Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPT. 22, 1891. They Couldn't do it.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 22 September 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPT. 22, 1891. They Couldn't do it.

The Government have had many valuable appointments to make, and how they have made them ? The Speaker of the House was appointed on party lines, then the AgentGeneral, and now the Chairmanship of Committees. It is amusing to note how the party's papers have been struggling to get the Ministry to act decently and in order, bnt it was only a waste of words, they could not possibly do so. The Marton paper, the Mercury, started in support of the powers that be, just previous to the appointment of Mr Kees, made this appeal : —•' We should rejoice to see Ministers rise superior to any personal or " party " spirit and appoint a gentleman who is head and shoulders over the other candidates in his qualifications for the post. The Government have a chance of doing at once a graceful and a sensible thing. Let them cast a deaf ear to "party" wire-pullers, and interested self-seekers and shew themselves generous enough to forgive their quondam supporter's desertion and common -sense enough to select the best candidate." We need hardly say that the gentleman was not Mr Rees, or that the Government have turned anything but a " deaf ear " to the " wire-pullers " of the great Liberal Party. The Post, which cannot be described as an Opposition paper, asserts : — " No Ministry in this colony ever occupied a more contemptible position than that in which the present Government has placed itself in with regard to the Chairmanship of Committees. . . . In fact, they threw down the Chairmanship to be scrambled for, but the '• scrum " did not end as they anticipated — the ball comes out on the wrong side — and then the , pestilent Opposition came into play,

and Mr Rolleston forced them down. He boldly nominated a candidate, Mr Hamlin, to whom the Ministry avlio had appointed Mr Steward as Speaker, their whip, Mr Perceval, as Chairman oi Committees, and who were prepared to accept the most pronounced and inexperienced Party candidate or their own side, had the effrontery to obj ect to as being a Party man . . . We do not pity the Government, whatever happens. Ministers have brought their sufferings on themselves by their want of political honesty and their weak and selfish pondering to Party purposes and Party greed. They deserve whatever retribution may descend upon them."