The Mace Bearer.

Kaikoura Star, Volume XIV, Issue 758, 24 July 1894, Page 4

The Mace Bearer.

The Prohibitionist appears to view anything emanating from the Premier with the greatest aversion. In an article headed ‘ Dumb-driven cattle ’ the Prohibitionist applies the lash to the Premier, with great vehemence, over the appointment of Col. Fraser as Sergeant-at-Arms, and jeers at the thirty-nine Members who supported him. We agree, entirely, with our contemporary in its condemnation of the Premier's action, viewing Col. Fraser's appointment as a most iniquitous one, and a glaring and flagrant infraction of the spirit of the Disqualification Act. Much, however, as the Premier is to blame in the matter, the Members who supported him in this miserable affair are a thousand times more to blame. Their culpability has not a single qualifying feature. The Premier was, doubtless, under a debt of obligation to Col, Fraser, and he strove to discharge it. Though it might be highly improper to liken the forty to “ Ali Baba and the thirty-nine purloiners,” there are many who view the transaction in that light. The Premier should not have treated the matter io a party spirit, but if he insisted upon that course then his supporters should have said, “ We will assist you in every means in our power to carry Liberal laws into effect, but we draw the line, most emphatically, at such an unholy affair as this.” They were masters of the situation, not the Premier, and must have won bad they stuck to their guns. They are, we reiterate, a thousand times more highly censurable than the Premier for having yielded to him.