THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1879.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1688, 18 July 1879, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JULY 18, 1879.

The present position of the Grey Government is by no means an enviable one. They are beginning to find out that “ past sins have present obligations,” and that although it is extremely pleasant to march arm in arm down the broad way crowned with the flowers of office, scattering promises broadcast and breaking them with an equal liberality, throwing largess to the gaping multitude, violating the constitution, and acting in fine like a crew of possessed Bacchanalians, yet that a time will come when those whose money they have boon spending, whoso credit they have boon ruining, and whoso affairs they have been muddling, will demand an explanation. When wo come to reflect what this same Grey Government was one short year ago, the scandalous use they have made of their opportunities will become only too apparent. Sir George Grey a year ago was looked upon by many as a man who had the real good of the country at heart, as a man who, possessed of great experience, wanted but the field of operations ho had lately entered into, to use his undoubted talents to the advantage of the count)/ which had chosen him as Premier. And what is Sir George’s position now ? For one man out of his former adherents who still believes in him there are nine who look upon him as an absolute charlatan ; who hold that they have been utterly deluded in the estimate they then formed of his character; who recognise that the disinterestedness ho professed and the purity of patriotism he assumed, were but veils behind which lay a greed for autocratic power and an absolute disregard for the real welfare of the New Zealand public. But luckily there is a point beyond which even the most simple-minded cannot descend. The most verdant are apt to turn somewhat bad tempered when they find that their verdancy has been traded on. The simple countryman, when ho finds himself the victim of the “confidence trick,” when he has parted with his purse and watch to the plausible stranger, generally becomes rather savage, and if he casually comes across the gay deceiver the latter is likely to come off second best. The Premier has been playing «the confidence trick” on the public at large, and like the sharper above alluded to, is not prepared to give a satisfactory explanation to his victim. No longer possessed of a majority in the House, his followers aro leaving him day by day. To-day’s telegrams inform us that six more of his late adherents have passed over to the other side; his Government aro quite unable to pass the simplest measure; in fact “ the confidence trick” is quite played out, and the green curtain will, in all probability, shortly descend on a tableau of the most approved description —for instance, right centre, Opposition members in a compact group, and prepared for action; loft centre, the Grey following disorganized and thinned in number ; loft, the bulk of the Ministry in tears; extreme loft. Sir George Grey with a packed portmanteau on the point of starting for Kawau for change of air; up the stage, chorus of jubilant public singing a fervent Hallelujah.

Thebe is a wonderful vis- inertia: about the present Government. Like the fat boy in Pickwick, it can absorb with the greatest facility, but all movement is utterly abhorrent to its naiuro. It can spend the people’s money with wonderful ease, but action is not its forte. It has absolutely to be goaded into it. The political ploughmen would still be amusing themselves by planting potatoes in the settlers’ paddocks if the settlors

themselves, hy taking the initiative, had not forced the Government to assist them. And now wo find by the telegrams that it is pretty nearly certain that the Government intend marching on Parihaka and seizing Hiroki and Te Whiti. What is the explanation of this unwonted galvanic spasm ? Simply that affairs in the House are forcing the Government into what they consider a heroic measure. It is from no settled plan on the part of the Government that the idea has been started. If they had possessed a plan tending in the direction alluded to, they should have put it into operation on the first arrest of the ploughmen. The Natives wore impressed with, and cowed by, the firm attitude of the country, and any delay in an attempt to seize Te Whiti and the Maori murderers could not bo productive of good. A course of action which is advantageous now would have been even more advantageous then. Our forces wore even more prepared then than they are now, for numbers of settlers have since left the district. Nobody, however, who has watched the Government in its dealings with the Natives will feel surprised that they did not rise to the emergency.