THE PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1285, 11 September 1872, Page 2

THE PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11, 1872.

That the new Ministry would consist of Messrs Stafford, Fitzherbort, Curtis, Gillies, and Reid was intimated to us yesterday morning by a resident of Wellington whom we have reason to recognise as a tolerably accurate authority on political movements in the Colonial "metropolis." Before his information is reduced to print, we shall, no doubt, have the actual facts reported, the House having been adjourned until the usual hour of evening sitting on Tuesday, for the purpose of enabling Mr Stafford to make his arrangements for the formation of a new Ministry. Accepting our correspondent's information as approximately correct, we may venture to express the opinion which, in this locality at least, will be entertained as to the character and prospects of a Ministry formed of such men as those whose names are thus mentioned. The general feeling, we undertake to predict, will be that, as compared with the former Ministry, the new Cabinet will possess in a very inferior degree the confidence of the country. According to the popul.tr conception, or, according to what many believe to be the popular delusion, Mr Stafford is within himself an immense source of strength to any Ministry, whatever he may be to the cause of promoting the peace and progress of tho Colony. The majority of the residents of the West Coast are willing to accept him as such, but among a minority, not unintelligent, there is a disposition to think that throughout Mr Stafford's career there has been a considerable amount of empiricism, and that latterly even this empiricism has not been supported by the ability oi earlier days. Of tht> other prospective members of the Cabinet, three are Superintendents of Provinces— Messrs Fitzherbert, Curtis, and Gillies. By such a selection, Mr Stafford, as Cabinetmaker, has at least been true to the last of the three resolutions which constituted the so-called indictment against the FoxYogel Ministry. "When practicable," said the resolution, "the Government should avail itself of any existing Provincial or other local machinery in the supervision or execution of public works," and to appoint three Superintendents to seats in the Ministry is certainly fulfilling the spirit of that resolution with a vengeance. As compared with the precedent of the British Parliament, or with the

practice of other Colonial Legislatures, the customs of this Colony are anomalous by there being no necessity for the members of new Ministries going to the country and ascertaining whether they or their principles are as acceptable to the people as they may be to themselves and their Parliamentary supporters. There will be much more of an anomaly in three gentlemen holding at one and the same time seats in the Colonial Cabinet, and retaining possession of Superintendents' chairs, and we should imagine that the very first demand made by the House, and especially by those members who wero lately iv and of the Opposition, will be that these three members should cea3e to hold their Provincial positions — should cease to do so at once, and with no temporising either as to the close of the session or the close of the period for which, as Superintendents, they have been elected. Unless they, do so, the Superintendents of other and not less important Provinces than those which these gentlemen represent may well be wary in supporting the Ministry, and those who are not Superintendents will require to give extra attention to the interests of their constituents, if they endeavor or expect to meet the pressure which such a triumvirate can bring to bear in favor of particular projects and localities. A fourth Province, it is true, is equally represented by the presenco of Mr Donald Reid, a member of the Otago Executive, tut his presence is only an aggravation of the evil, and it should be insisted upon that one and all of the four should cease to occupy either one or other of their offices. If it ia judicious to disqualify Provincial Executive Officers from sitting in the Honse, there is infinitely more propriety in the disqualification of Superintendents and Provincial Secretaries from holding, contemporaneously, positions of power in the inferior and superior Legislatures. Apart from their official positions, and simply upon their personal merits, the members of the new Ministry, as compared with those of the old, have little to recommend them to the approval of this community or others, but if there is one member who will rea^e more than his colleagues that vaulting ambition may o'erleap itself, it will be Mr Curtis. Secure in his seat as Superintendent for a period of tour years, selected to occupy that seat by a small section of the community whose affairs he pretended to administer, he has from first to last, and notably during the present session, contemned public opinion as represented by regular writers for the Press, or by the multitude of contributors to the columns of newspapers published within his Province. Resigning his office, and accepting aseatinth's Cabinet, he will find himself in no such unassailable position as that which he has hitherto occupied and abused, but in a position in which he will have to subdue himself to public sentiment and to the force of public action which is only too ready to be aroused.

We had written thus far when we received our regular telegrams conveying the statement made by Mr Stafford in the House, last evening. It corroborates the information which we had previously received, as the report of the remarks made after Mr Stafford's statement strengthens the opinion which we ventured to express as to tho position of the triumvirate of Superintendents who have become members of the Ministry. There is, however, one thing to add. Nay, there aro two. Mr Stafford, whose determination it was a few years ago to " conquer a permanent peace," has taken a leaf out of the book of the Ministry whom he succeeds, and consents not only to consult the Natives, but is to exalt one or more of them to the position of fellow-councillors with Messrs Curtis, Gillies, and Reid, and His Excellency the Governor. Excellent idea — on the surface. It is only to be regretted that the Maori members of the Ministry have not been nominated. It would have been some satisfaction to know whether they are to be selected from the Native Opposition, Bay Messrs.- Te Kooti and Tito .Kowarn, or whether tho Native King is to be invited to desert his fastnesses and join in " the feast of reason and the flow of soul " represented at the daily sittiugs of the Colonial Cabinet, " habitually present " in Wellington. The other announcement is that Mr Sewell is again, once again, to be a member of a Ministry. Appropriately described as the Ahithophel of the former Ministry, Mr Sewell is not likely to prove anything but a source of weakness to the Ministry of the present, and no wonder that Mr Fox should indulge in refined sarcasm by congratulating himself, Mr Stafford, ,and all and sundry, upon his fresh accession to office. From the Hon. John Hall to the Hon. Mr Sewell is something very like a ste*p from the sublime to the ridiculous, and the came remark may be said to apply, with only a slight difference in degree, to most of the memberg of the new Ministry, as compared with those whose troubles they have iuherited, and whose capacity, we fear, they will but faintly imitate.

Tenders will be received at the Post Office, Greymouth, up to the 30th September, for the conveyance of mails in the Grey district for the year ending 31st December, 1873. An additional service is announced for No Town, viz., bi-weekly instead of weekly as hitherto. Tendera are also called for a daily service from Greymouth to Greenstone, via Paroa, llutherglen, and Marsden, but this service does not commence until the Ist of February, 1873.

Professor Haselmayer, according to the reports in the Hokitika papers, has drawn crowded houses there, and, according to the statement of visitors from Ross, has been equally successful in the capital of Westlnnd South. He has been preceded here by his agent, Mr Robinson, and is expected to make his first appearance in Greymouth early next week.

"Lalla Rookh" was repeated at the Theatre last evening in the presence of an audience almost equal in numbers to that on the first evening of its production, and the approbation with which it was received was equally warn? It is to be presented aga' l this evening, and, as practice produces per? fection, it is likely to be played with—suppose we say, as the shortest way of putting it, "enhanced success." Last evening the burlesque was preceded by a comedy of local production, "The Anonymous Letter," and this evening another light comedy is to form the first part of the programme.

Tb.3 sittings in Banco of the Supreme Court, Hokitika, commenced , on Monday. On the application of Mr Button, the case stated by the Magiutrate, in an appeal in which M'Carthy w.as appellant and Gillon was respondent, was referred back for amendment. The appeal case of Drury appellant, and Oooney and others respondents, ocenpie \

the Court the whole of the day, and at its rising counsel for the appellant had concluded his argument. The respondents' counsel was to be heard yesterday. Mr Guinness was for the appellant, and Mr Pitt, with him Mr Hasselden, for the respondents.

Mr T. J. Metcalfe, writing from Reefton to the West Coast Times cays :— "So^ confident am L that payable reefs do exist in that locality, that I am prepared (with two others) to start out and prospect the country between the Grey and Hokitika rivers en the following conditions, viz. : — 125 down, to fit out the party, and L 25 at the end of one month on our arrival in Hokitika, after starting from- Eeefton. After we had devoted that time to prospecting the country alluded to, I would suggest that the gentlemen put down Lo each to be spent as proposed, and in the event of our discovering either a payable reef or alluvial ground, each subscriber to bo entitled to one share in the claims."

The following telegraphic summary of Mr Harrison's remarks on the no-confidence resolutions appears in some of our East Coast contemporaries : — Mr Harrison could not support the resolution. If Ministers' absence had produced ill results, how did the Provinces manage whose Superintendents and other Provincial officers passed a quarter of the year in Wellington ? Several Superintendents had appealed to thoir Councils in favor of local administration of public works, but the Councils all refused to respond. He considered that the amendment raised a fair and direct issue. The present financial condition of the Colony was satisfactory, its credit abroad such as was never before enjoyed, which was due to the policy and administration of the present Government. He replied to Mr White's remarks re the Press Association, and the injury done to Westland. He denied that Mr White had fairly represented his constituents. He admitted that a reconstruction of the Cabinet might be advisable, but at present he had full confidence in the Government.

Replying to Mr Gillies, Mr Gisborne thus briefly summed up that hon. gentleman's remarks on the Ministry : — "The honorable member lightly touched upon many topics, but scarcely left any impression with regard to any. It seemed to mo that upon many subjects the terrestrial portion of his nature impelled him to- 'rush in,' but the angelic part made him * fear to tread.' "

Mr Bluett, replying tea rather happy remark by Mr Swanson, during the lace debate, said:— "That honorable gentleman facetiously remarked that a great deal had been said about the great schemes, and that the honorable gentlemen who had initiated them would by-and-by be called 'great schemers.' For my own part, I would rather have to do with great schemers than no schemers at all, becauso, on looking back upon the past history of the honorable member for Timaru, I cannot for the life of me, make what search. I will, find anything which that honorable gentleman has initiated or invented for the. good or the benefit of his country."

At the Port Chalmers end of the Dunedin and Port Chalmers Railway two tunnels were necessary ; one at Port Chalmers and another at Blanket Bay. Both these are nearly completed. That at Port Chalmers is through a dense bluestone rock of very firm texture. The entrance to it at the Port is a very neat bluestone arch built of faced rubble. The tunnel at Blanket Bay is being lined with bricks, which have been made from good clay found in one of tho cuttings. The permanent way is laid for a considerable distance from Port Chalmers, and only needs ballasting to be completed.