Public Opinion.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1614, 25 September 1874, Page 369

Public Opinion.

MR VOGEL AND MR STAFFORD. The Timaru Herald devotes a trenchant article to the alleged overture made by Mr Vogel to Mr Stafford. The writer asks:—" Is it proposed that party, votes, support, parasites, organs, and all the adjuncts of the Premiei's benignant rule are to be transferred as well ? If so, we do not wonder at Mr Stafford's refusal." The article thus proceeds:—" Our own opinion is that when in 1873 Mr Stafford relinquished the prominent public position which he so long had held, he did so in all sincerity, and has never desired to resume it. It may be well be imagined how, after a continuous service of nearly five years, he needed rest himself, and his private affairs required his attention. For it must be remembered that while in office Mr Stafford worked incessantly and unpretendingly, and did not make his high position a mere means of bettering his private circumstances, and indulging private tastes. Year after year he remained in Wellington, fagging away in his departments, and doing the work of half a dozen under-secretaries; if he was obliged to leave the seat of government on any pressing family business, he did so at his own expense, and for as short a time as possible; and on those rare occasions when he deemed it necessary for the public interests that he should visit places at a distance, he travelled quietly and expeditiously, and conducted whatever business he had in hand, as methodically and assiduously as if it were merely part of the routine of his office. He had no pleasure trips to Melbourne, no triumphant progresses in carriages and four, no dining tours, no relaxation, no display. He kept his private capacity of a leading settler entirely separate from His public one of a Minister of the Crown, and was no doubt a heavy loser pecuniarily, by his service to the State. So that when a fitting opportunity arrived, he was probably very glad to retire from the front in politics. The fact is so well known that there is no impertinence in referring to it, indeed Mr Stafford mentioned it himself in his speech to the Heathcote electors, that he has recently acquired a large estate near Christchurch, which alone, in these volcanic times, Would be sufficient to absorb his attention, attd to render a public career or residence at Wellingion impossible. And when, to these private causes, we add the weariness of such a strife as he has long been engaged in, the disgust of being the Unwilling witness of corruption and malfeasance, which he had no power to check, and the conviction that any further efforts on his part to oppose, or keep in bounds the reckless schemes of the adventurer at the head of affairs, would be not only useless but perhaps injurious, we have before us more than sufficient reasons for the retirement into honorable seclusion of any public man. We do not for a moment believe that Mr Stafford ever had the least idea of ruining his reputation by associating himself with Mr Vogel and his crew. The melancholy wreck which Mr Hall made of his fair fame in 1872 by doing so must have been enough in itself to warn him off the rocks» had his inclinations led him thither, as we are sure they never didi We cannot understand why he should not be allowed to retire into private life if he pleases. Jle has served the country long and faithfully, and is fairly entitled to repose. He took neither money nor honors from the State, and is under no obligation whatever to it; and the colony has no reason to complain if, after occupying an arduous and anxious post for several

years, and meeting only with abuse and treachery, he at last relinquishes the thankless task. In course of time we have no doubt he will be seen in the van again, and he may very likely be called upon to influence New Zealand's destiny in the future, to as great an extent as he has in the past. But we, in common with all who respect and regard him as a highminded man and statesmanlike and able ruler, must hope sincerely that he will never enter the arena of politics again, if he cannot do so in decent company, and on the shoulders of his friends." j j