Selected Articles.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 7, Issue 365, 7 April 1866, Page 1

Selected Articles.

• THE STAFFORD MINISTRY POLICY. * > : (From tho Hawke's Bay dirties, 26 th March.) The elections for the House of Representafives are now nearly over; it is probable That the next mails will put us in possession of complete returns. The names of sixty - ■ three of the seventy constituting the House ■have already been received, and from the election addresses, as well as the antecedents of the gentlemen returned, there is no room for questioning the fact of the stability of the Stafford Ministry, and the future policy of that Ministry now becomes a most interesting subject for enquiry. ; To aid us in this investigation, we have several addresses made by members of the Government to the electors of the Colony, the most important of which by Mr Stafford himself has already received a share of our attention, and next in impprtance to it are those of Dr. Feather at Wellington, and ;Mr Paterson before the electors of Dunedin. These addresses bring before us a view of the difficulties that must be encountered by the" Government during the session now so near at hand; for we may well expect that such session will be called within two or three months from the present time. The adherence of Dr. Featherston to the ‘Ministry 1 augurs the cessation of action against the rebel natives, and the return to the old -exploded pet and pamper—flour and sugar policy* He has spoken pretty plainly on this point, and those of us who know the man, know that in joining a Ministry ail the concessions arc made to and none by him. In the carrying out of this policy. Ministers will find an able coadjutor in the House in the person of our new member, Mr D. M‘Lean. The only other point to which we shall refer at this time is that indicated by Mr Paterson—the remodelling of the Constitution to meet the view's (as far as possible) of the Separationists, and here, we believe, the chief difficulty of the Ministry will lie. As sketched by Mr Paterson, it consists in handing over to the Northern Provinces the confiscated lauds within their boundaries, together with the cost of managing the native difficulty for themselves; reducing the number of the Provinces to the original number of sir, only replacing that of Taranaki (which is to. be absorbed by Wellington) by Hawke’s Bay, which it is proposed to enlarge hy the addition of a good slice from the east coast of Auckland, restoring all the other separated Provinces to the larger ones, from which they have been separated—Southland to Otago; and Marlborough to Nelson.; But we confess to a great difficulty iu understanding, how Auckland will be brought to agree to this, and we have an idea that Mr Paterson was giving his own opinions on the question rather than making known the policy of the Government, especially as he proceeded 'to- hold out some hope to his constituency that Otago and Auckland might yet be made the ports of departure and arrival of ,the proposed Panama 'service, which must have been unofficial. In fact,- in all addresses of this kind there is and roust he a great deal of difficulty in discriminating between,the private opinions and wishes of a gentleman and what is actually given from .official inspiration. We cannot at present believe that Mr Stafford seriously contemplates; the. dismemberment of Auckland Province, much as it would be to the ad vanage of Hawke’s Bay.