The Globe. FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1393, 2 August 1878, Page 2

The Globe. FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1878.

With all the protestations made by Ministers, aud especially by Sir George Grey during the recess, that the pruning knife would bo applied unsparingly in curtailing needless expenditure, either in the public departments or elsewhere, it is apparent that very little is really intended to bo done in that direction. Leaving aside the fact that not one single reduction has yet been made in any of the various branches of the Native department, there have been before the public several instance of useless extravagance on the part of the Cabinet, which—like the floating feather that indicates the wind—-have probably roused doubts in the minds of Ministerial supporters even as to the hand Jules of the auto-sessional pledges to which wo refer. Without looking very far back into the doings of the Government, wo might instance the varied uses to which the so-called Ministerial yacht, the Hinomoa, has been put during the last few months, as so pungeutly referred to a couple of days ago by Dr. WalHs in the House of Representatives. This gentleman, by-the-byo, was as blindly devoted an adherent to the present administration last year as can well be imagined. A more enthusiastic exponent of Greyite theories and their coneomitaut benefits to the human race, had never awakened before the echoes of the Parliamentary halls, unused, until last session, the perforating sounds of so much bellicose eloquence. But proud as Dr. Wallis is of mild and biblical aphorisms ho must have discovered within the last few mouths that with his gilded idol of last year, promises and pledged had but a thin crust. Who does not remember the capital which the present leaders of the Assembly tried to raise against the Atkinson Government on account of their employing that very same pleasure boat Hinemoa ? Such extravagance in their eyes was then something which the tax-payer should not for one moment tolerate; had the Government of the day the slightest care for the interests of the people, and had they been possessed of the smallest scintilla of regard for the financial welfare of that tax-payer’s pocket, argued Sir George Grey, why the Hinomoa ought at once to bo sold and the proceeds made to swell the Treasury. How far these protestations wore carried out, wo have oftentimes before had occasion to say. The singular manner in which Sir George Grey chose to treat his Excellency the Governor, in the matter of procuring the valuable assistance of the two Imperial officers who were prepared to advise how to establish permanent coastal defences, created a very painful fooling at the time. The Hinemoa, which, for reasons of State, could not bo lout for that important service, very soon, however, conveyed the Premier on his celebrated stumping tour, when he threw, with both hands, as much dust into the optics of a good-natured community as to turn the heads of the majority. As to selling the boat, of course Ministers never dreamt of doing any such silly thing. When Parliament was formally opened last week, with the traditional pomp aud flimsy eclat which accompanies this class of performance, people at a distance wore rather startled to hear that one of the implements, which an economical Government had thought proper to use on the occasion, was a “ black rod”—wielded for the occasion with duo grace aud ease by a certain Captain Humphries. In a few words, another appointment of the “ Brummagem” and tinsel pattern had been created, in a somewhat mysterious manner several weeks before, in order, apparently, to provide for a persistent hanger-on of the Cabinet. Captain Humphries, a gentlemanly officer of Militia, who had probably discovered to his cost that the paths aud by-ways leading to military glory are more thickly strewn with thorns than dollars, has suddenly become a colonial Usher of the Black Rod at a salary of £250 a year. This office, a remnant of those semi-barbarous times which, with many others, has clung to the courtly and Parliamentary habits of the present generation at Homo, is, of course, a perfect sinecure, and quite useless. In the present days, and in these colonies especially, where the tendencies and customs of the ago are so purely democratic, it is notorious that the public eye looks with some jealousy upon the doings and sayings of the nominated Chamber. The creation of this “ Ushorhood of the Black Rod,” instead of strengthening the position of our nominated House, has had but the result of invoking ridicule upon it. Aud while on this subject of the Legislative Council, we might say a word or two in reference to the now additions lately made to its ranks. The effective roll of that House has suddenly been swelled by the names of three gentlemen, two of whom are Mr. Patrick Buckley, of the linn of Hart and Buckley, the Wellington solicitors, aud Mr John Martin, a business man hailing from the same locality, whoso fame as “ Johnny” Martin has oftentimes been trumpetted forth far and wide throughout the colony. The Hon. Mr. Patrick Buckley’s close connection with that hefe-noire of the Government —Sir W. Fitzherbert, who like a veritable Jack-in-the-box, is expected at any instant to jump up and capsize the Ministerial “apple-cart” —is generally well known. It is a remarkable fact that when gentlemen have been selected for seats in the Legislative

Council, common sense and decency have prevented past Administrations from nominating two members of the same commercial firm. Wo fancy that had the Cabinet not had nterests to servo they would have exorcised a little more prudence in conferring those new highlyprized distinctions. As to Mr. John Martin’s elevation to the Peerage, public opinion elsewhere —viz., in his own country, where no man is over a pi'ophot —has already laughed to scorn this now example of bad taste and misapplied patronage. Of course Mr. Martin possesses some kind of influence among the denizens of the Wellington Beach, as was abundantly proved during the late Wellington election, when a Greyite, Mr. G. E. Barton, was returned through agencies of a not especially perfumed character, of which Mr. Martin took the lead. And now it might fairly be asked what constitutes, now-a-days, qualifications necessary to catch the eye of a Cabinet in search of suitable units to sit in our House of Peers ? If Mr. John Martin’s are to bo taken as coming within the required standard, then indeed wo must agree with the scathing criticism with which some Wellington papers assailed the Government for making the two new appointments to which wo are alluding. A more baro-faced and flagrant attempt at “ rigging the Parliamentary market” was never seen. “ Money does not make the man,” says the adage, but seemingly Sir George Grey and his colleagues care little how they offend the public taste by casting dirt upon an honored and valuable institution, so long as their selfish ends are attained.