POST-SESSIONAL UTTERANCES.

Evening Star, Issue 3047, 23 November 1872, Page 2 (Supplement)

POST-SESSIONAL UTTERANCES.

Ml- Steward, M.H. 11, fur Waitaki, addressed his constituents on Friday evening last. We make the following extracts from his speech : Till-; C'll.tXCK OF OOVKRNMKNT. I claim during the session to have supported <'ii hoiii / niii'i . People have di(Terence s of opinion with regard to parties down here, but I claim that those who are on the spot are in a better position to judge Ilian those -who reside at a distance of the motives which actuate those who light for place and power iii the Assembly. The circulation, during the recess, of the statements to which I have referred brought about for the time a changed state of things. Instead of there being, as last year, an enormous majority in favor of the Fox-Vogel Ministry, when the vote of no-conlidenee was tabled by Mr Stafford this session, the Ministry were in the minority—a large number of their adherents, shaken no doubt by what they had heard during the recess, having renounced their allegiance, and Mr Stafford’s motion being consequently carried hy a majority of three. Now, 1 should tell you how that majority of three was obtained. You have heard it said, or have seen it in print, that the Government party owe their late victory to their having held forth bribes, in some shape or other, to members to vote for them. With regard to that I may say that I was in as good a position to know as any member of the House, and £ distinctly say that a"! far as I know such an assertion is utterly without foundation. But with regard to Mr Stafford's motion, the carrying of which, of course, involved the turning out of tho Ministry, 1 shall presently ask you as Intelligent men to judge whether then; was or was not strong inducement, for certain members at any rate, to vote with the motion. The motion itself made an attack upon the Fox-Vogel Government upon two or three grounds. One ground was (to state it shortly) tiie wasteful expenditure of the loan ; another, ■that Ministers were too frequently absent from the seat of Government; another (though not stated in terms in the resolution, yet a part of the attack), that there w r as upon the Government benches a member why was also a .Superintendent, of a Province. It was argued, and I think rightly, as a matter of theory, that a Minister should not be at the same time a Superintendent of a Province—that as soon as he accepts the position of a Minister of the Crown he ought to resign his .Superintendency. Ninv, let us see what Mr Stafford’s party did when they carried their resolution—or, rather, to go back for a

moment—what was the inducement which caused the majority of three—the two points are involved one with the other. When Mr Stafford went into power, he placed on the Government benches not one Superintendent, but three ; and these three neither resigned their Suporintendoncios, nor intended to do so, until tiny were absolutely sure of the .safety of the Ministry, and, consequently, their thousand a year. As 1 have said, one of the grounds of attack hy the Opposition was that there was a member of the Ministry still retaining the Superin tendency of a Province ; but when the ' 'ppontion became the Ministerial party, they pin in three Ministers who also retained their Superintendences In accounting for Mr Stafford's majority of three, take this into consideration. Immediately Parliament had been dissolved (it Mr

I Stafford’s Ministry had remained in power). ! there would have been three Superintendencies to be battled for by members of tbc House, and I. could enumerate on my fingers live lion, members who thought themselves safe for the .Superintendency of Nelson or of I Wellington or of Auckland. Three of j these members voted for Mr Staff.iid on tbc ! first occasion, and h<‘ hurl a major'll // uj three. ' And there were one or two members on Mr | Stall'u d’s side who (L wdsb to speak as ' guardedly as ]»o siblc) ought, I think. ■ not to have voted cm the question at all. 1 MU STAFFORD, | ()f Mr Stafford as Premier, I say (and as a j young politician 1 speak with diffidence), that my opinion is that Mr Stafford wi i never again resume the position lie once held as a ttatesman in this Colony. Everything in nature Ims its waxing and waning, and Mr .Stafford, who was at one time the leading mind in the Colony, and who will, no doubt, yet render it good seivice, has, nevertheless, lost that quality which mains the leader in in Parliament, or the general iu the field, viz., that of coolness. He los s his temper. On one occasion during the late session he characterised his opponents upon the Government benches as “ miserable wretches. Mr Staff'oru is a gentleman, and, as a gentleman, apologised ; but although a statesman and a man whom the Colony could ill afford to spare, wants, i repeat, that coo ness of i head necessary to one occupying the head of : affairs. ! .mi:, voder. ! I now come to the he.te no'rr of some people | —Mr Vogel—with regard to whom I say ' honestly and distinctly" that although at one time 1 liad very little e nfideneo in him. —(A : voice; “Have you any now?”) 1 have. ( am free to own that I believe them is not a more honest statesman in New Zealand, or ; in these Colonies - (“Oh 1 oh 1 oh ’. laughter and uproar.) Each of you is free to exercise j his own opinion, but you must grant me the 1 right of holding mine. Ido not suppose ! that one out of twenty of the gentlemen i present has ever had the opportunity of judging of Mr Vogel personally. Ido not j suppose there are more than one in twenty I who know' him except by newspaper report. ’ I have bad for two sessions the opportunity 1 of studying him and watching him carefully, I and I say honestly, and I do not care though every man in this room were against me, vet i 1 say that 1 believe Mr Vogel 'o be a states- ' man, and an honest statesman ; and more, that he possesses more ability than any other , man in New Zealand. (A voice : “You are !no judge.”) Admitted. Still I have au ; opinion, and I have stated it. I have, howj ever, this other thing to say, viz , that I think him somewhat too sanguine—a little ■ too anxious for “progress.” 1 MB FOX. Now I have to say a word or tw'o with regard to Mr Fox’s retirement from office. As to Mr I’ox himself, it is doing that gentleman the merest modicum of justice to say that the impression which some people seem I to entertain that he has become antiquated | —that he is lapsing into a sort of second j childhood, through,“ water on the brain,” is , as utterly false as anything could possibly i be. Mr Fox at tins moment is quite as 1 capable of taking a leading part in public , affairs as any man in this Colony, and tic de- ; serves great credit for championing a cause j which, though treated by woihc people wdtb I ridicul ■, is still a noble cause—the vary ridicule attaching to which lias only spurred ! him on to devote to it bis utmost energies, j Mr Fox, too, deserves the credit of thorough disinterestedness, inasmuch as, for the sake ! of his party—the party of 2>rogrcss— the I party which wi:J in the end, in my opinion, ( work out the destinies of this country -its 1 prospc ity—he voluntarily gave up the posij tiou of Premier, which he could 'have still I held, and retired into the ranks. The posi- ! tion of Premier, or of leader of a party, arc i objects of honorable ambition to old states--1 men, and to throw" them up and accept a i subordinate position for the sake of the triumph of principles shows a greatness of | character to which few can lay claim. 1 oTAoo in run (’Amxi;r. ■ AVc have now a Ministry in which for the i first time the Middle Island is equally repreI s nti d with the North island. It has been j always a great point with people iu the I Smith that in previous Ministries the preponderance has been on the side of the North Island, £.nd to that, whether rightly or wrongly, tb,c AN',bile Island people have traced to a certain ex eiit the injustice which no doubt they have suffered. In this Ministry the Middle and North Islands are equally balanced ; and, whatever may be your opinion with regard to the per son net of the Ministry, it will, 1 think, he difficult to point out any other tw'o Otago members who should have been selected iu preference to 1 the two who have been chosen ; indeed, I i think if you go through the list of the nineI teen Otago members, you will find that the I selection made is the best that coubi have been made. I may further add that when the Fox-Vogel Government was in power they I would, 1 believe, at any time have added au i Otago member to the Ministry, had tne i Otago members been able to agree as to who ; should be selected for the position. (Slight sensation.)