The Globe. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1241, 27 February 1878, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1878.

Wherever lie goes throughout New Zealand, Sir G. Grey meets with a warm and hearty reception at tho hands of the people. He is hailed with enthusiasm, and by every meeting which he addresses he is cheered again aud again. But when he has gone, and scarcely before the echo of his words has died away, people return to their former condition of mind, and look at public questions from a practical and common-sense stand-point. Hence we have the extraordinary spectacle of a public meeting, in the same place, at one time cheering Sir G. Grey after every hurst of eloquent declamation, and, a fow days afterwards, passing votes of confidence in men who are his strong political opponents. Tho former act is a tribute to tho power of eloquence, the latter is the assertion of sound common sense. No ouo in New Zealand is a greater master in tho art of throwing dust in the eyes of his hearers than Sir Q. Grey. In his character, as the champion of the rights of the people, ho leaves no stone unturned to produce a favourable impression upon his hearers. In his speeches in ihe North ho has persistently misrepresented the true state of things in Canterbury, Ho is continually referring to tho position of our runholders in proof of his assertion that they exclude settlement. Although he knows better, for lie has been called to account for his misrepresentation more than once, he persists in tolling those who do not know tho facts that the Canterbury pastoral leases are held at the expense of the small settler; that, by the action of last session, those runs are Iqcked pp till 1890. Of course this is a deliberate misstatement of tho truth, aud Sir G. Grey will take very good care, no doubt, to make no such assertion here in the presence of those who know that it is untrue. Then at another time, and apparently to secure an opportunity of introducing a wellbalanced period, he represents the colony as in danger of being taxed for Imperial purposes. He, no doubt, is well aware that there is about as much probability of such a thing happening as there was of Auckland being bombarded by tho British squadron, but it gave him an opportunity of instilling insidiously into the minds of Ins hearers the idea that they might some day be called upon to openly 1 rebel against the Mother Country. The atmosphere of misrepresentation in which lip jiy.es leads him, further, to present himself as the only champion of tho peoples’ right that has ever risen in the colony. He would have us believe that he is advocating measures which are violently opposed in the House of Representatives, and that “ he requires the assistance of the people to force them on aji Ro As regards a property tax ’ for Majoi? Atkin--8011 jn Ifis speech at Taranaki tlis ophU’ night pointed ppt that the Hops© last session almost nnunbitously passed a resolution directing the Govbvmueut tf) levy a property tax next year. Yet in his stump orations throughout tho country the Brenner of course conveniently forgets tho above ji fact, G f Gl'Py has no right to assume to himself the credit of fighting tho battle of the people against the interests of property, in connection with this tax, as its advisableness has already been affirmed by the House of ReprpAS-datives before he assumed the leadership- ' As regyvdotho extension of the franchise, it js a noteworthy fm> Sir G. Grey’s utterances are confined to a great extent to generalities, and at any rate few of his followers have committed themselves to a dciiufto expression of opinion. They prefer t.Q wait • tho issue of eyppts before committing themselves. In the moagtimo it is pleasant to bo borne along on the current of popular applause, and to be cheered for tho possession of opinions which have scarcely yet taken shape in their minds. Sir G. Grey’s colleagues must often wonder in what new light they will next appear* Honest and bluff Mi. iiishe;,’ must listen with ill-concealed amazement to tip? rapt utterances of his chief regarding tho down-triAucU perditrign ,pf Iho inhabitants' ! ©f New Zealand nnd tli.o pleasures the Ministry are about to take to lift thorn frqm thk- state of bondage, Ho will think with a sigh of his own dependent condition, subject to every whim of his imperious chief, and wonder, perhaps, if it would not be m* well if the reform commenced in the Minisigvial circle itself. Again, tho cold and cdcuiaciny Hwnwlrcw, over with .<• eye to : the main ehaiivo ypy pis beloved must chuckle to himself' when he thinks d the singular combination of

circumstances which has brought him to the front as a champion of the Rights of Man, and which gives him such splendid opportunities of furthering tho ends of his own district.

When we read Sir G. Grey’s denunciation of the possessors of big estates wo wonder if ho lias forgotten who is principally to blame for their existence. Under whose Governorship wore they acquired? Take Canterbury for example, to whom aro wo indebted for the existence of the vast freeholds of Glonmark and the Rhodes’s estate at Timaru ? Was it not Sir G. Grey who parted with those enormous tracts of splendid country for a few shillings per acre ? When lie was Governor, did he not nse his influence with tho natives to enable Mr. Cox and others to acquire square miles of country in the centre of the North Island ? Now he is the champion of the poor man whom ho wishes to see settled upon the land. Of course Sir ,G. Grey may have seen fit to change his opinions; and could we bo satisfied that his conversion was sincere, his great abilities would give him enormous power in the country. Bnt his “ political unreliability,” as the Lyttelton Times puts it, has made him, till lately, generally distrusted, and it will take several years of virtuous conduct to convince the colony that his present professions are the result of purely disinterested motives.