THE MINISTRY’S APPLICATION FOR A DISSOLUTION.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1077, 10 December 1877, Page 3

THE MINISTRY’S APPLICATION FOR A DISSOLUTION.

[By Telegraph.] Wellington, December 9. Memoranda, which had passed between the the Governor and Sir George Grey, were laid on the table late last night, immediately before the adjournment. Sir George Grey asks for a dissolution on the following grounds : —That a vote of want of confidence is still on the Order Paper. That several members of the House have within about four weeks recorded their want of confidence in each of two Administrations, namely, the late one and the one now holding office. Ministers believe that upon the single ground that they were not in power at the time of the general election they have a claim to a dissolution. The unsatisfactory state of the public business before the House, after a session of nearly four months, might also be urged as sufficient of itself to warrant a dissolution. But, in addition, an expression of opinion received from all parts of the country lead Ministers to believe that, in the event of a dissolution, they will be enabled to carry on the business of the country with a large working majority. The continuance of Ministers in office would also, in their_ belief, based on assurances they have received from many loading Natives, enable them to make progress towards bringing to an end the long continued isolation of a large and very powerful section of the Native population. Three of the four Maori members in the House supported the present Government, and a few days ago the fourth stated he had received from his constituents an earnest request that he should vote with the Government. There is therefore every reason for supposing that the great mass of the Native population support the present Government. The state of the finances of the country renders necessary a complete review of our financial position, and the people will have to consider whether they prefer to submit to a considerable sacrifice or to have new burdens placed upon them. Questions affecting the representation of the people, as well as other questions of great importance, must also be dealt with. An appeal to the constituencies appears therefore constitutional as well as just and necessary. The Governor is of opinion that a dissolution would be undesirable at present for the following reasons : —Because he is of opinion that the difficulties which have occurred may yet be solved without a dissolution. Second, that the present Parliament is only in its second session, and that the Governor has been informed by both Major Atkinson and Sir Gorge Grey that it is their intention next year to introduce a Bill for the redistribution of the representation of the country. Should such a Bill pass it would be almost necessary to entail a fresh dissolution next year, and it is manifest that it would be most undesirable that the country should be put to the trouble and expense of two dissolutions in so short a period if it can possibly be avoided. Third, the present season of the year is the one at which it would be moat inconvenient to the country that a dissolution should take place, as the rural districts at any rate are fully occupied by Jwmet sod shearing operations.

Fourth, the Government have not informed the Governor that there is any great measure or principle in discussion in the House which could be submitted for the consideration of the constituencies, and, certainly as far as the Governor is aware, no such measure or principle is at present known to the public. Fifth, the Government inform the Governor that. in their opinion a dissolution would secure to them a large working majority, but they have produced no evidence in support of that opinion. Sixth. So far as the Governor is aware, no supply has been granted. The Governor is perfectly alive to the fact that this is not a question which in England needs consideration, because England’s Parliament has uniformly voted the supplies necessary for an appeal to the country. The Governor, however, knows as a fact that this course has not been uniformly adopted in the colony and he is therefore of opinion that it is a question which must enter into his consideration in deciding upon a dissolution. In England there is also the further safeguard in the moral certainty that no Minister would venture to advise the Sovereign to dissolve Parliament after Parliament had refused to vote the supplies necessary to carrying on the service of the country during the time required for the election and the reassembling of Parliament. The Governor is deprived of this further security, because Sir Geo. Grey distinctly informed him in conversation on the 26th of October that, if he granted him a dissolution, he would dissolve whether supplies were granted or not. The Governor cannot take upon himself the responsibility of either sanctioning the expenditure of public money which has not been voted by Parliament, or of throwing the whole country into confusion, and causing a large amount of public and individual inconvenience and distress by withholding for two or three months the payments which are justly due by the country, until at any rate he has exhausted every other expedient. For these reasons the Governor is not prepared to grant a dissolution at present. The correspondence is very voluminous.