The Globe. FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1878.

Globe, Volume IX, Issue 1340, 31 May 1878, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, MAY 31, 1878.

The political struggle which has been going on in Victoria is not without interest to us in New Zealand. Not that there is very great danger at present of our being precipitatod into a battle on any public quostion likely to be carried on with the animosity displayed in the sister colony. But this, we are afraid, is not to be attributed to tho absence of will on the part of some of our public men, but to tho good sense of the people themselves. During the last few months energetic appeals have been made to a certain portion of the community to rouse themselves from what thoy were told was a state of abject subjection to the interests of a class, and to assert their independence by snapping the chains which bound them in slavery. If fervid appeals and eloquent declamation could have roused tho working classes to action, apart from sound common sense, we should by this time have found the colony in a state of ferment from end to end. Tho utter failure of tho appeal made to the country by the Premier, however, is proved by the abandonment by his Ministry of any attempt to put in a concrete shape the policy so widely proclaimed. Hence the attempts now made by the Ministerial journals to explain away Sir G. Grey's exaggerated language, and their abortive attempts to reconcile the irreconcilable. In sevoral cases those newspapers make short work of the task by, in effect, assorting that tho Promier did not mean what he said, that his denunciations of tho rights and privileges of property in no way prevented his Ministry from continuing tho iniquitous system. But while it is plain that Sir G. Gi'py's recent attempt to rouse the

masses lias proved a failure, it does not follow tliat wo have heard tho last of such appeals. Some excuse can easily bo found for the course he is taking. Perhaps ho will holdly blame his colleagues for their timidity, but will take no stops to resign himself, or induce them to do so. There will be no difficulty in finding a plausible reason for continuing a state of things which he had promised ho would not submit to, so long as God gave him breath to oppose it. Indeed the very intensity of his convictions will no doubt bo his justification for retaining office, and lending his aid to pass a Bofomt Bill, which recognises the right of property. "Who knows what opportunities may arise of getting the better of his colleagues, and of strangling his own measures. With the famous attempt to veto tho Land Bill fresh in our minds, it requires no great effort to believe that Sir George may be cherishing some plan which he hopes will prove to the colony that ho will stick at nothing, when what he calls the welfare of the colony is at stake. Because Now Zealand has escaped this time, it does not follow that no further effort will be made to get up a class excitement. During the last few months a gallant attempt was made to do so, and as long as the administration of affairs remains in the hands of the present Premier so long will wo be liable to such a danger. Tho effect of tho recent Victorian crisis should act as a warning to us in New Zealand. Our readers may have observed, by recent nows, that there is a great dearth of employment, not only in Melbourne, but in tho country. A largely-attended meeting of "unemployed" was hold a short time ago, when the causes of the scarcity wore discussed pretty freely. In the opinion of many of the men themsolves it was tho political crisis which had brought about tho want of employment. Commenting on the situation the Telegraph says:—" Capital has been withdrawn from this colony and invested in tho neighbouring ones. People will not buy, nor build, nor improve, nor lay out money upon articles of luxury, because a general feeling of insecurity pervades tho whole of society. Many persons belonging to the middle classes are pinching and saving in order that they may command the means of transferring themselves and their families to the other colonies, when this shall have been rendered no longer habitable by the iniquitous policy of the stick-at-nothing Ministry. Hence the want of employment, the commercial depression, the numerous insolvencies, the desperate competition between the small shopkeepers in the poorer neighbourhoods, tho filling of tho pawnbrokers' shelves with pledges, tho increase of suicides, the crowding of the Immigrants' Home, and the pathotic narratives related by some of the poor fellows, whose wan faces and hollow voices told their own sad story at the meeting of the unemployed on Monday last. Without confidence, capital will not find employment, nor will industry thrive. Their interests are identical, and the worst enemies of both are men of the Berry stamp, who endeavour to sow dissensions between them, and to reduce this country, so richly endowed by a beneficent Providence, to the political level of one of the South American republics. The working men of Victoria have no more deadly foos than the present Government, who, with hypocritical protessions of 'sympathy' on their lips, .are steadily labouring for the ruin of the colony."

We beg to remind the ratepayers of Christchurcli that an election of two auditors, under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, takes place to-morrow. There are four candidates in the field—Messrs H. E. Alport, T. B. Craig, E. Burnell, and M. Henderson. Our object in directing attention to the matter is to impress upon our readers the necessity of recording their votes, and so taking care to secure the return of the two gentlemen they wish to see occupying the position. This is a duty which they owe aliko to the city, themselves, and the candidates.