The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1879.

Kumara Times, Issue 926, 18 September 1879, Page 2

The Kumara Times. Published Every Evening. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 1879.

When Sir George Grey and his thirtythree supporters on the defeat of the Ministry obtained the consent of his Excellency the Governor to appeal to the country—on a similar principle that a drowning man will grasp at a straw—they doubtless considered, and with reason, that the glowing and seductive eloquence of their leader, combined with Ministerial influences throughout the colony, would more than counterbalance the weight of the large majority in the House opposed to their administration. That this theory has been carried out by Sir George Grey during the recent general elections can but be admitted even by his most strenuous supporters or opponents. One day in Auckland, another in Bunedin, thence by special train to Invei cargill, we find the Premier, even at great personal discomfort.advocatinghis cause, not solely on his own individual behalf, but in support of members imbu>& with views in which not Liberalism, but Greyism, predominated. From another part of the colony we learn, throligh the blundering of Government officials, that the claims of a certain candidate would receive favorable consideration, even if not elected, provided he supported the Ministry in office. This is but a slight insight into the direct and iudirect ministerial influences that have flowed as an under-current through the late elections. And yet on the face of all this, the boasted majority with which the Grey Ministry were to return to power exists only at present in the imagination of the ministerial journals. Of the thirl y-three members (which, of course, included the Ministry) who voted in favor of the Government on the No-confidence motion exactly one-third, (of whom ♦right sought re-election) are now not numbered amongst, the representatives of the colony in the General AssemMv. The result of the elections has served to strengthen the opinion we previously eVpressed of the ultimate and impending fate of the- present Ministry, a* even allowing for die sake of argument that the appeal to the country has returned to the House an equal division of parties, it miiat be remembered that

there are many Liberals, in the true sense of the word, who are strongly opposed to the Ministry as at present constituted. Under these circumstances ve contend that the result of the. elections has not given the Ministry a working majority in the House, and, weak also as it is in debating power, there is little probability of its term of ■ffice bi-ing of long duration. That the Liberal measures ostensibly placed before the country by the Grey Ministry will be carried out, there is little oubt; but the leader who will com-m-ind a majority in the House to give effect to this policy in its entirety will far nmre probably be the Hon. John Hall than the. present Premier of New Zealand, Sir George Grey.