THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue XIV, 15 July 1879, Page 4

THE MINISTERIAL CRISIS.

The following is from the " Kangitikei Advocate":— We take it for granted that all our readers have bf ard the news of the resignation of Mr Btllaoce of his office of Colonial Treaearer, and have read the telegram coDtajoing what is evidently hia own account of the circumstance* which led to that event. We Bay evidently his own account : first, because bis intimate connection wi h the *' Chronicle," in which the account appeared is very well known ; and aecondly, because of the three Ministers present, it is perfectly certain that neither Sir George Grey nor Mr Sheeban famished an account which is clearly intended to give a specially favorable impression of Mr Ballauce's action. If this ba so, it seea>3 to us that be has for ever put himself out of the society of gentlemen If there is one thing more sacred than another, it is the inviolability of cocfidential communications ; and if there is one place more sacred than aLother, it \b the chamber where the members of a Government meet to discuss Cabinet quesiioDs. No political circle would, we imagine, be so weak as ever to admit Mr Ballance to its confidence, if be baa really been guilty on this occasion of betraying what passed ia the Cabinet, of which he was a member, to the editor of a friendly newspaper, without the permission of his colleagues. It is, however, too much of a piece wiih his action when he apostatised from the Atkinson party, with which he remained on terms of the closest intimacy almoßt to the very day when he threw birneelf into the arms of Sir George Grey. His beginning and his ending have been very much alike, and both of them entirely characteristic of the man. When we first read of the fracas between Sir George Grey and Mr Ballacce, we gave vent to irreprefsible laughter at the ludicrous scene described, and it was only when the reco'lection flashed upon ub of the miserable poiition into which the colony had been brought by these men that our mirth ceased. The story, however, as recorded by Mr Baliance in the " Chronicle," is really very funny. After some alteroation about the manner in which the ■alary of Mr Fox should be charged on the estimates, Sir George Grey declared that Mr Ballance persistently insulted him, and "made him blush." Picture this to yourself ! Mr Ballance made Sir George Gey blush I We don't deny that Sir George Grey has done many things for whic : he ought to blush j but that anybody, even Mr Ballance, has made him blush at any time daring the last fifty years, we do Dot believe. A photograph of Sir George Grey bluahiog, would be worth sending to the Sydney Exhibition ; people would go a long way to see it, and if Mr Ballance really made him do it, be will rank for the rest of hia days as a conjuror of the highest rack. Mr Ballance, no douht softened by the blush, backed out a little and tried to pacify bis ezciied colleague; be plea led humbly enough that the' natter in dispute •' was of little conetquence — it was only a rough draft, and might be altered." On this the Premier, nothing conciliated by the concession, got -'very angry," when Mr Ballance got bis back up also, and defied him; declaring " it was a departmental matter and he would do as he liked." " The Premier could not hear of such •> thing. He moet have control over every item, and wanted the Treasury for himself." Mr Ballance said, "In that case I bad better resign." "Do so," shouted the exasperated ohief. "Do so, and let all resign. We must both resign." "Be it so," said Me Ballance meekly, and he turned to leave the room. " Leave the room/ shouted the Premier, in » loud and angry tone. "I won't," said Mr Ballance, plucking up courage, " till I please to." " Then I'll send a messenger to pat you out," responds Sir George, and out he bolts. A few seconds afterwards a messenger comes in to effect his forcible ejectment, bat is prevented by Mr fcheehan, who seems to have filled the office of bottle holder, one no doubt very consistent with bis habits. Then Mr Ballance seems to have gone off to the Chronicle office, and given to its editor & true, fall, and particular account of all that had been done and said in the Cabinet chamber. Was there ever such an indecent exhibition ? Imagine the scene and the actors: Sir George Grey, the great Pro-cooßul and Premier of New Zealand, on the one eiJe, and hia colleague, Mr Ballance, Colonial Treasurer, on the other ! flow the persual of the Chtonicle account will edify the gentlemen on the Stock Exchange, London, before whom oar Government will shortly Iwve again to make its bow. They will no doubt say, c.a Dr Watts ■aid: — "It is a Bhocking eight, When children of one family, Fall out, and chide and fight. Sir George Grey is very fond of precedents drawn from the history of the Old World. We fear he may search all the records in vain for a parallel to this. It is oof long since Lord Carnarvon and Earl Derby found it impossible to get on with their self. willed chief, bat did Lord Beaconsfield tell them "they made him blush ?" Bid he get very angry, and shout out to them to leave the room ? And when they declined did he go out for Policeman X, and send him into the Cabinet to drag oat his recalcitrant colleagues by the scruff of the neck f Did the ejected Ministers jump into a Oftb ftfid rash off to Printing-house

Square, to tell the editor of The Times newspaper bow they bad been washing their dirty linen, and what a tremendous row they hed had in the Cabinet ! No ! they were gentlemen, an I knew bow to behave themselves as such. It is probable, however, that we have not yet heard the whole of this discreditable affair. The writer of the account iti the Chronicle declares that an hour before the Premier sent for Mr Ballance (to pick a quarrel with him apparently), the latter received a telegram from Colonel Whitmore at Auckland telling him " that an Auckland paper has published an 'extra' containing sensational news about a rupture in ihe Cabinet," and so unsuspicious waa Mr Balance of the rod which Sir George Grey had in pickle for him, that he telegraphed back, telling him to " »ive it an unqualiGed denial." It will be interesting to know, when it is found out, as bo doubt it *»iil bp, who sent this telegram to tha Auckland paper. Was it Sir George, or was it Mr Bdlhviee ? Did the latter go to the Cabinet that morning to yet up a row wiih Sir George, that he might h«ve plausible excuse fur quitting the sinking ship ? Ha J he carefully arranged the kind of red rog which was likely to get Sir George's "dander" op ? The fact is, we don't believe tbat Mr Balance's resignation really turned on any such small matter as the allocatiou of Mr Private Secretary Fox's salary. It is a week since Btories were about of a serious difference between Sir George and Mr B-illaoce, touching the authorship of a certain article in the Chronicle, in which Sir George waft accused of " skulking," at Kawau, and playing the part of a " coward" in reference to native affairs. It is weeks since it was the common talk that Sir George Grey and Mr Ballance did not speak in the street. It was weeks since people were saying that there was a conspiracy among the members of the Ministry to get rid of Sir George, and that Mr Ballance was vain enough to believe, and his friends were fools enoagh to flatter him, tbat he might himself become the head of a new Ministry. And for weeks past there have been sigos that the ship was breaking up. Those signs must have been still more apparent to Mr Ballance than they were to the outside public. The intercourse between himself and his chief which culminated in the indecent exhibition of Suurday last, cannot have been cf a very pleasant character. Men don't part over-night sieging "Auld Lang Syne," Bnd the first thing next morning send for a police to seize their guest by the collar and haul him out of the house; a kind of "personal Government " which implies relations of a by no means affectionate kind. 000 point in the case we have not yet referred to: It appears from another telegram tbat in the course of the afternoon, after Mr Ballance had resigned, Sir George Grey began to realise the awkwardness of his position in having to meet Parliament without a Treasurer So he ate a slice of humble pie (a very small one, it appears, for there is no mention of any apology for his outrageous behaviour), and he wrote Mr Ballance a letter, requesting . im to reconsider his resignation, urging him by such motives as the "imminence of a Maori war, and the pending settlemant of other important questions." Well, we must say that if Mr Ballance had been forgiving enough to take his seat at the same table with a colleague who bad ordered a masseoger to drag him neck and heel a out of the room, he must be a much more amiable man than most people give him credit for being. But what a humiliation for Sir George to have to swallow that piece of humble pie, and get nothing by it I The picture which the whole affair naturally presents to most people's minds, is that of ''The sinking ship." The total breakdown of Sir George and Mr Sheehan's native policy; the imminence of a Maori war a few months only after we were told in the Governor's speech that peace " waß at last made;" the general growing feeling among Sir George's supporters that his grand stumping speeches were a simple delueioo, and that none of the great reforms he had promised would ever be accomplioliod by him or his colleagues ; the failure of Mr Balance's financial schemes, of hia Beer Bill and his Companies Tax, and his inability to do so simple a thing as to collect the land tax in the course of a whole financial yearthe cooling down of the ardour of even the highly-subsidised sections of the Press which had sold themselves for a mess of Government porridge; these and many other signs must have been manifested to the most careless observer, and much more to the eyes of a Ministry which had gained office by a fluke, and retained it in spite of a shameless breach Jof its pledges * * * * Butnor says that some of the " chips in porridge" who had exhibited themselves asJSir George's "man Fridays," will be foisted into the vacant seats in the Ministery. Mr Moss is mentioned as Colonial Treasurer, and Mr Rees as Attorney-General. If Sir George is really bent on making responsible Government a farce in New Zealand, he can try it. But at a crisis like this we are much mistaken if the Legislature does not insist upon the men of its own choice, not that of Sir George Grey, being placed in power. "We have had enough of his " personal government," and it is time that men of practical experience and common sense should take the place of adventurers and theorists whose studies have gone no deeper than the pages of a halfcrown magazine, or the leading articles

of the colonial newspaper Press. Since the late Ministry took office, the colony has been rapidly receding from the great prosperity to which it had attained during the last dozen years. The measure of difference may be gauged by the threatening revival of native hostilities as the direct consequence of Sir George Grey's vainglorious policy ; by the financial condition of the colony, and the necessity for increased taxation which looms in the immediate fu f ure, as the result of Mr Balianc*'fl manipulation of the Treasury books i\ever has? the political outlook been less satisfactory than it is at this moment.