some men are impelled by mere personal objects; they seek to rise to eminence by devotion to politics. They most commonly mistake their way, because their idea of the road to success is that they must pull down others instead of rising above them. Most of the members, however, have some vague notion of responsibility; but it is mainly confined to securing something for the district they represent. So long as they are mere isolated members, their greedy grasping may be safely left to be counteracted by equal greed on the part of others. A Government can afford to refuse to an individual what can only be refused to a couple of Provinces at the risk of defeat. The whole of the Ministerial speeches prove beyond contradiction, that in addition to secret influences working against them on account of the beneficial effect of changes in some of our institutions which have interfered with private interests, the Provinces of Wellington and Auckland have been seeking to obtain advantages to which they were not entitled as the price of their support to any Ministry. These are the inevitable deductions that must be arrived at from a perusal of Mr Ormond’s speech. It deals not so much with declamation as with facts, and on the whole is very little tinctured with that bitterness that might have been excused under the circumstances. We do not wish to lay ourselves open to the charge of publishing one side of a debate only, but at the risk of this we purpose, as room will permit, printing the rej)ort of that speech, as given in Hansard , because it tells more of the doings in the North Island than most of us previously knew. It will be useful, too, as it shows what steps the late Government took to secure the execution of the Public Works scheme in the cheapest and most effective manner, and it affords a clue to the terms on which Mr Stafford has accepted office. The inevitable conclusion of every unprejudiced mind must be, that the exchange from Mr Fox’s Government to that of Mr Stafford has been a most disastrous one, and that Mr Stafford has undertaken a task that not even a despot could achieve. Admitting that his intentions are of the best, and his desire for the general good sincere, he is not in the position of the late Government, who dared to defy the Superintendents of Auckland and Wellington. The men who sought advantages which no Government ought to concede, as the price of their support, are now Lis advisers and colleagues. His only assistance against them is Mr Reid, the youngest and least experienced of the Ministry ] and however willing he may be to make head against them, we believe he is, and hope he ever will be, too little accustomed to such crooked doings as to meet his wily colleagues with equally wily compromises.