SIR GEORGE GREY ON THE STUMP.

Evening Star, Issue 4009, 31 December 1875, Page 1 (Supplement)

SIR GEORGE GREY ON THE STUMP.

Sir George Grey has taken the earliest opportunity the recess allowed him to meet his constituents, and to render an account of eis action during the ses iou. He has met a large meeting at Auckland, and has been received with enthusiastic applause. When this fact is erndderod, together with t> e extravagant character of tlie speech, we are almost tempted to b lieve that the electors of Auckland are as eccentric as their representative. If any fixed conclusion couid be drawn from the applause wnh which ISir ( eorge t-rey’s speeeh was greeted, it wouhb be that the local spirit of Provincialism, which returned Nir George Grey to Parliament, aed w'hich afterwards »o utterly collapsed, had become revived, and that the city w'as strongly opposed to the .Abolition policy of the Coverument, But it would be a ini take to draw any such inference. The fact seems to be that the meeting was simply carried away by Sir George Grey’s volubility and erratic enthusiasm. There is no quality which finds a readier response in the average mind than folly, when it cm ally itself with the bigotry and prejudice of the majority. Sir George Groy is an adept in touching these chords. Ho is guided to them by an sympathy, anti certainly in his

Auckland speech he played upon thorn very c successfully. J i •oubilesa, '■ir George Gray knew that he c was talking nonsense when he declared that £ it was monstrous -“a crime again t the i whole human race” for the General i Assembly to pass the Abolition Act with- I out reference to the opinion of the people, i What are Parliaments appointed for but to j deal with the pressing questions of the day as they arise? Sir George Grey knows i well enough that it is nob the theory or the practice of English PaiTiamantary rule to refer to a plebiscite questions on which the Government is supported by an overwhelming majority of the Parliament. Indeed, it may be said that in a democratic community the only hope of getting a wise, good measure of any importance passed is when it crops up unexpectedly in the course of the currency of a Parliament, and is thus not compromised by the fact ous violence, the ignorant half views and class and party prejudices of the uuiustructed mass of the people. And it is quite certain that the question of the abolition of the Provincial Government system presented itself in this way. It was forced upon the Government and the Parliament as the only solution of a difficult position. Tbs Provincial Governments had totally broken down. They could not pay their way, and were compelled to seek the financial aid of the General Government year by year. Consequently, on any sound theory of representative govern- ' ment, they had lost their raison d'etre, and were properly swept away. Elective Assemblies may be suitable agencies for raising money by taxation, but for administering the expenditure of money which they have not the responsibility of providing they are the worst that could possibly be devised. Sir George Grey retains his old animosity to some “Colonial aristocracy” of his own imagination. JS f o brawling Eastern Market demagogue talks in a strain of more sycophantic flattery of the jealousies and prejudices of the lowest classes than does this ultra - democratic knight. All this is mixed up with an assertion to the right of the Provinces to determine for themselves whether or not they would enter into the form of Go venment the General Assembly hid appointed for them, 'J he speaker very much mistakes the feelings of hia countrymen, and fails to unders.and the genuinely English sentiment of the supremacy of Parliament when be offers sophistry of th’S kind toj the citizens of a British G’oiony. The policy , of separation, to which it appears that Sir l George Grey and the other leaders ot the Opposition have nailed their colo. rs, 5 must be tested by the touchstone of public approval at the furthc oming elec dons, j Any impartial well-wisher of the G’oiony i would regret to see it accept so , lame and impotent a solution, and to view [ it halt half-way in so wise and timely a reform as that initiated by the late Goj vernment. This is a question, however, , which may safely be left to the good . sense of the people of the Colony, who are , quite able to compare for themselves the 1 advantages of union in one harmonious ' integral whole with the inconveniences of r division into petty, jealous, virtually hostile Provinces. But pas dug from this scheme to its advocacy by Sir George Grey, there can be but one feeling with r regard to the manner and spirit by which that is characterised. The feeling can , only be that of regret to see a politician who has been useful in his generation [. o«me out of bis retirement in his old age j apparently for the mere purpose of seeking j to perpetuate a temporary arrangement which j has been longsince outgrown, and who, in pur--2 suit of that purpose, abandons the associa"s tions of his class and the traditions of his J past, and comes forward as a sham democrat to sneer at distinctions in which he himself j shares, and to foment class prejudices and 1 passions in which he can have no part , ‘Australasian.’