Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1872. POLITICAL MAGNETISM.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1424, 10 September 1872, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri, TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1872. POLITICAL MAGNETISM.

Tjje Evening Post recently described our evening; contemporary as possessing "no politics;" but the term "variable" would have been more appropriate. Variable, yet not eccentric, for its variations, like those of the compass, are strictly in obedience to the great law of attraction. When no Ministers have been present in Napier the index of the Telegraph has followed, with some degree of freedom, the strong current of public feeling; but when the late Minister of Public Works (with accompanying advertisements) was on the spot, the effect of the counteracting influence of " locai attraction" has always received an apt and beautiful illustration. Potent as this influence has been, it resided not in the magnet itself; but in the subtle energy with which it was temporarily dinged. ]n office, the Minister might compel the faithless needle to deviate to any point desired : out of office—de magnetized—■ his influence has departed; the trembling needle disregards the object of its late pursuit, and reverts to its original direction A striking instance of the truth of this theory has been given since Mr. Stafford moved his want of confidence resolutions. In the Telegraph a few days ago no praise was too exalted for Mr. M'Lean—no language could express the extent of his influence over the natives. He was " the peg on which the Ministry were hanging," holding " a position of power that no one in this country should occupy. A word from him determines the fate of the count!y," and he "has fully earned the high opinion entertained of him by the House of Representatives." This was on Saturday, August 24. On Saturday, Sept. 7, Mr. IVJ 'Lean's refusal to join an} 7 Ministry under the leadership of Mr. Stafford "appears to have had little, if any, effect when the House divided. . . It is of little importance who the Native Minister may be, provided the subordinate officers are not removed. . . It is simply absurd to suppose that the Colony is indebted wholly and solely to the good offices of one man for the maintenance of peace." Of course it is—monstrously absurd; we have always maintained that it was; but to the Telegraph the discovery comes with wondrous novelty—and, we doubt not, would never have been made had Mr. M'Lean continued in power. With the aureola of office surrounding his head he was a demigods-" shorn of his beams" he once more becomes an ordinary mortal—the inferior (we blush to write it) of his Subordinate officers ! " How are the mighty fallen!" The magnetic phenomena to which we have already alluded are both curious and instructive. It has been observed that a great electric or magnetic disturbance will sometimes instantaneously reverse a ship's ' compass —the result being that the deluded skipper puts his ship about and sails on the oppo.-ite course. We have seen a similar thing in journalism. The same political flash which overthrew the Stafford Ministry reversed the poles of the Wellington Independent's needle,

and that misnomered vessel has ever since taken a direction diametrically opposite to its former course. Sudden changes like this, however, are rarely met with; but for those who would master the theory of magnetic variation no better illustration could be found than the compass of the Daily Telegraph