POLITICAL REPENTANCE.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1474, 6 November 1878, Page 3

POLITICAL REPENTANCE.

The “West Coast Times,” which at the time of the Hokitika election in June last was an unhesitating believer in the present Government, now writes as follows :—There is no getting over the fact that the Grey Ministry, from which so much was expected, has fallen far short of the hopes that their promises raised. They have been very fairly tried in the scales, and have most unquestionably been found wanting. They came in with the roar of the lion, but are closing the session, we regret to say, with the bleat of lambs. Accepting them at their word, believing that they would honorably and honestly adhere to their plighted words, we did not hesitate to give them unflinching support, and sorry we are to find that in such a number of instances they have retracted not only their words, but their pledges, if Bills introduced by thorn can be accepted as such. At the meeting of Parliament a programme of ministerial measures was sketched out, and the country was ostentatiously informed that on the platform then raised the Government would slake their Ministerial existence. What do we find ? Why that one fragment after another of the political structure crumbles under their feet and before their faces, yet that still they adhere to the scattered spars, and yield point after point as the political breeze may blow. As a matter of course they have instilled suspicion into their best friends, and have 'caused rejoicing in the camp of their enemies. The Grey Government, in fact, has been a Ministry of expediency, or expedients, and, like the old man in the fable who tried to deal with his ass so as to please everybody, have satisfied none, whether supporters or opponents. Wo have so recently expressed a strong opinion on the unfair way in which the Borough Council has been treated by the Government, that at present further comment would be mere superfluity. This is especially the case as a clear and well expressed statement of facts has within the last day or two been sent up to Wellington, where, it is hoped, it will meet with due attention. But not only the borough, but the county authorities, have great ground for complaint at the systematic manner in which the Government have snubbed them. If the Ministerial action had been confined to silence in answering communications, slights of other kinds, provided the sinews of war, duo and owing, were promptly forwarded, a great deal of reticence would have been excused. At the present time there is a sum of some £2OOO duo to the county on account of subsidies snd gold revenue, but it would be as vain an attempt to “ summon spirits from the vasty deep,” as to elicit a reply from the “officers in charge” in reference to the claims, and a more hopeless task still to get the money. Again, with respect to the Education Board, the Government have dealt most unfairly and unjustly. When Ministers were stumping the colony, and came this way on their tramp, they promised to consider that Westland was exceptionally situated, that its districts were sparsely populated, that the Board had, under the Act, to create new districts, erect new school buildings, to deal in fact with difficulties incidental to newly planted settlements. But on the principle, wo suppose, conveyed in the lines, The devil was sick, the devil a saint would be; The devil got well, the devil a saint was he, as soon as they deemed themselves firm in their seats, they forgot all their vows as far as the educational district of Westland was concerned. Speaking, then, generally and locally, wo are sorry to admit that the Ministry have failed utterly in realising the high hopes that were formed of them at the outset of the session, and though they must inevitably have another year’s tenure of office, they must amend their ways considerably before they regain the confidence of this portion of the colony, and, as far as we can judge from the opinions of our contemporaries originally favourable to them, of many other constituencies in New Zealand. They have broken distinct pledges, they have dealt unfairly and exceptionally with weak districts, have pandered to the most important, and have utterly failed to carry out more than the shadow of the policy they expressed at the outset of the session. Let us hope they will yet turn over a new leaf.