The Globe. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 349, 26 July 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, JULY 26, 1875.

The announcement by Mr Stafford that he is prepared to support the Ministry, during the present session, on all questions on which their existence is staked,-will settle, we presume, the Constitutional changes Bill. The Opposition, it is said, is compact and determined, bnt unless circumstances turn up to alienate some of the supporters of the Ministry during the next week or two, it is b\it a small minority. Their object, it [is said, is to delay as much as possible, the introduction of the great question of the session. They hope to be able in the meantime to prepare a plan of attack which will gather round them the discontented. The administration of the Native Department. it is said, will be severely handled by Sir George Grey, especially with reference to some recent land purchases. An effort will be made to show that railway management has been unsuccessful, that the promises of 1871 and 1872 have not been fulfilled, and that not only are the railways not paying now, but there is no reasonable prospects of any profit being derived from them for a long time to come. It is said that the financial condition of the colony will be one of the main grounds of attack. Instead of our prospects improving with the near completion of many of our railways, our credit has been becoming worse and worse. Each successive loan which we have raised has been obtained on more disadvantageous terms than the one which proceeded it. The next operation, for borrow again we must, will be a brilliant success “in the cir- “ cumstances ” at 87 or 88, and when all further borrowing is out of the question then our statesmen may be induced to face the question of our real financial condition. The recent action of Mr Stafford with reference to the Ministry places him in a most unsatisfactory position. No one of our public men has more persistently opposed the extravagance of the Vogel Ministry than himself, or more constantly voted against nearly all the measures brought forward by that Ministry, and now to bring about a change which the most servile supporters of the Government admit, might, without any harm, have waited for a year, Mr Stafford has forced himself into the position of supporting the very measures and the very acts which a few years ago he would have sooner cut off his right hand as done anything to forward. He will have to declare that the public works of the colony have been managed with the greatest economy, and that there is every prospect of a magnificent return being obtained from them at an early period ; that our finances are not in “ a “ mess : ” in fact, that they are so flourishing, that the Government can do without the services of the Colonial Treasurer during the session ; that the recent purchases of native lands have been managed with every care; that the San Erancisco service is worth the £40,000 a year which we have contracted to pay, and generally that our affairs are managed with that strict regard to prudence and economy which cannot fail to produce a rich and prosperous future; —all this and more than this, Mr Stafford ail have to accept, and what for? In order that he may carry a measure during the last days of an expiring Parliament on which the constituencies have never been consulted, and on which they have every right to express an opinion. It has never been shown, or attempted to be shown, that one year’s delay would make my difference with regard to this question, and it has been shown on the other side that this is a matter on which the opinion of the constituencies should be distinctly expressed. We can only come to the conclusion that the abolitionists are afraid that delays are dangerous, and a new Parliament might think differently with them upon the question. The violent disregard for the opinions of the constituencies on the part of the present Parliament, may result in the return of a new House [pledged to upset the legislation of the present session, away from the main on the ground alone that it was done unconstitutionally.