"Ministers Alarmed"

Feilding Star, Volume XI, Issue 84, 9 January 1890, Page 2

"Ministers Alarmed"

The Post endorses the view we expressed in our last issue, to the effect that Ministers were not anxious for the return of the Premier to the colony, and says : — The news that the Premier is about to return to the colony seems to have caused quite a flutter of excitement in Ministerial circles. His colleagues do not appear at all pleased at the prospect, and they have been most earnest in their efforts to induce him to prolong his stay until his recovery is absolutely assured and complete. That is health is better than it was, is admitted, but fears are expressed that a return to the cares of office will arrest the cure and prevent perfect recovery, if it does not cause serious relapse. We give his colleagues the utmost credit for genuine and generous consideration for thenchiefs health, but we cannot help thinking that something more than this is implied in the consternation expressed at his early return, and the efforts made to induce him to prolong his stay. It is just possible that a self-accusing conconscience may in some degree cause this anxiety. They may feel that Sir Harry Atkinson, when he does come back, will not be altogether pleased with the way things have b cen managed in his absence, and they may therefore be anxious to postpone the day of reckoning to as distant a date as possible. Our contemporary concludes by good naturedly assuring Ministers that they need not be alarmed as Harry has not come on political, but Masoaic business.