SIGN OF THE TIMES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume VII, Issue 405, 21 December 1876, Page 3

SIGN OF THE TIMES.

The Wellington Evening- Argus ' one of die staunchest supporters of the Government, during last session now' shows its real sympathies vve r e with the Opposition : —" Some time ago the Government organ fiercely attacked the correspondent of a Southern paper for stating that when the session ended the present Ministry had not a dozen real supporters in the House, and that most of those who had during the session supported them, had gone home anxiously looking forward to next session, when a change of Ministry would Ue possible. We, at the time, expressed oar full concurrence in the opinion expressed by the correspondent, and now very strong corroboration of its truth may be found in the speech recently delivered to his constituents by the member for New Plymouth. Mr. Kelly was one of the Government whips during the late session. He occupied a most confidential position towards ;Yi misters, but it was 110 secret that towards the end of the session he became much dissatified with their conduct and policy—in fact he became tainted with the almost unanimous feeling in the party which it was iris duty to keep together. It must have been a difficult task for Mr. Kelly to perform, not believing in the Ministry himself, and dealing with a majority equally unbelieving, although they were bouud to support the Ministry, in order to carry out certain principles, and prevent the accession to office of men who would have proved fatal to those principles- When a member made a very wry face about swallowing some particularly nauseous mouthful, we can imagine the whip saying, "Yes, I quite agree with you; it is very nasty. We have no confidence in the Government, and it is a shame that we have to take this stuff; but what are we to do? We can't possibly throw these men over till they have done their work, because if we did Sir George Grey might get in, or separation might take place and then the hesitating member, admitting the force of the argument, would follow Mr. Kelly into the lobby. That this was the style of thing, was notorious during the session, and it is made pretty clear by the tone of Mr. Kelly's speech. lutense dissatisfaction with the policy (especially in reference to land) of the Ministry, and apparent want of confidence in Ministers personally pervaded the utterances of the Government whip, when addressing his constituents., We wonder whether Ministers will have prescience enough to interpret the writing on the wall at New Plymouth ? Circumstances are hardly likely ever again to conspire so as to insure the life of a Ministry, irrespective of the capacity of its individual members or its policy collectivelv, as they conspired last session. We believe that a large majority —more than two thirds —of the members vrho last session ?.upported the Government, earnestly desire a change which shall place the Government of the Colony in more capable hands than those which now hold the reins. When, next session, Ministers begin to muster their forces, they will probably be astonished to find that they have really no followers—that those who were content to use them for a purpose last session, now cast them aside as tools which have very imperfectly performed the work required of them."