The Late Mr D.H.Macarthur

Feilding Star, Volume XIII, Issue 153, 23 June 1892, Page 4

The Late Mr D.H.Macarthur

• (Concluded.) In-later years the wheel has gone a revolution further, and we see now the .interesting 1 and not*" unfamiliar spectacle ol Radicals quite out of tneir depth in the flooding tide of their own creed, The aavent of a Qpvernment whose policy, though clumsily mixed 'in some respects — for it is difficult to definitely describe '< a rPremier like Mr Ballance. who believes in land value taxation and is an extreme protectionist, who feeds capital with one hand and smites it with the other — is largely of an extreme Radical cast, has dimmed the lustre ot the older-school Radical. Sir Harry Atkinson, the last great man of the borrow to-day- . and-spend-to-morrow-days, has , retired from active: politics ; Sir Julius Yogel, a magnificent schemer, but a starving provider, is out of the question j Mr" Bryce, on whom -the Atkinson party had looked with hope, has retired nominally because a ridiculous vote of censure upon him was passed, but really because public thought had marched oh and left him in the wilderness j and .the leader of the Opposition, Mr Rolleston. is probably as keen a Radical as Mr Ballance, though of a less compliant and more knowledgeable . character. Mr Ballance's solicitude for iiabor interests has brought New Zealand to a new era, and to a stage where it must either halt or go forward to test big difficult problems. His critics (among: whom in matters of finance Mr Macarthur was the boldest and keenest) have not yet been -overcome qt convinced, and a time of anxiety is in front of him. Among the prospects of his future is one which, if it" should be realised, is likely to permanently remove him from political greatness- Sir George Grey, between whom and Mr Ballance there remains for settlement an old grievance, which Sir George at least does not appear to forget, has allowed it to go forth that in his opinion the Government has had a fair trial and has not succeeded; and this statement, C3nsidered along with Sir George Grey's known admiration for the leader of the Opposition, has prompted the belief that a Grey-Rolleston coalition will very shortly constitute the Opposition; Such a coalition would be : ah. exceedingly strong one, for Sir Geor«e Grey's hold on the masses in New Zealand is still firm, and his personal popularity is so great that he must at least be very careiully reckoned with. Mr Kolleston, who introduced the perpetual lease sys turn in the colony, was a very successful Minister of Lands, and he has contrived to keep abreast of the advance of thought without playing Pandarus to any section. In many essential things he and Sir George Grey would be at one; whether he " could work with Sir tfeorge, and thus do what many willing men have found impossible, is quite another question. Hut the coalition would almost certainly supplant the present Government in popularity among those who now support Mr Ballance. ,