The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1872.

Evening Star, Issue 3016, 18 October 1872, Page 2

The Evening Star FRIDAY, OCTOBER 18, 1872.

There is at least some prospect of the weary session of the General Assembly being brought to a close. It should be long remembered by the country as one in which the true characters ot the leading politicians of the Colony have been more prominently brought out than in any previous session. This is not difficult to bo accounted for. When really important questions have to be dealt with, individual character is subordinated to the exigencies of the situation ; the most adverse opponents on other questions, if they have a spark of discretion left, unite for purposes of common defence, just as men who cordially hate each other, help to save each other’s lives in shipwreck. All minor objects then are set aside for a common good, and that cfleeted, the old antagonism is at liberty to revive 3 the men who rowed in concert when their lives were in danger can afford again cordially to hate each other when it is past. As this is true of individuals, it equally holds good with political parties. Had the session opened under a cloud ; had danger threatened from without or from within; had there been a dozen lito Kowavus scouring the North Island at the head of different bands of armed Maoris, Mr Stafford and his motleythoughted followers would have refrained from those unseemly struggles in which they have felt at liberty to indulge. But as all was at rest outside the House 3 as the Maoris were content, the old ones earning wages at road making, and the little ones learning their English ABC ; as trade was prosperous, the squatters getting rich, and laborers well employed, the bask of governing was reduced to a minimum. It was just the very time for a Parliamentary frolic. Nobody could go into power under pleasanter conditions. Mr Fox and his coadjutors had done all the dirty work : they had put an end to the Maori war, set the finances of the country straight, established its credit at home, and marked out schemes for extensive immigration and the prosecution of public works, which, although somewhat crude, only required a little pruning here and extension there, to work satisfactorily. They had also done many other things that were working pleasantly enough, such as bringing the Land Transfer and the Government Life Assurance Acts into operation. Really there was so little to do in the way of originating work, and so good a prospect of gaining credit for carrying out successfully what had been projected by the genius of others, that there was no apparent difficulty in administering the affairs of the country, if onlv the Fox Ministry were unseated. A few donkeys would have suited Mr Stafford’s purpose, so long as they would have munched the thistles of their daily allowance, and let things alone. But herein was the difficulty . the country must be satisfied that there was reason for putting the donkeys in their places, and so Hokm wkus some excuse must he made for a change of Ministry. Mr Stafford’s genius at this juncture shone conspicuously 3 but bis memory was bad, and his judgment worse. He began his attack on the strongest part of the system of the Fox Administration, their Maori policy. He did not remember his gross failure in that department 3 or if he did, he seemed to imagine that nobody else did. His colleague, Mr Gillies, committed an equally gross mistake ; he assumed the Treasurership under the plea that Mr Vogel has misstated the financial affairs of the Colony, and after torturing his ingenuity to prove him wrong, produced a balancesheet that every accountant will acknowledge only proved his predcces sor’s accuracy. As for Mr Reid’s public works ideas, it seemed probable had they been carried out, there would

have been a patchwork instead of a network of railways over the Province: a bit of a line here, and a few miles. further on another bit of a line, beginning at a village and ending at another village, with a gap between to be traversed by bullock drays,--lines constructed for the benefit of certain con-. stituencies, with one public-house for the terminus at one end and another at the other. From the hands of these Marplots, the majority that placed the Waterhouse Ministry in power has saved the country. It is quite allowable that the defeated plotters should growl, although it would have been more decorous had they accepted their defeat in silence as a deserved condemnation of their factiousness. But this is certain : every move made since their defeat has tended to lessen the estimation in which the country holds them. Sir David Mon no and Mr Stafford, by their late motions, have only shown that the motive power that animates them is gall. A more weak and puerile motion than that of Mr Stafford was never seriously discussed in a Legislative Assembly. It is evident his unworthy object was opportunity for making a personal attack on Mr Waterhouse. So is the time of Parliament wasted.