THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1881. A SPHINX.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2228, 19 April 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, APRIL 19, 1881. A SPHINX.

Me. Allweight, M.H.R. for Lyttelton, has, almost ever since his entry into the House, been propounding riddles to the Greyite party, which the latter have not been able to solve, although they have brought their best energies to boar on the subject. This has boon a bitter trial for them. The sphinx of old, we read, used to put to death those who wore incapable of solving her conundrums. Mr. Allwright abstains from such extreme measures, but nevertheless the pain ho must have inflicted on his political adversaries must have, in the aggregate, almost ave amounted to the extreme penalty. For the unexpectedness of the catastrophe makes it all the more bitter. There wai nothing at all sphinx-like about the member for Lyttelton when ho first sought the votes of the constituency. He was a gentleman holding outspoken and liberal views on most points, and the fact that

he proposed to go in for “ measures not men” was lightly passed over, because the Greyites had heard the same formula so often drop from the lips of candidates of their party, that they attached but little Talne to the expression. But when Mr. Allwright had reached Wellington, little by little something complicated and unusual, from a Groyite point of view, was observed in his character. It was noted that he kept a sharper look out on what was done in the House than on what was said. The divine power of “ Talk”—according to the “ Lyttelton Times” the very essence of all Parliamentary functions—did not seem to strike him with the requisite degree of force. There was a kink in the character of this gentleman. The loud professions of friendship to the working man made by the Greyite party did not impress him. Indeed he presumed to doubt altogether their sincerity when he saw that it was proposed to introduce 10,000 poor men into the colony at the very time when labour here was remarkably scarce. Further, he presumed to enquire where wore the fruits of the burning zeal professed by the Greyites. During the two years they were in power where wore the landmarks they should have loft behind them ? They professed economy, and yet one of them made a speech that cost the country £350, when he could have said everything that was wanted to be said in ten minutes, and the party, as a whole, squandered millions with no adequate result. They professed a zeal for reform, and yet they did not carry through a single measure bearing in that direction. All these things struck the member for Lyttelton, and, unlike most members elected on the Liberal platform, he began to look into the matter more closely and to discover tbatthe party nowin power were the party who were really prepared to energetically legislate in favor of the masses. The same conviction, no doubt, had previously worked itself into the intelligences of other Greyite members, but what puzzled the party was the fact that Mr. Allwright was prepared to act upon his convictions. Here was the kink in his character which they were not prepared for, Mr Allwright is a riddle to them, and will remain so, we fancy, to the end of his political career. We will, however, offer a solution which, to the impartial, may explain the whole question at issue. Mr Allwright is an honest man, and has acted up to his convictions without fear or favour. We will not go the length of saying that all politically honest men are riddles to the Greyite party, but that one of them is, remains an indubitable fact.