The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5160, 5 October 1877, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1877.

There are rumors of deserters from the Ministerial ranks, and we hear once more from the Opposition side that the Ministry is to go out. This event has been so frequently prophesied as going to happen immediately, but has not yet taken place, that we do not attach mueh importance to the report. The Ministry has so far IWd its own, despite of all the efforts of their opponents, who have devoted to abuse .of the Government much valuable time, which would have been far better employed in attending to the business of the country. The position taken by these obstructionists to business is not unlike that of Mr. Biggab and other Home rulers in the Imperial Parliament, who, as the London " Times " recently pointed out, seem determined to make their power felt by straining the rights with which minorities are entrusted, in the vague belief that they can thus become so insuperable a, hindrance to business that something will be done for them in order to get rid of them, in which, as that journal points out, thej' will mostly likely be egregiously mistaken. The session is far advancing, and as the Estimates have yet to be passed, it is most desirable to prevent obstruction which is made for mere obstruction's sake. The good sense of the House ought not to allow a continuance of the tactics of these patriots. It will, we think, be generally admitted, supposing a successful effort were made to carry a direct vote of want of confidence, and the Ministry were to resign, that out of the scattered and disunited ranks of the Opposition no Government could be formed which could command the confidence of the House or the country, or that could hold office longer than a few weeks. This being the case, we don't think it likely that, on a careful consideration of the political prospect before them, a majority will be found desirous of placing the present "outs" in the position of the "ins." The "outs" made a hard struggle for office in the recent " Waka Maori" debate, and were not successful. Why cannot they take their beating quietly, and let the business be proceeded with 1 If another confidence question is to be debated, everybody —at all events, every Oppositionist—will have something to say about it, and a further batch of long and dreary speeches will be added to the pages of "Hansard," the only practical result probably that is likely to be attained. That the country would bo at all benefited by a change of Ministry selected from the present Parliament we cannot think for a moment. The present Government may have made some mistakes; but it is, upon the whole, composed of about as able and honest a set of men as could be chosen, in whose hands it is much safer to leave the country's affairs than in those of the gentlemen who occupy the Opposition benches, the cardinal point in whose policy—if thoy have any beyond that of "turning out the Ministry at any price"—is, we presume, the insane one of insular separation and the removal of the capital froiu' Wellington.