THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1881. SIR GEORGE GREY AT AUCKLAND.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2377, 15 November 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 1881. SIR GEORGE GREY AT AUCKLAND.

It there has o£ late been any flickering hope in certain quarters that Sir George Grey may yet worthily lead bis party, we fancy the speech be delivered last night at the Choral Hall, Auckland, will effectually dispel it. Making ample allowances for the necessarily abbreviated form in which it reaches us, and for the mutilation which seems always to accompany the report of speeches when such reports are hastily telegraphed, there cannot be found in Sir George's effusion any symptoms that he has utilized his rest at Kawau for tho purpose of elaborating any tangible scheme, or that he has thrown off any new or sound idea, that might serve as a rallying cry for his scattered followers. His principal care seems to be to put his audience on their guard against voting for the present Government through any satisfaction at their Native policy. That such policy has been entirely successful he does not attempt to deny, but he asks his hearers, and through them, wo presume, the electors in general; " not to be led away by a cry, but to return men, not on a particular Native policy to bo carried out within a specified date, but on general measures of universal importance." If he had stopt here there could have been no particular objection to what he had said, but ho goes on to suggest that the Govermeut have entered into open conflict with the Natives for purely electioneering purposes. And ho refers back to the days of the Caesars for a parallel to the present state of affairs, when apparently before aa election they used to get up a war or disturbance of some kind, for in the genertl excitement the people forgot all about tbeir liberties, their revenues, and self Government. Why Sir George should have gone back to the time of the. Civsars for an example it is hard to understand, when numerous samples of such an undesirable practice might have been found nearer at baud. AmL

moreover, we should very much like to know what particular events are referred to. After the first two or three Caws the Romans of the capital troubled themselves but little about their liberties, and to assert that any of the wars m those times were got up for electioneering purposes is simply ridiculous. But bir George has a happy knack of presuming that his hearers are ignorant or careless, and his facnlty of drawing on his own imagination does not decrease with years. "What Sir George happens to mean by

his allusion to " gladiatorial combats" is past comprehension. Here in Canterbury, at all ovents we can assuro him, that nothing of the sort takes place. No general bloodthirstiness is as yet observable among the peaceful inhabitants of the Cathedral City. Tho Dean and Chapter pursue the even tenor of their ways undisturbed by distant shouts of Habet! Habet! The unemployed have, on occasions, asked for " panem," or rather its equivalent, employment, but they have never yet gone the length of demanding " cireenses." No, we imagine that Sir George must have been carried away slightly beyond himself in tho classical ebullition which led him to the very uncomplimentary conclusion that the population of New Zealand is on a par with the rabble of Rome during its most corrupt period. It has always been part of Sir George Grey's tactics to set, for party purposes, class against class. For electioneering purposes ho thinks nothing, therefore, of setting district against district. To stir Up Auckland against Canterbury and ■ Otago is with him quite a natural operation. Tho material prosperity of the South is made an engine to secure for himself his election. But although the manoeuvre, as coming from the ex-Premier, is not to be wondered at, yet we confess to feeling surprised at the unartistic manner in which it is worked out. What is to be thought of a sentence like this—- " When he (Sir G. Grey) visited tho South and saw their railway lines and stations, public buildings and public institntions, and compared them with the miserable state of things in Auckland his : blood fairly boiled." On the occasions ; when he addressed crowded audiences in Christchurch he told them how pleased i he was to find such a marvellous improvement in the city and province. And i yet his blood was boiling with indigna- ' tion the whole time. Is this the spirit, we ' ask, which should be expected in a great ' party leader ? Certainly not. It is the spirit of a petty vestryman. To a party leader all parts of the colony are alike. ' He rejoices in the prosperity of any ] single district, and is not embittered thereby because his own district, from ' unavoidable causes, is behind it. And then as to Sir George having : been prevented by his party or his colleagues when in office from passing useful measures, the less he says about that ' the better. Whatever faults his colleagues may have had, they at least were loyal to him, and it is the height of ingratitude on his part to attempt to shift tho want of success of his Ministry on their shoulders. Indeed the whole of the speech, as far as reported at present, seems to make it apparent that Sir George is beginning to realise that his party are giving him the cold shoulder. It is the bitter speech of a disappointed man, who is savage with his late colleagues, with his party, with the South, in fact with everybody and everything , except his own surroundings, with which i he wishes to keep on good terms for a specified immediate object.

THE HOSPITAL SCANDAL. Those candidates for political honours who are now seeking the support of the electorates of this colony, and who entertain pronounced views on the utter rottenness of nominated as opposed to openly elected members of public institutions, never had a finer illustration of the soundness and desirability of their views than that afforded them in the report of ■yesterday's meeting of the Christchurch Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, which we publish in this day's issue. Ever since the appointment of tbo existing Board, squabbles, mismanagement, and disorderly proceedings in the highest degree have marked its conduct. The personal disagreements between the ''ins" and the " outs " of the medical gentlemen of this city, which have for so many years past tormented and wearied the community, pale their ineffectual fires when compared to the scandalous want of decency which animate and have animated the Board in its treatment of the several House Surgeons whohave successively for some long time past been their unfortunate servants. In the instance now in question, we are sorry that Dr. Meikle should have had the misfortune —in this his initial start in life in Canterbury—to fall into such hands as the gentlemen who now compose the Go-vernment-appointed Board of Charitable Institutions in this district. It is an old and a very true saying that a body of fairly honest men will do that in a corporate capacity which, as individuals, they would be ashamed of. This prevails in institutions of all kinds, commercial, ecclesiastical, charitable, and every other description which necessitate association for general or particular purposes. In the present instance, we read with pleasure the honest outspoken utterances of Mr. Hawkes, who by the way, appears to be the only fearless, honest and independent member of the Board, and who spoke manfully for tho good name of the gentleman whose general conduct was so shamefully traduced. 11 subsequent investigation should, as we are pretty suro it will, result in Dr. Meikle's version of the squabble being the true one, we recommend the present Board, if the members have any sense of shame in them, to at once give up the positions they now so unworthily and disgracefully fill.