THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1881. THE ELECTIONS.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2399, 10 December 1881, Page 3

THE GLOBE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10, 1881. THE ELECTIONS.

As far as the returns have been received from the various electorates of New , Zealand, it may safely be reckoned that ] the Ministry will have a substantial ] working majority when Parliament meets. 1 The country, as a whole, has unmis- ■ takahly signified its approval of the ( policy of the Government, and Mr. Hall and his colleagues will be enabled to ' carry on the work of progress and ■ economy which they have initiated. , There will, however, be a very consider- i able change in the personnel of the i House. Many a well known face will be missed, and the number of “ colts ” , putting in a first appearance will be very ■ large. Some of the best speakers will have disappeared. We allude specially to Messrs. Wakefield, Ormond (probably), | Reader Wood and Sir W. Fox. At the ■ same time, some of the worst will have i vanished into space ; for instance, Messrs, j Reeves and Lundon. The Ministerialists ■ will miss from their ranks some of their most prominent men, snch as Messrs, i Wakefield and Sir W. Fox. On the other hand the Opposition will be without the ' aid of Mr. Ballance and others, probably ; including Mr. Ormond. As far as debating power goes, then the loss on the i two sides will be, to a certain extent, balanced, and what talent there may happen to be among the “ colts ” will have a fair field for development. As for the future prospects of the Ministry, it is very evident that the most favorable circumstance that could eventuate for them would be for the new Parliament to have in it a sufficient number of Ministerialists to give the present holders of power a fair working majority, and nothing more. When any party has too large a majority there is always danger of it falling to pieces from its own weight. A compact party, kept in order by a substantial Opposition, is most favorable to a Ministry itself, and most useful to the country at large. And these respective states of the two parties will, most probably, be found to exist in the House when Parliament meets. On the one side will bo a strong Ministry, powerful from a freshly-made appeal to the constituences ; on the other side will be a substantial Opposition, also vigorous from the same cause. Wo think the country may fairly be congratulated on the outlook. The Ministry may certainly claim that its past policy has been favorably received. With respect to the elections in and around Christchurch it is very evident that the actions of Mr. Hall’s Ministry have commended themselves to the public. Messrs Fisher and Andrews, out and out supporters of Sir George Grey, have gone to the wall, and have made way for men who are thorough supporters of the present Government. Messrs Holmes and Pilliet, the new Opposition members, are untried men, with no past of any consequence to refer to,and are therefore elected on trust, not to mention that their successes have been partially due to peculiar and abnormal circumstances. Messrs Fisher and Andrews, on the contrary had, each of them, several years of Parliamentary life to place before the electors, during which they had consistently opposed Mr. Hall and his friends. The public has now declared unmistakoably that such conduct has not met with its approval, and it has elected men whose declared platform is to back up the Ministry in its efforts. Messrs Holmes and Pilliet have been able to promise everything under the sun, and majorities in two electorates have taken their promises for gospel. Messrs Fisher and Andrews did exactly the same sort of thing three years ago, but their leases have expired, and the result of their promises

have been proved to be nil. They have obstructed a Ministry that has, under great difficulties, been doing a vast amount of good for the country, and that is about all. The new Opposition members start on their new line of life with the cheerful consciousness of having declared that they will sot creation straight, and with the Parliamentary careers of Messrs Fisher and Andrews before them as examples of how constituencies, having once swallowed highly flavoured promises, are annoyed if their members prove failures on the larger field of general politics. The result of the election at Lyttelton seems to demand particular notice. With Messrs Richardson and Allwright in the field wo have before said that it was a case of emharrtis de richesse. Mr. Richardson has not been elected, so that we will say no more as to his claims to a seat. The success of Mr. Allwright will be welcomed with peculiar favor by all those who have followed his career with unbiassed minds. Few men have been better abused during the last few years by a certain clique, which chose not to understand the motives which led Mr. Allwright to act as ho did. The rare moral courage shown by the member for Lyttelton has been the subject of any amount of misrepresentation. But he stood firm through it all, and now his fellow citizens have declared that ho is a man in whom they believe. To their credit they know a good man and true when they see him, and they have placed him at the head of the poll. By so doing they have, moreover, shown their belief in the hollownes of the protestations made by the Grey party, inasmuch as they have approved of the action of a gentleman whom they elected to support Sir George Grey, but who, when ho found that the Knight of Kawau was a sham, and, believing in measures not men, transferred his allegiance to the true party of progress and reform