The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3011, 12 October 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1872.

The predictions of the prophets of evil, that Mr Vogel would not be able to form a Ministry in which the country could have confidence, have turned out to he untrue. A Ministry has been formed by him, and it is likely to meet •with such support as will enable them to conduct the affairs of the country satisfactorily. For the first time the Middle Island is adequately represented by men who have not Northern proclivities. This is a tardy recognition of its importance, and may be accepted as a guarantee that the North Island clique will no longer mismanage affairs. Short as was the term of office of the Stafford party, they have done an amount of mischief in Native matters that has forced upon their successors a course of doubtful policy. So well have Native affairs been conducted during the last three years, that we do not believe there was any call for the two Maori advisers the unpractical mind of Mr Stafford considered necessary as a bribe to Native good behaviour. But having made the proposition, there is now no withdrawing from it; and it is satisfactory to believe that in the hands of the present Administration the measure which might have been so pregnant with mischief may be at least harmless, if it do no good. We need not say a word as to the merits of the new Cabinet. Each man is known more or less to the country. Perhaps the least known is Mr E. Richardson, who at the close of the session will supersede Mr Ormond as Minister of Public Works. But although he has not thrust himself prominently forward, those who will take the trouble to read his businesslike speech on the “No-Confidence Motion,” will be struck with its practical character, and the intimate knowledge he possesses of the details of the department over which he has undertaken to preside. It is evident that he understands the matter thoroughly, and that under him those errors may be expected to be avoided in which there is every reason to believe Mr Reid would have involved the Colony. From Mr Waterhouse’s statement we gather that chief attention is to be given to the work of administration, and that nothing new in legislation will be attempted this session, excepting such as is absolutely necessary. It remains to be seen whether the unseemly tactics of the Stafford party will lead them to further obstruct public business. They have had the satisfaction of a month of office, and of doing themselves irreparable damage in the eyes of the Colony. They have been the cause of breaking up a Ministry, whose principles they adopted, diluted with some deleterious nostrums of their own ; and of throwing away thousands of pounds worth of public money, not only directly through the cost of their opposition, but indirectly, by inducing uncertainty in all departments of the public service. The least reparation they can now make is to support the measures they themselves proposed, and thus to bring this weary profitless session to a close. The only real benefit to the Colony is the clue that has been obtained to the motives which inspired the Stafford following, and which will he very properly remembered when they present themselves at the hustings. The incapables, such as Mr J. C. Brown, Mr Mkrvyn, and Mr Murray, may, perhaps, be credited with sincerity. Nobody would libel them by supposing them able to form sound or enlightened opinions. Some who can think for themselves appear to have been cajoled into supporting the late Ministry by mere suspicion of something wrong; others by a desire to grasp at power ; and not an inconsiderable number by that worst of political vices—personal antipathy to one or more members of the FoxYogel Cabinet. It is well for the world that really trustworthy and able men can overmaster such soul-degrading motives, and, looking beyond self, can fulfil the duties of office with sincere desire to benefit the country. The time is passing by when faction can seize ihe helm of State and guide it for the gratification of mere personal passion. Wo should hardly think that the present Parliament will live beyond another session, and it is, therefore, for the constituencies to prepare themselves by watching the career uf their repre-

sontatives, so to mark their sense of their factious conduct as to refuse again to return them, because intellectually and morally they are not fit to repre sent constituencies.