OUR LORDS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 139, 12 June 1879, Page 4

OUR LORDS.

{Lyttelton Times.] THE HOK. JOHR HALL. Mr. John Hall is a public man of whom the Colony, and especially Canterbury which owns him, has a right to be proud. Nature bas not endowed him with excess in some parts and *"* ilh deficiency in others, but she has made him good all round. The lantern in the lighthouse of his mind is not of the flashing order, and it does not revolve. Momentary brightness does not suddenly burst forth and as suddenly disappear, bnt the light abed is fixed, permanent, and equable. Mr Hall is one oi those men who are born lo public life. In the nursery we can imagine tbat he preferred statistics to sugarplums, and playing at Ministers to playing at marbles. As a schoolboy he never could have been so happy as with a " Hansard," and his bolirjaye must have been passed in moving for and preparing imaginary returns. He grew op a complete Blue Book in breeches. But Mr Hall is far more than a mere political cyc'opasdia. He ia a man fit for any public business, and he delights in work. He will sit on any number of local Boards, and only succumbs to the physical impossibility of sitting in two places at once. He is ever ready ia his place in Parliament, and ij as much at home io the clerical alteration of a clause in a Municipal Bill as in the midst of a Ministerial crisis. Whatever may be the subject, and however long ths sitting, Mr Hall is never at a loss, and is seldom to be caught tripping. He is not an orator, and is not given to declamation, but he is a good debater, and what he says is not easily answered He doss not dash into a subject and then dash out again, — with great gallantry and greater indiscretion, gaining nothing and losing much. He knows when to attack and how to retreat, Hib industry is unwearied, and his energy is indomitable. In 1868, when Parliament was in sessioD, Mr Hall, who was io the Stafford Ministry, and was then in tbe House of Representatives, undertook, in addition to his own proper share of the work, the? duty of the Colonial Treasurer, who was then in England. Part of that duty was to bring in the Budget, in the face of a strong and violent Opposition, led by Sir W. (iheu Mr) Fox, and Sir (then Mr) Julius Yogel. Mr Hall was overworked and suffering from severe illness, He rose from a sick bed aod ably performed a tcsk which would bave taxed the powers of leading statesmen in good health. It waa a remarkable instance of mental resolution compensating for bodily weakness. Had; it not been for iii health, and his consequent retirement from the House of Representatives, Mr Hall would long ago have been Premier, Although he would not probably bave had the grasp of mind and the boldness to create and launch the Public Works policy of 1870, he was in many respects better qualified than Sir Julius Yogel to direct and administer it when launched. At the same time we do not intend to impute to Mr Hall any unconcern before 1870 in the formation of railways, jit ia mainly to him, as one of the Canterbury Provincial Executive in 1865, that we owe the commencement of our great South railway. Mr Hall has been five times a Minister of the Crown. He was in the Eox Ministry of 1856, in the Stafford Ministry of 1866, in the Fox Ministry .of 1872, in the Waterhouse Ministry lof the same year, and in the Atkinson Ministry of 1876. But he waa in none of these Ministries more than a few months, except in the Stafford Ministry of 1866, in which he was a member jor nearly three years. As he left jno Ministry of which he became a member from political disagreement, and! as it cannot be said with truth that ; in joining any Ministry he sacrificed his principles, his Ministerial career would show that there was no distinctive policy in those times on either side; of the House. There was no doubt one exception in the case of lhe Stafford Native pclicy of 1869 as compared with that of Mr Fox. But the events which had taken place between 1869 and 1872 obviated any possible objection on that ground to the accession of Mr Hall to the Cabinet of Mr Fox in 1872. • A man would have been mad who in that year advocated a return to the war policy. Mr Hall was not lesss able in departmental than in parliamentary affairs. He had a remarkable faculty for the despatch of business, for methodical arrangement, and for organisation. His chief attention was devoted to the Postal and Telegraph Departments, and be brought both to a state of great efficiency. The Telegraph Department and in the face of trying difficulties, it soon became eminently creditable to Mr Hall's administrative ability. Mr HaU is an excellent judge

of character and qualification, and is very successful in the selection of public servants. That is a gift essential to good administration. As a member of tbe Canterbury Provincial Council, and in the Provincial Executive, Mr Hall has been zealous, able, and useful. It would be difficult, take him all in all, to find a better type of politician.