The Globe. TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1252, 12 March 1878, Page 2

The Globe. TUESDAY, MARCH 12, 1878.

We do not envy the task the Ministerial journals throughout the colony have to perform in supporting the measures and defending the conduct of the present Administration. But at rare intervals, and of course by accident, the truth slips out. Wo do not intend to refer to the instances of this nature which we might quote from the columns of the local Government organ, but the admissions of Ministerial jobbery by the semi-official journal in Wellington —the Post —in a recent issue, are so complete that wo should be neglecting our duty did wo omit to refer to them. The article from which we are about to quote has reference to the negociations between the Government and Mr. Bunny, relative to the latter’s appointment to a lucrative official position, and the reasons why they fell through. The story, as told by our contemporary, is intended, we presume, to hold up to scorn and contempt the conduct of Mr, Bunny. “Some time “ before the close of last session,” the semi-official organ goes on to say, “ it was

“ pretty generally understood that Mr. “ Bunny was to he provided for. He “ had aided in putting the Atkinson Go- “ Ternmeut out and the Grey Government “ in, so he possessed a claim upon the “ latter.'’ This candid admission is. to say the least of it, highly discreditable, not so much to Mr, Bunny as to the Government. No one who has watched the career of the member for Wairarapa will be astonished at the statement. But what are we to think of the high-souled Government who were prepared to sacrifice the interests of the colony in order to reward a follower who had aided in placing them in power. The Grey Government heralded their acceptance of office by loud promises of Civil Service reform, yet one of their very first acts, apparently, was to promise a supporter an office for which he had shown he possessed no qualification. The official organ is astonished that Mr. Bunny should have been so foolish as to place himself in his present position, and thinks that he has irretrievably damaged himself in the eyes of his constituents by his action “in “ using the position [to which they “ had elected him as a means for “ trying to obtain a substantial “ benefit to himself.” But if Mr. Bunny heg lost* cast by the transaction, in what light should the conduct of the Government be viewed by all honest colonists P They stand convicted, by the admission of their Wellington organ, of a deliberate piece of political jobbery. Was the bribe to come out of their own pockets ? No such thing. But it was the poor down-trodden taxpayer who was to pay the cost. It is trim that the bargain was never actually completed. But that was not the fault of the Ministry, “ The Government,” says the Post, “ did not break faith with “ him [Mr, Bunny], Tie stipulated for a “billet, and they made him more than “ one offer of a very good billet indeed. “ But Mr, Bunny chose to bo unreason- “ able in bis demands, and thereby alto- “ gether defeated the object ho had in “ view." Our contemporary is evidently dimly conscious that the transaction did not reflect very great credit on the Govemment.“ His [Mr. Bunny’s] proposed “ appointment to a Commissiouership," says the Post, “doubtless was not a “ transaction which could be justified on “ grounds of the highest political morality, “ and purists could find reasons for cou- “ deeming it. But few political men are “ rigid purists, and in the state of feeling “ which prevailed at the close of the “ session, if Mr. Bunny had quietly re- “ signed his seat, and been appointed to “ his billet, there would bavo been little “ outcry or condemnation. We do not “ oay that such a state of opinion is right “ or wholesome, but it nevertheless ex- “ isted.” If the above is all that the Wellington Government organ has to say in defence of Ministers in connection with this matter, the subject would have been better lot alone altogether. It is a melancholy admission of the baneful influence of the Grey party upon public sentiment. A Ministry which came into existence by intrigue and corruption, and is seeking to extend its bold upon the people of the colony by misrepresentation, cannot but have an injurious influence upon public feeling. But the case is not so bad as the Government organ is prepared to admit. The vast majority of the people of New Zealand have still a regard for honourable conduct, and would have condemned the Government and Mr. Bunny alike, had the infamous bargain been completed. Our contemporary is evidently of opinion that Sir G. Grey has been to a great extent successful in corrupting the people of the colony, and that before long they will bo prepared to support him with unquestioning devotion. We think be is mistaken. Lot a few mpre instances of the kind referred to '(and how many there may be we dare not imagine) come to light, fthd the better sense of the people of Now Zeaiand will ae}4 eft itself and drive from office n pel c£ pin hw puiltv, according

even to their own organ, of conduct which could not be justified on the grounds of “ the highest political morality.” Highest political morality, indeed ! The transaction cannot bo justified by any code of morality whatever, known to honourable men. If, as we uro assured by the Post, “ the spectacle afforded to the country of a public man higgling for months over a bargain, involving that which, in a certain sense, was his own price, created shame and disgust amongst the people of the colony.” what must bo the feeling of those people when they learn that this higgling was carried on with the Government itself ?