THE LEADERS OF THE OPPOSITION.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 13, Issue 688, 3 June 1869, Page 4

THE LEADERS OF THE OPPOSITION.

(Prom the Nelson Examiner, 29th May.) On the Editor of the Lyttelton Times de- • volves the laborious duty of providing arguments, to be served up neat and undilu ted, as the case may be, for his brethren of the opposition press throughout New Zealand; and he labors hard, if not successfully in his vocation. The last of his effusions which has come to our knowledge presents the spectacle, said, to be so dear to those horrible Epicure in deities of a good man struggling with adversity. The elections, it appears, of which there have been several, have been adverse to the present Ministry; but in spite of this, the insidious nature of Mr Stafford is such, that he has undermined the principle of such champions of Provincialism as "Mr Pox, Mr Travers, and even Mr Dillon Bell." Our afflicted contemporary was already intoning his pee in of vie tory, when lo! like the slave in the triumphant general's car, some Job's messenger arrived to tell of the rumoured defection ol these his choicest companions, and, as of old, the wail of mourning breaks in upon the proud strain, and mars its triumphant notes. To the) apprehension of the Editor of the Lyttelton Times, that " political intriguer," Mr Stafford, is like the familiar Jesuit to the Protestant Mrs Grundv : just as the soundest Protestant who ventures to sit down to dinner with the disciple of Loyola is held likely to rise a confirmed Papist—not convinced by argument, but by some process apparently akin to physical infection—so no statesman, however sound his views, however sure the grounds on which he bases them, is safe against the voice of that charmer, who is now our Premier. We have beared it lamented bj those who admire the policy which Mr Stafford now advocates—the policy, by the way, which every man in office in New Zealand will be constrained, if not volens then nolens, to carry out—that Mr Stafford's main defect is a want of tact in per Bonal relations ; and that this defect goes far to mar the working of penetrating and comprehensive intellect, of great administrative ability, of rare power of debate, and of a laudable ambition. We are glad to find it is not so; and that rumors have penetrated to the very head-quarters of the Opposition, which give ground for supposing that his powers of persuasion are such that the doughtiest leaders of his opponents are not found proof against his blandishments. When such men as " Mr Fox, Mr Travers, and even Mr Dillon Bell" lay themselves open to suspicion, who can be trusted? Of all those leaders that marshalled " the great Constitutional party " last session in its bold attempt to win office, and cover itself with glory, whom have we left? Only Mr Vogel, *' faithful among the faithless only he " —and who knows how long his bosom will remain proof against the syren song ? It is not for us to say what grounds may exist for the rumors which have so afflicted that Editor's soul have so broken those mounting strains that seemed for a few paragraphs a song of triumph ; but it does not seem to us impossible that men bo acute as the three gentlemen accused, two of whom have known the responsibility of office, may have seen through the absurdity of the ad captandum war cry of the Opposition. Throughout this session the question of existence to any Ministry must be its war-policy. Politicians as experienced as those whom the Ljttelton Times names, cannot fail to see that self-reliance is the only possible policy ; that England possibly may be coaxed to guarantee our loans, but that no sane man can believe that she will send us a single red-coat; that we may make good claim lo be pro vided, at our own expense, but on the most favorable terms, with the last im proved breach-loader, the best ammunition, that her arsenals produce—perhaps even he permitted to recruit military settlera among her discharged soldiers and stalwart agricultural population, but that she will spend no single penny on us, or divert for our defence one single man from her own shores, or from those objects which are in England conceived to be of Imperial in terest. The late home Ministry, with its Tory traditions, might, it is no; wholly inconceivable, have been tempted into a " spirited " New Zealand policy. That a Ministry containing Mr Bright as its most influential member, should be so, is wholly inconceivable. To entertain such a notion for an instant, indicates an ignorance ol English politics in their relation to colonial policy that should at once extinguish the the claim of any person who seriously puts it forward, to any office. But lo return to the recalcitrant Constitutionalists—" Mr Fox, Mr Travers, and even Mr Dillon Bell." These gentlemen may have been won by Mr Stafford's seductive tones ; but it is also possible that they may have been disgusted by their own less acute friends' mad manoeuvres. No Booner had the New Zealand Sun sunk; amid the clouds of adversity— (post nuhila Phcelus, but, alas, "post Phoelum nubila u J —than Mr Yogel, big with a new idea, hurried northwards, offering to the four northern Superintendents a million of money, which we of the south were to have the privilege of paving, upon condition that they freed us from all obligations, In all probability, " hence come the tears that choke that poean strain." The madness of such a scheme cannot be less patent to " Mr Fox, Mr Travers, and even Mr Dillon Bell," than to any one else even of the meanest capacity. If w. raise a million it must be to fight out the war to " the bitter end." What man,endowed with ordinary sense could suppose that this object could be best effected by placing the money in the hands of men irresponsible to one another, and to those

[who raise.it, or indeed to any, one,.to he spent not in accordance with any one plan but according to four several plans; not in any one interest, but in four several, in terests, often as antagonistic to each other as each to the common good. It is useless for t!ie Lyttelton Times to point out that England's blundering colo nial policy is the prime cause of the war This is true enough, but England refuses to accept the responsiblity, and we cannot compel her. It is more useless to remark that " the people of this island feel that the North are not their subj-cts"—no on< ever supposed them the subjects of anv one but Queen Victoria— tk and have no claim upon their sympathies or assistance ; for we all feel they have the strongest claims, and all do sympathize with them It is most useless of all to say, that it is " owing to a political accident they have been united with the North." It is a fact, like original sin, of which we cannot rid ourselves. It is as though the inhabitants of Edinburgh clamored that an unfair share of the public revenue went to fort if v' Portsmouth and the South Coast. We are bound to the North for better and for worse—in the long run, we believe, much for the better, but we are bound. We cannot get aid from England in the form Mr Stafford's opponents demand. His Government has the merit of appreciating the facts and we do not believe that any G-overnment will come in because it shuts its eyes to the facts. The Opposition cr\ is simply an " ignoratio elenchi" an ignoring of a palpable proof. And "Mr Fox, Mr Travers, and even Mr Dillon Bell," are as likely to have seen this as any other men wi(h heads on thtir shoulders.