WELLINGTON.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 14, Issue 713, 30 August 1869, Page 3

WELLINGTON.

[FBOM OUB OWJT COBBESPONDENT ] poES anybody suppose that tho question between Mr Fox and Mr Stafford is the native question ? If so, they must be singularly unobservant. Mr Fox's party is imposed of every pure ultra-provincialist j n the House, together with a few straggling deserters from the anti-provincial ranks. [The deserters may be counted on the fingers. Messrs M'Lean and Qrnjond are fortuitous accessions—gentlemen who have apent all their political career in the ranks nf the centralist party. Personal reasons, juore or less creditable according to the* 40 ruplexion put on them, formed the pounds of their desertion, and thev sit among men who well know that they are not of them, but who gladly welcome theyoies j,ecessary to make a majority. They have a native also in tow, and count six in a di yjejon. Mr Cracroft Wilson, another centralist, has gone crazy about his Grhoorkas, unci supports a Government which he n-eakly believes means to import them ;

lliat makes eight. Mr Bell cannot be counted by either side as a staunch adherent. He has a feminine vanity which Jlr Stafford has woucded, and any little (rifle may turn that wavering politician from liis present to his past friends at any moment. Mr Campbell's successor, Mr Graham, has a loan for Oamaru to support, and provincial loans are not favored U centralists. These are about all the members who follow Mr Fox, and who are not red hot provinciaiists. The rest of the team well know that their innings is not likely to be long, and that they uius*- make the best of it. As a party they are not strong enough to gain or hold power without help ; and the happy accident or chapter of accidents by which they have obtained it does nut seem likely to recur, [therefore we watched for the budget with anxiety. We kuew there wa* enough of the central element in the enemy's camp to prevent any outrageous proposal*. Neither Auckland nor Otago could very well make Mr Ormond swallow a loan of £500,00U for each ; yet, of course, loans were the only objects of the ultra-provincialist policy. On the whole, I hey hare not frightened their bird, lut have shown fome address and caution in the buiget The expenditure outside of the actual sum required for the war, which wdl be added to the indebtedness of the Colony, is conhilerable, but hardly what wo expected. It is thus made up — Overdrafts, one-fifth Provincial revenue...£2">o,OJ'j Otago loan 60,000 Sorth Island roads (!) 50,000 froviuciul Sinking funds 45,000

Debts for purely Provincial purposes ...£395,U0U Besides this sum, which we may rouudly state at £400,000, there is the amount vo led, but for which no appropriation is made, of £150,000 for the Imperial regiment and the Grhoorkas, the last of whom cannot be in time to help us this summer, and the first take no part in the fighting ; and there is the amount of Treasury bills already floated by Mr Vogel of £150,000, and the authority to float £50,000 more. Sj only £750,000 (three quarters of a million) is added to the debt of the Colony. But unhappily we do not yet know whe tber £ISO,UOJ, which, is provided for, will suffice to put down tho rebellion. It is a jerious and sad reflection that all this is a jnodilied estimate. .Next year we shall, if Mr Fox can still keep the helm, hear of greater things.

The Government and the Opposition are !0 nearly balanced that the least hitch might at any moment upset the Governini'tit coach. Even to keep it on its wheels now, every measure has to be carefully trimmed lest any rough edge should offend the susceptibid:ies of Government supporters. Mr Fox cannot afford to frighten or annoy one, and when every vote is of so luch value, lion, members become singu larly hard to please. This doubtless chafes the Treasurer, who is suffering already from an irritating malady ; and the Premier, ttko is never very dull of offence. The Opposition, however, forms a convenient object on which to spend their ire, and the most bitter personal attacks emanate daily from the Treasury benches. Mr Stafford lias a good case. He is not bound to help IhFox, yet he has done so on two most important occasions. He has only twic~ fceasured swords with him, and on both occasions the majority against him was so "nail as to justify the course he took. The first was bis amendment on the 1500 troops, which was the same as the Government afterwards were constrained to adopt from a supporter, except in the detail of 'lie Commissioners. Mr Stafford have carried his araendmedt if Government had Hot altered their figures ; and as regards Commissioners, does any one suppose that lw o or more are required for the purpose "Submitting our appeal to the Colonial Pffiee ? So far, Mr Stafford cannot be ac °used of faction, and still less on the fthoorka vote, in which he was oniy beateu V three, two of whom were his own supPorters, voting against Idm, it is said, upon an old promise to oblige Mr Wilson, but *l)ose votes just turned the scale, as they counted four in the division. Mr Vogel lo °Bely stated that Mr Stafford had spent Wf.a-million without appropriation, when fought to have known that Mr Stafford M done nothing of the kind ; nor, indeed, !P e "t sixpence in that way. He said it wisely to give point to his remark that the of accounts by which charges long a =° paid could be brought forward so as to J***e it appear so, was ruinous. 13ut he °Und it convenient to allow the statement He repeated all over the Colony during r fortnight which elapsed before it could When that moment arrived, ™course he was at once charged with this ! r °Bßiai9-Btatementj and a committee (the

second applied for (his so?sion) proposed to bring him to book Mr Vogel remembered how Colonel Ilaultain had exposed his ims statements about the defence estimates in his committee, and he did his best to avoid the same thing again. He refused the committee, and, when insisted upon, declared it a vote of want of confidence. Thd stigma of flinching from making good his words sufficed, and Mr Hall left him to satisfy his conscience as he could. It was not a question for a Government to stand upon, nor for a party to turn it out upon. But these incidents are not faction fights — or at least not factious opposition. Mr Fox

is alternately storming and whining about! the (abstractiveness of his opponents, but we think with very little justice. Does he forget his three votes of want of confidence iast year, brought forward, wrangled over for weeks, when the majority against him, from 7 to 9 every time, showed that he was not supported by the House? Does he forget the morning when he came into the chamber almost at noon, and found his followers drowsily talking against time, and still opposing every item of the estimates ? or does he think that people forget that he applauded that behaviour? At least he cannot compare his conduct last year to his own advantage with Mr Stafford's moderate line in opposition now. We observe that he threatened the House with dissolution if it dismissed hi 3 bills, and bitterly taunted his enemies with obstructivenes3 Well, how far can dissolution hurt Mr Stafford ? It is said not at all. Mr Vogel has already a requisition from his consfci tuency to resign his seat. Last year he taunted Mr Stafford with the same thing, and demanded his resignation at the end of the session. Will he himself resign]

now? The truth is that there is no ground for any reproach from the Ministerial benches at all. The House has not yet been three months in session. Three weeks were taken up by the debate on the vote which placed Mr Fox in power. Six weeks were ljst while Mr Fox was maturing his policy, and flinching from a contest; and the dates on which Mr M'Lean's resolutions were put to the House and the financial statement made are not so remote that the Opposition can be accused of wasting time. Moreover, Mr Fox has brought down an astounding number of bills this session, which have all followed the budget, and the interlude daring which the various policies of the Cave were discussed was proclaimed by Mr Fox himself long before Mr M'Lean flinched from the division which must have defeated his proposals Cor two regiments. And the celebrated postponement of the £150,000 resolution —which, when withdrawn, had no chance whatever of being carried in the House — was the doing of the Fox Cabinet, and not of the Opposition. Mr Fox is not either a generous enemy nor a fair politician. He taunts Mr Stafford in the most insulting language upon his defeat every time he rise.-i, and his reproaches are invariably those which he has always been considered himself to merit, and, this session at least, his opponents have not deserved.