THE Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2,1880. THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE.

Manawatu Times, Volume IV, Issue 44, 2 June 1880, Page 2

THE Manawatu Times.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 2,1880. THE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE.

" Words are things, and a drop of ink falling lika dew upon a thought, produces that which, makes thousands, perhaps millions think."

Somebody has said that speech was given to man wherewith to conceal his thoughts. We are not aware whether that cynical somebody had Vice-Regal Addresses m his mind's eye when be made his paradoxical remark ; nor yet, whether deliverers of Vioe-E-cgal Addresses are indebted to him for the hint, aud merely Act thereon. However, a careful perusal of the Speech from the Throne by His Excellency Sir Hercules convinces us that— while its origin is doubtful, its utilisation is general. Eor ambiguity of expression, general vagueness, and a plethora of nothingness commend us to Opening Speeches, of which this last is a unique specimen. Fully a fourth of the oration took tlie shape of a .doleful Jeremiad anent the wave of depression which has just swept over the Land, a circumstance that unfortunately wns not heard from Gubernatorial lips for the first time. As a fit ting pendant to tho lugubrious past, Sir Hercules, announced the disagreeable fact that "luxuries must be curtailed and expenditure decreased," while the public works of the colony already constructed must be made more reproductive. Whether tho luxuries ordered for curtailment are to be Ministerial, public, or private, is not at all clear ; but it is a matter for hope that m the general distribution of sack-cloth and ashes His Excellency's Advisers will not be so self-denying as to forget themselves. We presume the way m which the Public Works will be made more reproductive is by the levying of an increased tariff for freight or travelling upon the Government railways. Not a word was said] about that legalised fraud and monster of injustice — the p re ~ sent Education Act, and it nev er dawned upon the !sapient gentlemd o " of whom Sir Hercules Robinson is the official mouthpiece that an imposition of sohool foes would not only provide a good round sum towards the deficit of revenue, but compel those, well able, to provide education for their children, now given at the expense of the State. Custom demands that the opening of each Session should be ushered m by a Vice-Regal Speech, and custom supposes that the official oration shall "contain the Ministerial measures to be introduced, but then there is a very a wide difference between the fact and the supposition. Had the document read last Friday been intended to be a recapitulation Qf past events, the best that oould be said of it would be that where it was not garbled it, was hazy and incomprehensible. To our religious mind the only intelligible and credittable sentence uttered was — "And I pray that the Almighty will so guide and order your deliberations that they maj* be productive of happiness and prosperity to the people of New Zealand." To this prayer we devoutly sayVAMBN".