THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1881. MR. ORMOND.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2234, 26 April 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, APRIL 26, 1881. MR. ORMOND.

It was a desire for rescue from one's friends that formed the subject of nearly the last remark which Julius Cfflsar made to Brutus. Mr. Ormond might woll play Brutus to Mr. Hall's Julius Caesar, for the former is the sort of friend of whom the most self-sacrificing Premier might well wish to be rid. His attack last year on the Ministry was perhaps the most vicious made during tho session, and now, although he declared at Waipawa that the Ministers were most honorable, high-minded men, and clearly proved that he was altogether averse to tho Grey-cum-Macandrew following, it is very difficult to discover the points on which he agrees with the present holders of power. Ho sneers at Major Atkinson for thinking that Parliament should devote the chief part of its time to putting the finances of the colony on a sound basis; he sneers at Mr. Hall for working too hard; and at Mr. Rolleston for no particular reason. He implies that the present Government is somehow responsible because local Bills have to pass through the House, and much time is thereby wasted. He declares that Government by Commission is dangerous, because Commissioners are usurping Ministerial functions, when, in point of fact, Ministers could not possibly devote the recess to such special researches as devolve on Commissioners. He has objected to the Property Tax, the Local Public Works Bill, the Civil Service Estimates, the abandonment of liens on Native lands, the present railway policy of the Ministry, and the line taken by Government with regard to Mr. Bryce. Indeed, it is difficult to perceive in what point he is at one with them, and yet he declares he loves them. He reminds one somewhat of the ultra - aesthetic critic immortalized by Punch, who declared that, although a certain picture was out of drawing, hideously colored, badly designed, and the idea embodied was shallow in the extreme, yet that the work as a whole was beautiful!

Perhaps such members as the one for Clive have their uses, but, without in anyway wishing to see individual opinion fettered, it may be questioned whether any scheme of responsible government would bo possible if the Legislature were, to any great extent, formed of gentlemen built on the same lines as Mr. Ormond. For, politically speaking, he is a thing of shreds and patches. His financial ideas belong to one section of the House, his Native policy to another, his views on taxation to a third, whilo the warmth of his admiration is lavished on the Hall Ministry as being comprised of " men of the highest character and actuated by patriotic notions throughout." The word " compromise " is evidently not to be found in Mr. Ormond's vocabulary, nor is the idea of government by party registered among that hotorogoneous mass of opinions which compose his stock-in-trade. He plays a "lone hand," and is likely to play it to the end. He is one of the Arabs of Parliament, and although, no doubt, the most powerful of that class, his talents appear to be wasted in wandering to and fro in search of gentlemen who may be prepared to swallow his platform holusbolus. Politicians of Mr. Ormond's calibre, and holding his peculiar views, aro worse than useless—they are dangerous. He is a trenchant speaker, and the impression his utterances leave behind them is not proportioned to their intrinsic merit. Ordinarily, when a man of talent attacks a system or a Government there is supposed to be somothing behind it all, and the speaker is credited with having in his mind's eye some scheme which would replace tho state of affairs ho wishes to destroy. But Mr. Ormond is a true political Nihilist. The present is rotten, but there is nothing definite mapped out for the future. The Greyito and the Macandrewite are not to his liking, and the views of the Hall Government do not suit him; but there is nothing put forward to fill up tho gap when these people go to the wall. Even supposing tho ideas of the member for Olive to possess singly some sort of merit, when

taken together the result is chaos. There may be merit in some of his perspective, his colouring no doubt is poworful, and the design may possoss some ingenuity, but the picture as a whole is anything but beautiful.

" OUR SPECIAL" IN REPLY.

Of all lame apologies ever tendered, commend us to the letter that appears in this morning's " Lyttelton Times" from Mr. S. Croumbie Brown, relative to the West Coast Commission and Mr. McCarthy. The references made by Mr. Bryce to " Our Special " will be fresh in the minds of our readers, so we need not refer to them. In the Special's reply to these remarks, embodied in a letter to our contemporary, appeared the following : —" The Government had appointed a reporter (Mr. McCarthy) to a position on the staff of Sir William Fox and Sir Dillon Bell (Royal Commissioners), on the express understanding that he should supply the Christchurch ' Press' and other Ministerial organs with ' approved' reports of the Commissioners' doings." Mr. McCarthy thereupon wrote to the "Press" newspaper contradicting this assertion point-blank. He declared he was not appointed by any Minister, but by Sir W. Fox, that ho was a mere shorthand writer to the Commission, that when lie found the sittings of the Commission open to the public, he considered himself at liberty to telegraph items to papers with which ho had had former connection, but that ho did not do so on account of any previous arrangement with such papers. And now Mr. Croumbie Brown ingeniously ignores the pith of Mr. McCarthy's reply, and goes off on a entirely new tack. Let us assist Mr. Croumbie Brown to grapple with Mr. McCarthy's statements in a straightforward manner. Mr. Brown in his letter declared that Mr. McCarthy was appointed hy Government to a position on the staff of Sir William Fox and Sir Dillon Bell on tJie express understanding that he should supply the Christ church "Press" and, other Ministerial organs with " approved " reports of the Commissioners' doings We ask Mr. Croumbie Brown if this is, or is not, an utter and disgraceful falsehood. We want no shuffling, but a plain Yes or No.