The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazetee. Published Daily. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1894. "A CANDID FRIEND."

Feilding Star, Volume XVI, Issue 8, 10 July 1894, Page 2

The Feilding Star, Oroua & Kiwitea Counties Gazetee. Published Daily. TUESDAY, JULY 10, 1894. " A CANDID FRIEND."

We notice that even the New Zealand Times, at one time a most uncompro raising supporter of the Government, has now considerably changed its tone, and is acting the part of a very candid friend, especially towards the Premier, with a frankness which we consider highly commendable. Yesterday, apropos of the election of Colonel Fraser as Sergeant-at-Arms (without salary), our contemporary says : — " The Government made the appointment a party question, and forced their followers to decree that it shall be made in the way the Premier required. We say nothing of the wry faces made by so many of the Government Party at having to pocket their principles. For those who, with the courage of their opinions, walked boldly into the adverse lobby, we have nothing but the highest respect, as for men of independent miuds and that high sense of honor which is the best check on every tendency to forget principle in the conduct of the public businesr But about the merits of the question of the evasion of the Disqualification Act we have nothing to add to what we have published on that subject, except a request to Parliament to abolish the Disqualification Act and trust to majoritymade law for the future. That, however, is a logical conclusion from the proceedings of Friday which may be left to time. Another not less logical conclusion is the one to which we are now drawing attention. One officer of the House now holds office by a party vote. In other words, he holds office during the supremacy of the party that put him where he is, for, as has been pointed out, it is absolutely certain that whoever may come into power after the defeat of the present Government will mark his sense of the proceedings in connection with the Ser-geant-at-Arms by cancelling this appointment. This is not a thing to be reasoned about ; it is a fact to be dealt with. Now, it is a most undesirable fact that any officer of Parliament should occupy a position the reverse of independent. . . The sooner the Liberal Party returns to the ideas of Johti liallance, which are in accordance with the practice of every representative assembly in the British Empire, the better." If we may form an opinion on the subject from the above we should say Sir Robert Stout has a strong friend in the Times, which wzll be awkward for Mr Seddon.