The Feilding Star. TUESDAY AUGUST 19, 1884. The Political Position

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 28, 19 August 1884, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY AUGUST 19, 1884. The Political Position

To-day the GoTernor in his speech ■will enunciate the policy of the StoutVooel Ministry. During the recess which the House . allowed them, tho new Ministers will no doubt have endeavoured to formulate a policy, which may prove attractive to members of their own party, or waverers on the Opposition .side of the House, and at the same time be~ capable of defence against the attacks of the AtkinsonGrey parties. That the latter will combine together, if only for the one object of ousting the Ministers, appears to be a moral certainty. That the Ministry will be defeated under these circumstances appears also a certainty. From one end of the Colony to the other general dissatisfaction has been expressed with the unfair treatment meted out to the North Island by the allotment of portfolios to a majority of southern men. In another column we publish an extract from a leader in the Dunedin Star, in which the writer laments that the feeling of provincial rivalry should stand in the way of what is best for the State.

However much this feeling is to be regretted, yet we cannot deny its existence, and therefore it would be worse than folly to ignore its presence. That such a feeling will obtain while the present system of representation is upheld is obvious. The day may come when member; oi the House of Representatives will be elected to represent the whole Colony and not a mere section of it. Until that day, however, the two islands will claim to be evenly represented in any Ministry which occupies the Treasury Benches, and any great preponderance, as in the present ease of a Ministry being mainly formed of southern men, will he viewed with suspicion and distrust. One step in the direction our contemporary desires, would be the exclusion irom the Cabinet of any of those fossilised remnants of faded Provincialism, such as Montgomery and Macandbew, and others of that ilk. These are the men who leaven the House with provincial jealousies. Their venerable years, personal .amiability, and sterling probity make them estimable citizens, but as rulers of the people their day has gone by. ' Tn6 musit make way for men who-are apace -with the times in which we live. Sir Julius VooELand Mr S&oinr will find that the stern necessity which compelled the presence of these men, in. the Ministry was also the certain cause of its failure. '