THE "LYTTELTON TIMES" AND THE GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4265, 20 November 1874, Page 3

THE "LYTTELTON TIMES" AND THE GOVERNMENT.

0 The following is the article in the Lyttelton Times, to which we referred yesterday. Considering the proprietary of our contemporary, it is an exceedingly cool piece of writing ; " Political surprises are certainly the order of the day. The colony has narrowly escaped witnessing the outrage of a radical change in the Constitution being carried by a coup d'etat at the hands of a reckless Minister backed by an equally reckless majority in the Assembly. The next surprise was the sudden departure of the Premier to England without a word of explanation to the representatives of the people, though his projected journey must have been determined long before the close of the session. The third and, for the time being, last political surprise is, in its way, the most curious and entertaining of all. It seems' that Mr. Charles Bowen, our Resident Magistrate, has, after much consideration, accepted a portfolio in the Ministry. The New Zealand Times, in making the announcement, makes also a furious attack on the Government for the course it has seen fit to adopt. It is well known that this journal is largely the property of Mr. Vogcl, and essentially his mouthpiece. An attack from such a quarter on Mr. Boweu's appointment is therefore of extraordinary significance. Eor our part, we do not pretend to understand it, and can only rank it as one of those strange suprises which seem, as we have said, to be the order of the day. One objection urged by the New Zealand Times to the appointment is clearly fallacious. The writer compares Mr. Bowen's position with that of Mr. Gisborne, and denounces the appointment on the supposition that an arrangement has been made by which, as in Mr. Gisbome's case, Mr. Bowen may return again to the Civil Service when occasion requires. We are in a position to state that no such arrangement has been or is likely to be made by Mr. Bowen. In relinquishing the Civil Service for a political career, he retires altogether from the former, and we think he will carry with him the hearty congratulations and best wishes of the community that in his new career he may be as successful as in his last. He has thoroughly well fulfilled his duty as a Resident Magistrate, and we congratulate the colony and* the Government on the accession to office of an honorable, efficiont, and experienced public servant as a Minister of the Crown.