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New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4562, 3 November 1875, Page 2

Fob the utterance of unadulterated nonsense the Dunedin provincial banquets have been remarkable. Sir George Grey and Sir John Larkins Cheese Richardson, together with Mr. Macandrew, have described themselves as rising, along with the South Island, in " virgin simplicity." There in an incongruity about such a description that reduces it to the purest tomfoolery. Many other instances could be given, but one will be sufficient. That one is Sir George Grey's panegyric on Mr. Murray, M.H.R. Anyone who has attended the sittings of the House of Representatives knows this gentleman. He is the infinite bore of Parliament. His speeches have no weight with his hearers, and bis hearers are generally a few half-sleopy members who remain •to keep a House. An inordinate self-conceit renders him impenetrable to the fact that he is regarded by everyone as a legislative nuisance, whose talidng is merely tolerated because to count him out would be to delay business. And jet Sir George Grey has told Mr. Murray's constituents, in a speech at Milton, that he was in effect the saviour of his party, and one of the most effective speakers in the House, Of course, as a party move, it is quite right that Sir George Grey should endeavor to give the electors of Bruce an idea that their representative is rather superior to Gladstone, so that they may return a pledged Superintendental follower, whom Sir George can always keep at his coattails by the administration of fulsome flattery. But Sir George should not be reported on such occasions, for the result is that those who know the men can estimate the whole thing at its proper value, and so dispel an illusion. Sir George's follower, Mr. Bunny, was coarse in his insults to a political opponent when addressing that opponent's constituency. Sir George himself was equally coarse in his flattery of a nonentity for the most transparent of political purposes. These are not the ways to gain advantage in political strife.