THE INTENDED BANQUET TO THE POSTAL CONFERENCE DELEGATES.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume IX, Issue 469, 11 April 1867, Page 3

THE INTENDED BANQUET TO THE POSTAL CONFERENCE DELEGATES.

(From the Argus, X6th March.) Thh people from Sydney, Brisbane, and n-ueiaiug win iearii from taelr journals o{ this morning that the intercolonial delegates hare not, after all, had their dinner of welcome. The telegraph baa carried the news far beyond the bounds of Victoria, and we can imagine the mingled amazement, and amusement with which the news will be received. Some such message as this will have passed along the wires:—After all the preliminary talk, the proposed banquet has fallen p.-tty snuabliug end blu r, de r *n* T in the sub-committee, arising out of politf cal questions, has brought this end about; a magnificent dinner was placed on the table of the Criterion, and the wines were excellent; but there was no Mayor in the chair, no Governor at his right hand, no Minister present, and no delegate visible in thejroom ; a number of resolute spirits, greatly daring, dined because they had paid for a dinner j and so ignominiously ended the efforts of a numerous body of citizens on hospitable thoughts intent! Bat while this new?is read in Sydney and Adelaide with a smile of quiet entertainment, who shall assure us that the public feeling there will not exhibit pity and contempt ? Will they not ask how it is that we came to make such egregious fools of ourselves ? And though, when a full explanation reaches them, it may help them to understand the height to which political feeling runs here at present, it will not assist us much to escape from the ridicule attached to the position in which we have wilfully placed ourselves. The best we can say in excuse is, that we contemplated a generous work, to promote a good foriing between the colonies, and that in doing it we could not hide the raws and wounds of party, but quarrelled like school boys, sulked liked children, and deserve to be put in the corner, capped and belled, like idiots and dunces. It is not difficult for those who are on the spot to understand how all this came about, but it will not be quite so easy to place this very pretty quarrel intelligibly before our neighbors. The committee by whom the banquet was arranged was large, and composed of men of all shades of politics. It was understood from the beginning that political questions and leanings were to be entirely laid aside for the time being. The delegates were to be invited because they were the representatives of the neighboring colonies; and the occasion was deemed doubly opportune because the whole of the group were represented, and the work the delegatee- had come to do was of common interest to them ail. But the details, the arrangement of the programme, and the selection of the speakers were left to a small sub-committe, and in it the mischief began. The Mayor of Melbourne, who, though a protectionist, does not take an active part in politics, accepted the office of chairman ; but instead of inviting the mayors of Ballarat and Sandhurst to take the vice*chairs, in support of the chief magistrate of the city, the sub-committee made their first great mistake in naming for those offices two members of the Oposition, on no better ground than that one was a member of the Council and the other of the Assembly. To avoid all differences the list of toasts was made as short as possible. The draft list most properly included “ tbs Ministry of Victoria;” and here from some singularity of view which it was im possible to understand—a stumbling block arose. Some members of the sub-com-mittee would toast the Ministry, and some would not do so. The battle it appears, ran high, although it is obviovs to the meanest apprehension, that the toast was indispensable, as a formal recognition of the governing power of the colony in which the representatives of the other colonies were met. The toast was first placed on the card, then it was struck out, and then it was replaced again; and some fussy and incompetent agent in the business had the singular imprudence to permit a too active printer to issue copies of these different programmes. Then names of proposers of toasts were agreed to, about which their hung an unwise air of nationality, while the personal popularity the gentlemen alluded to was not in every case such as to entitle him to the distinction. From some of the published programmes, however, one, at least, of these names was omitted. To the AttorneyGeneral a personal insult was offered, in the substitution of the name of Mr Ireland as the member of the profession who should return thanks for the toast of " The Bench and the Bar.” So uncertain had been the mind of the sub-committee—there had been so much shilly-shallying in their resolutions—that it was only at a late boar on Thursday night that the toast of the Ministry was restored to the card ; while even then no invitations had been sent to the two Ministers of this colony who took part in the deliberations of the conference. When the facts became known to-membera of the general committee, every exertion was made to restore to the action of that body the original non-political aspect which it was intended to preserve. Very early on the following morning efforts were made to overcome the effects of the errors of the sub-committee, and to restore harmony. Efforts of that nature, indeed, were made by the sub-committee themselves. Unfortunately, however, the Ministerial cards had gone out, and they were of that unlucky edition which had not been finally revised and approved. They were those,

in fact, which did not contain the toast of the Ministry. There wore also some prying and unhappy Ministerialist spirits about, who are always most satisfied when making mess miscrne,. These idle individuals busied themselves in widening the breach. They retailed to Ministers' the petty gossip of the committee, and they even communicated, it is said, with his Excellency the Governor to prevent his attendance. In all this there are two fcuiugs nuiCu Cou CGlQuioud uO Djiupatuj from us. The exclusion of the toast of the Ministry from the list, even for a time was most unwarrrantod. If the Ministry were the worst that had ever held office—and in one respect, at least, wo regard the M'Culloch Cabinet as the worst for the colony that has ever held office it—their posiuen was entitled to be recognised iu a meeting from which political considers, tions were to bo carefully excluded. But we condemn as unhesitatingly the conduct of the Ministry in refusing to be present —their course of necessity affecting that of his Excellency and the delegates. They should have been above listening to the injurious tittle-tatle retailed to them. They should not have permitted themselves to resent to an extremity the silly conduct of two or three members of the subcommitee: or to allow themselves to think that the petty-mindedness exhibited by by these insignificant busybodies extended to the general committee, or to the community represented by that body, They should hare risen superior to the small jealousies which had beset and annoyed them. The occasion was one of great interest. It was the duty of the Government to have given it, not jealous citioism from personal points of view, but hearty support as a body. The eyes of all the colonies were on Melbourne; and surely the people of this city and colony were never before so humiliated in the presence of their neighbors as they are now!

We trust the true history of this ridicu long affair—and it would make a ballad as delightfully doleful and droll as any ever found in the wallet of Autolyous—will remove some of the unfavorable impressions which must have been formed in Sydney and Adelaide on the reception of the first news of the result. It is some small consolation to find that, after all, ninety-four gentlemen eat down to dinner, under the presidence of one of the oldest colonists of Victoria j and the hope is left to us that we have learned a lesson, very sharp though it is, as to whom we shall trust on any similar occasion in the future to set our house iu order for our dinner guests.