CONTEMPORARY OPINIONS ON CURRENT EVENTS.

Evening Star, Issue 3015, 17 October 1872, Page 2

CONTEMPORARY OPINIONS ON CURRENT EVENTS.

THE OVERTHROW OF THE STAFFORD MINISTRV,

The verdict of the House in this instance will be fully endorsed by the country. Whatever the shot tcoraing of the Fox Ministry, the House did not put that Ministry out in* order that the financial affairs of the Colony might be mangled after the manner of one who would haggle over an ounce of Scotch snuff, and its .Native policy be conducted by one who knew nothing about it. Tire causes of Mr Stafford’s defeat are of his own making; he has himself alone to blame for his disgrace. Allying himself with our own estimable Superintendent, whose presence in any Ministry should be a sure precursor of destruction, and with a number of other political Ishmaelites in the House, he sacrificed the policy of a legislative lifetime in order to attain office. In doing so he Baer' (iced himself. The recent rapid changes of Goveramei t, however, will have done one good. Mr Gillies’ birth as a Minister of the Crown will have been nearly simultaneous with his death. He has been found out. Wo all along prophesied that so soon as he got amongst statesmen his shallo.vness and his groundless claims to occupy a higher position than a mere pettifogger in politics would be discovered. —Thames Star. Were it not that Mr Stafford deserve*, his fate, we might commisserate with him, but as it is we cannot. He must retire for the future into the shade, for those who once had faith in him must now surely denounce hj mas a thorough political quack. Taranaki [Jerald, The startling news which we published on Saturday of the defeat of the Stafford Ministry was received here with universal satisfaction and deliglit; and we do not believe a dozen persons could be found in the district who sympathise with the fallen. — Marlborough [depress, Grcymoutb was vastly jubilant on Saturday over the sudden and pronounced success wliich Mr Vogel achieved in proposing an expression of want of confidence in the Staffe d cum Curtis Cabinet, and there is no particular reason to suppose that Greymoutb was exceptional in the extent or diredion of the feeling which was then exhibited. There is reason rather to believe that the feeling which was expressed with such emphasis, and with so much “ sociability,” pervade! the majority of the intelligent communities in the Colony, If the constituencies had bsen canvassed for their opinion as to the overthrow of the Vogel Ministry, that opinion would undoubtedly have been favorable to a majority of its members retaining office. Public opinion, so far as it was expressed, never favored the resolution l>y which Mr Vogel and Mr M'Loan were ousted from*office, and the selfishness of their successors in holding a plurality of appointments alienated even those who were disposed to he friendly towards them as untried men. Such sympathy as their successors may have secured by their promises to proceed with the public works which, according to their first declaration, they had determined to abandon, was rapidly waning as the public realised the extent and evils of their aggrandisement; of office ; and the carrying of a motion expressing a want of confidence certainly could not be considered a surprise. It was an event inevitable, if there was left among the members of the House the slightest sensitiveness as to the conditions under which political oflhe should be acquired and held.— Grey River Argus. A DISSOLUTION. For any one to say that public feeling is either with the Stafford or with the Vogel party at such apd such a place is simply to say that the recipient of such telegram iu supposed to be excessively verdant. One thing, however, appears pretty clear, that the country demands that its representatives, who have been playing the fool at Wellington for the past few months, should come home and hear what the people hare to say to them. That there is a universal demand for the dissolution of the Assembly is very evident. Some, however, demand this on one ground, and sonic on another. That Stafford should obtain a dissolution to keep him in office, which he has held for one short month, would, to say the least, be a very unusual course of procedure. The present House was selected to support the Colonisation Scheme; an,d pearly every candidate, whether hone tly or dishonestly, felt bound to declare himself a supporter of Vogel and Co. Even Mr Gillies himself veiled his implacable hostility, and professed that he went in to carry out in its entirety the already accepted policy of the country, Disappointment. and chagrin have turned many of these professed supporters of the policy into insidious and ultimately open enemies, and it is simply justice to the original propound© s oi this policy to be permitted to invite the country to endorse its once accepted policy, and to expel from the Assembly those who have been trying to make the interests of the country subordinate to their own greed of place and power. —Auckland Star.