TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1878.

Globe, Volume XX, Issue 1520, 31 December 1878, Page 2

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 31, 1878.

Ouk contemporary tho Times seems to be rapidly qualifying itself to rank amongst the first comic periodicals of the day, and under the present able literary management promises to be a dangerous rival to many of the imported European and American journals whose speciality is an original wit sometimes difficult to understand, but always hard to imitate. It is but fair to our morning congener to state that at present its humor is confined to its leading columns, but even in that limited space it emits a brilliancy that counteracts any dullness existing in other portions of its pages. The brightness of this wit is intermittent, but the objects it illumines are invariably Sir George Grey or tho Opposition press, and whenever a leader appears on these subjects there is certain to bo something very funny either definitely stated or indistinctly implied. Like the light of the opal, this radiance changes strangely without the mutations detracting from the common beauty of the whole, and when it is possible to blend two of these shades the fifect well repays the trouble necessary to ensure tho combination. In proof of this it is our present intention to compare passages from leading articles published respectively on tho thirteenth and thirtieth of tho present month, and leave our readers to judge therefrom the claim of the writer to be considered the funniest man of the day. In the first article we are told—" It is natural that the " opposition should abuse Sir George " Grey, but persistence in personal vilifi- " cation is becoming rather monotonous. " We want more than to bo told day after " flay with nauseous iteration that tho " Premier is selfish, treacherous, false, '- wicked, and half insane." Then follows a fulsome description of tho ability shown by our present Premier as an Australian explorer in 1840, and subsequently as what ho himself now contemptuously stylos " a nominee Governor," In this ariielo the erudite writer accuses those who dare to differ from him in opinion with being " anonymous vilifiers" of Sir George Grey, because they assort ho is half insane. Yet tho same writer in yesterday's issuo declares the Premier wholly mad, and indulges in a vivid and graphic description of tho manner in which his malady displays itself. Lest any doubt should exist as to this, we quoto from tho leader referred to wherein the writer says :—" There are four or five •' subjects which, like night mares haunt " Sir George Grey's mind, and, although, « in the daylight of publicity, their ex- ■' aggoration is manifest to most men, he " persists in regarding them as terrible » facta, It is no use telling him that

" Qneen Mab lias been with him, and that " much of what strikes him with horror "is ' begot of nothing but \ain fantasy,' " lie still persists in thrashing the wind, " and in writing on water." What can bo more explicit than the foregoing ? As a description of a maniac it is as clear as Shakspeare's delineation of Lear or Ophelia when suffering from a similar mental aberration, and the rational reader of the announcement must conclude from it either that the Premier is a fit subject for an immediate de lunatico inquirendo, or else that the editor of "The Times" is himself the maddest wag that over wielded goosequill. For our own part we endorse the alternative opinion very firmly convincod of Sir George Grey's sanity—as the country will also bo somo day to its cost. It is hat ho may have seen Queen Y-xr> the result of the interview is probahT a dream in which Now Zealand figures as an independent state ruled by an autocrat whoso namo begins with G, but beyond this mono-mania method far predominates ovor madness in our Premier. Instead of "thrashing the wind" he is-—in a purely parliamentary 6onse of courso —thrashing the wheat out of the public granary for tho sustenance of his followers and parasites, aud instead " writing on tho water " ho is engaged in the more reprehensible task of writing on parchment or paper appointments or authority for special favors for Lis supporters and friends. Tho writers in the "subsidised journals" of the colony unable to defend their patrons adopt the only course loft open for them and abuse their assailants. It's the old story of "no " case," but as all the misrepresentations of the Government journalists cannot alter a single fact it is perhaps tho wisest courso tho Government's defenders can pursue to avoid argument and cling tenaciously to abuse. Tho Opposition papers attack in a fair and open manner the mal-administration of Sir George Groy as Premier in 1878, and it is no palliative to this that ho explored Western Australia in 1839, or govornod tho Cape with ordinary ability in 1855. A quarter of a century effects strange changes in tho very greatest of mon, and in the case of tho gentleman now at tho head of the Cabinet the changes have not been for tho bettor. Byron of the hero of the Peninsula said very justly—- " I've seen a Duke turn politician etupider— It that could well bo—than his wooden look." And tho people of Now Zealand have had an opportunity afforded them of seeing a ripe scholar and a diplomatist of repute devolop and degenerate into a politician remarkable only for mischievousnoss, capriciousnoss, and incompetence. In proof of this assertion, a dozen acts of the present Ministry might be cited. Tho Tapanui railway contract, the breaking of tho Nelson stonewall, tho construction of tho Hokitika railway being prominent amid the number. These and similar jobs with tho motive that prompted their perpetration are studiously avoided by writers in tho Government journals, but it is on account of these, and because every day that the Ministry remain in power their numbers increase that tho Opposition journalists deem it their duty to keep Sir Goorge Groy's acts prominently before tho public. They do not deal with tho ex-Governor or retired author, but with the head of the present Government politically active, and actively harmful.