A MISCELLANEOUS PARTY:

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 700, 15 July 1869, Page 3

A MISCELLANEOUS PARTY:

. (Wellington Correspondent of Xelson Examiner.) There never was, I should think, a Legislature more divided on a variety of questions of public interest than the pre sent House of Representatives of New , Zealand. Perhaps the only question oi , any magnitude upon which so large n majority could have been obtained, was the one of want of confidence in the Staf ford Ministry. From one c.&uso and an other arrears of dislike and mistrust had been accumulating, and, like the wrath of Tarn o'Shanter's wife, had been nursed to keep them warm ; while the recollection of good service done had been allowed to vani«h. There wera members in the House who had not f.Tgotton Air St-uford's desertion of Mr Weld. There were others who had never forgiven him for what they considered the charlatanism of the saving of the £240,000. There were tl-oso who still resented the position in which he had placed the House when, armed with the promise of dissolution, he had coerced it into the granting of supplies by a species of politieal terrorism. There were others who, upon many occasions, had been personally offened by his overbearing and un conciliatory address. Then there were all ihe Provincialists who regard him as an enemy of these institutions; and even a certain portion of the Colonialists, who feel themselves sold by him because, when he might have struck an t ifuctive blow, he hung back, and exhibited a total want of courage and principle. With these, were naturally to be found in the same ranks those who thought that they had been long enough excluded from a participation in the conduct of public business — all the hunters after places and profit, big and lit!le. Ihe Hawke's Bay men' bors smarting under the slight put upon their champion, Mr M'Lean ; the recently elected members for Southern constituencies, profoundly ignorant of the native question, but pledged by their constituents to turn out a Ministry whom they regarded as the cause of a constant drain upon the re sources of the Middle Island ; and a motley assemblage of others, some acting from one motive and some from another, bu< I none of them agreed upon anyone point excepting dislike to Mr Stafford and his Ministry. As representing this feeling, Mr Fox's motion caught up and united all the ele ments of opuosition j and thus, f>r a time at all events, it has secured a majority, and a triumph. But tin re were members o! the House who voted for it in sadness, and with a feeling of humiliation. To these men, and among them are some of the most earnest men in the House, the whole thing looked like a mere party battle —the ordinary struggle for place that may occu ! when a country is in a 6tate of peace, bin a melancholy and humiliating exhibition of selfishness and discord at a time when universal depression and insecurity prevail, when outrages that freeze the blood are of daily occurrence, and the country totters upon the brink of an abyss into which it is just as likely to fall as not. To these men it. seemed that this was no time fer a mere fight for place, and that the proper course for anyone to take who disapproved ol what was being done and could suggest something better, was for him to table his views, and invite the opinion of the House upon the merits of his suggestion. But Mr Fox knew too well this would not answer. He knew as well as anyone that his own views were those of a small minority, and although Ministers had given notice of their intention to move a series of resolutions expressive of their views of the proper course to be adopted, he and . his party preferred to evade this discussion, ' and to traverse the proceeding by a motion of want of confidence. They knew that ' this would have no other result than that which it had, to produce a long debate, three-fourths of which consists of personal charges and rejoinders. They knew that it would lead to a sacrifice of time and an exhibition of weakness, without advancing us one inch nearer to the true principles by which the courso of public business should be governed. But it offered the best prospect of placing them upon the much-coveted Ministerial benches,and they accordingly preferred it. It is clear, however, although these narty tactics, are for a time successful, that the day of reckoning must come sooner or later. Mr Fox may succeed in getting a team together, but when he has got them he must tell the House how he intends to deal with those most serious questions ivhich demand a prompt and immediate answer. Is he going to prosecute military operations after the fashion in which they are at present being carried on ?. Is he going to fight, or withdraw and stand on The defensive? What attitude will he assume towards the great question of selfreliance? And above all, how does lie propose to find the money which, for one purpose or another, the Colony requires, in addition to its ordinary revenue? Those are questions the answer to which brook no delay; and when Mr Fox places his answers on the table of the House, we shall see what will become of the preseat ".No-confi-dence" majority. It is commonly reported that Mr Fox will bo Premier, and that Mr Donald M'Lean, who seconded his motion, will bo Native Minister. How will the Middle Island like this ? A Premier with a direct interest in the expenditure of men and money about Wanganui; a second in command with a similar interest in Hawke's Bay, and unlimited power of expending money—the whole machinery worked by the Superintendent of an insolvent province, pulling the wires bchii.d the scenes. If the Middle Island members stand this sort of thing, they must be men of great forbearance aud unbounded trust.