THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1880.

Globe, Volume XXII, Issue 1971, 18 June 1880, Page 2

THE GLOBE. FRIDAY, JUNE 18, 1880.

The die appears to bo cast, and the Opposition have at last a real live leader. Sir George Grey has seized upon the post vi et armis, and there ho is likely to remain. Ho has frequently announced his intention of dragging the Premier at his chariot wheels, and he is keeping his hand in by operating on his own party. How the more sensible among that party enjoyed his opening of the campaign it would not bo hard to guess, for of all washy utterances it would bo hard to choose one more devoid of backbone than the speech of Sir George when moving his want of confidence motion. Indeed, his old cunning of fence appears to be deserting him, or rather, perhaps, his position is becoming too complicated. After ho has boon two solid years in power, and his party practically has been turned out of office by the vote of the country at large, it is rather too much of a good joke to pose as a martyr who is overwhelmed by the monied classes. If ho is overwhelmed by anything it is by the united vote of the country, and the sooner ho gets out of that peculiarly angular and pre-raphaelite" position he is assuming, uncrosses his hands, and wipes the rays of gold from around his head, the more sensible the world generally will think him. Then again, if ho was slightly more close in his epithets, his utterances would not loose in force. Ho may hold that the Premier is a vampire, but how has Mr. Hall fanned his victims to rest with his wings ? If he had stumped the country, as it is suggested he ought to have done, then the comparison might fairly hold from Sir George Grey’s point of view. But Mr. Hall’s motto is “ deeds not words,” and even now that ho is informed of the close resemblance he bears to that most unsavorury beast, ho is as little likely to fan his so-called victims, as ever. Only one thing can positively be gleaned from the speech of the leader of the Opposition out of the mass of incongruities of which it is formed. His views are as comprehensively destructive as they ever were. Repudiation and the lavish expenditure of borrowed money during hard times were lately added to his “ platform,” and now wo find some of the old items tacked on to those charming points of his policy. The Agent-General’s Department is to bo done away with. Legislative Councillors are not to be paid (a now way of excluding monied men), the Governor’s salary is to be abolished, the Civil Service is to be attacked, in fact nearly everything and everybody is to be wiped out except Sir George Grey himself, who is to bo .leader of the Opposition, the future Premier, the first elected Governor of New Zealand and possibly King George the First of this most democratic but down-trodden nation.