The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume III, Issue 7, 10 November 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1877.

A telegram m our last issue recorded the fact, that the' House; divided on the" "no confidence" motion, and 39 votes were recorded on each side. The Speaker, as is usual on such occasions,, saved the Government from actual defeat by giving his easting vote m their favor. Mr McLean, thereupon, moved " That the Government, jaot having a majority, should resign." Undoubtedly this is the proper tiling

for the Government to do. When a Ministry are only saved from defeat by the casting vote they cannot be said to have the confidence of the Souse. But what we cannot well understand is Mr McLean's motion that the Government should resign. Mr McLean must know very little of the etiquette of politics to table such a motion after such a division. It is understood that .after only just holding their own. on the crucial question of no confidence the Government will retire, and if the Opposition member had any good taste he would allow them to retire gracefully, of their own accord. But no ! it is the same bad blood, bad taste, and bad morals aft initio adjinem. The Grey Ministry have been most unfairly treated from the first. They came into office determined to make that revision m the Land law.s and finances of the colony which has been long urgently required ; they came determined to prime away the rank outgrowths of the civil service and apply public expenditure to the supply of public wants ; they came determined to revise the bad work of the contin- j uous Ministry, which, m one or other of its Protean shapes, had been for years battening on , the sweets of office and, of late, shirking much of its responsibilities. They came with all these good intentions but were prevented from fulfilling any of them. The Opposition, which had grown fat and lazy m office,, suddenly grew lithe and active out of . it ; and a burning desire to re-possess . the salaried benches made them oblivious to all .shame. They bolstered up charges against the Government and impeached them for their very virtues, and having carried half the House with them m the expression of a premature censure, they move, forthwith, that the Government should resign. This is tantamount to giving a parting guest a valedictory kick. It is an ungenerous and a tyrannical use of the power which for a brief moment the Opposition feel themselves to possess, were this motion, however, to be lost by a good majority it would be equivalent to a reversal of a number of adverse votes on the late no confidence motion and would justify the Ministry m retaining office. Such a result is certainly not contemplated* Dy the Opposition. If an appeal to the country is the outcome of the present situation there is not much cause for regret. Such an appeal will result m Sir George Grey's party being more firmly established m the House. And as for Major Atkinson and some of his followers, — they will, have to face out the obliquy of many misdeeds before the great tribunal of the people. And after they have gone through the familiar operations of unsaying much that they have said, and throwing quantities of dust m the popular eyes, they may still hear the verdict that they are not fit and proper persons to represent the people whom they have deceived.