NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5172, 19 October 1877, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND NEWS.

SUMMARY FOR mi MONTH. , 9£J/oBER, 1877. ' . ,—... by the P.M.G.S. City of New **~*** S &rk, from Auckland on the 33rd October, to Enropc via San Francisco.

The great event of the month has been of course the defeat of the Atkinson Ministry. A division was taken in a practically full house, and they were beaten by a majority of three on a want of conlidence motion moved by Mr. Larnach. They tendered their resignations, and the latter gentleman was sent for, and accepted the duty of forming a Ministry. Then Sir George Grey -and his small but compact body of henchmen turned up, and as a result tho ex-Gover-nor became master of the situation, many of the moderates who helped to turn the Ministry out were disgusted, and a Cabinet was formed as follows :

The Honorable Sir George Grey, K. 0.8., to be Premier, Colonial Secretary, and-Commissioner of Custom?; Tho Honorable William James Mudxe Launacu to be Colonial Treasurer, Minister for Public Works,

and Commissioner of Stamp Duties; The Honorable James Macanuiievt to be Secretary lor Crown Lauds and Minister for Immigration ; . The Honorable Joun Sheeiiam to be Native Minister and Minister of Justice ; The Honorable James Temple Fisher to bo Post-master-General and Commissioner of Telegraphs.

Amongst the difficulties which Sir G. Grey has encountered in the formation of a Cabinet, not the least has been the difficulty of inducing any of the' honorable members of the Legislative Council to cast in their lot with those bold adventurers of that “august” Assembly, the House of Representatives, who have joined his standard, and who wish to “have the Government for a year,” in order, as he says, to discover what the “popular will ” is in regard to “great questions,” which at present have neither form nor pressure, but which are to be evolved during the recess. . _ The “great” policy of reducing Ministers’ salaries and taking off a few pounds a year from hard worked undersecretaries, for the benefit of the young hearts of unborn generations, does not appear to commend itself very forcibly to the “Lords.” Colonel Whitmore, who loyally exerted himself to upset the Ministerial coach last week, does not care to trust himself with the strange crew of the frail barque which now carries Caesar and his fortunes; but, not ungenerously, he has offered to throw them a line and give them a tow for a day or two over the snags and shallows in which they find themselves. Yesterday in the Legislative Council the honorable and gallant gentlemen proposed to take the role of Deputy-Minister, or rather that of legate of the high priests of the unborn generations, and to put himself in charge of the gas and water Bills and the other Bills of a non-political character which are now on the Order Paper before the Council, pending the finding of a Minister in the Council, or the making of one, ad hoc, out of doors. It seemed for a moment probable that the majority, in its tenderness for the avowed weakness of the infant Government, would have accepted the services so kindly offered ; but there was perhaps a little too much of talking on the part of those who were really disposed to make some sacrifice of points of form in order to get on with work, and at length a speech by Sir Dillon Bell, which was intended to be calming and mediatory, but was really provoking, set the backs of hon. gentlemen up on the point of principle. The Council then resolved, on the motion of Colonel Brett, that it would adjourn from day to day until Sir George Grey had time to complete his Ministry. The resolution was carried on the voices, Colonel Whitmore declining apparently to take the division, which we think might have resulted favorably for his proposal. The decision of the Council is, upon the point of principle, undoubtedly right. The Government ought to be represented by a Minister in the Council, and it is qt least remarkable that out of so large a number of gentlemen as are upon the roll not one has yet been found willing to identify himself completely with Sir George Grey’s followers: we will not say with his policy, for he has announced none that deserves a moment’s serious consideration. It has pleased Sir George Grey to abuse the Legislative Council, and to heap insults upon its members ad cajoiandum vulgm in his place in Parliament, as well as in his stumping tours ; but we" are sure that no recollection of these insults colors the present action of the 'Legislative Council, and that the difficulty which he has experienced in finding a representative amongst its members has another source than individual or collective resentment towards himself. Sir George Grey disclosed the Ministerial policy oh Tuesday or rather he disclosed no policy, but endeavored to show everybody that ho was not as bad as his enemies endeavored to make him out. In order to do this he had necessarily to show that he held none of the principles which his friends have so much insisted on as being his property. It would not be correct to assert that he succeeded in the first of the above-mentioned objects, but he deserved success in the latter. He has early come into the field with bribes. Two Ministerial portfolios are to be .allotted, and whilst their occupancy is as yet uncertain they may hold good as security for at least four votes. A Minister for Mines 100 is a probability that will have due weight with patriots of the Barff, Joyce, and Pyke type. As Sir George Grey was not above endeavoring to please individuals, neither.was he above endeavoring to please places. Hence his wonderful admiration for Wellington. It must have been rather displeasing, however, to gentlemen of the HodgkinSON stamp to find their chosen champion avowing himself an ardent centralist. The new Premier’s idea offiaorificing the waste lands of the colony to provide for current wants isthe outcome of an association with Messrs. Macandkew and Larnach, whose careers as provincial politicians, in Otago have been carefully directed towards alienating the Crown lands in large blocks to capitalists. This made Sir George Grey announce quite jauntily that want of money was nothing, because they could always fall back upon tho waste lands in order to repay advances. It was pleasant to note how easily the present Ministry adopted all the important measures framed by their predecessors, but surely, Mr. Ballance must have been affected by this. It will be remembered that he lately described Sir George Grey as the only lender with any - consistent principles in the House. Mr. Ballance last night must have had some trouble hunting for a principle in his leader’s speech that was not identical with those he so recently opposed. Tho speech, in fact, was an ad misericordiam appeal to all sides of the House to give the speaker time to show how good ho and his colleagues would be to everyone. Hopes were held out to the Canterbury leaseholders, and the utmost was projniaed to those membershavingprivatebusi-

ness on the Order Paper. In one respect Sir George Grey excited expectation. He did not allude to posterity until almost at the close of his remarks ; but a sigh of relief escaped from the House when, after twenty minutes of disappointment, the great friend of the future got upon his favorite theme. After that-, of course, we heard nothing but lofty aspirations after nothing, clothed in grandiloquent and nonsensical words. However, this conclusion gave a fitting termination to probably the weakest manifesto of a new Ministry that the House has ever listened to.

The recent native scare at Wanganui, by which families of settlers have been driven from their homes, has excited much uneasiness in tho public mind regarding the possible results of the continued operations of the Hawke’s Bay Repudiation Party and their_ pakoha allies in the different parts of this island. Native discontent is, as we have said, a very dangerous weapon to use in political party warfare, because the ultimate results are not always under.the control of those who foment it for their own ends. In the case before us we see how innocent persons have been made to suffer ; how the peace of a district has been disturbed, and how the confidence of the world out-of-doors may be shaken as to the security of life and property in one of the most prosperous and thriving districts in this colony. The man Takairangi who created this disturbance was, as we have said, loafing about the lobbies of the House of Representatives for weeks past, with the other hangers-on of the “ Wananga,” and we are informed did, on an affectionate leave taking within the precincts, and with his arm round the neck of a certain legal gentleman, announce that he was going back to Wanganui to try whether he was strong enough to drive the Europeans into the sea. He blundered, and it suits the party now to repudiate him ; but he was only endeavoring in his own way to better the instructions which he had received. We may hope now, with this example before us of the danger of the new mode of obtaining justice, that the operations of the propaganda may be confined to the Waipawa and Te Ante. Districts ; lest if there should be more instances of women and children being driven from their homes in terror on the Sabbath day a sharp and summary method may be resorted to for the putting a stop to the nuisance. The following report by the police officer in charge at Wanganui has been placed at our disposal for publication : “I have the honor to report for your information that about noon on yesterday a mounted messenger arrived from Captain, or Commodore Montgomery’s, near Kennedy’s Ferry, bringing the news that Tamati' Takairangi and fifteen other Kaiwaiki natives came to the place early in the forenoon, ordering them to clear out with their stock and everything belonging to them; that they were going round to the different settlers in the neighborhood, giving them similar orders, as an armed party of two hundred and twenty was following up to enforce the order. On subsequent inquiry I ascertained that the seventeen natives were principally women and children, and that the armed party only existed iii the excited imagination of the. messenger.. Commodore Montgomery and Mr. T. M. Robinson sent their families to town. From what 1 can ascertain on inquiry I understand Takairangi is acting under legal advice in order that he may bring his case into the Supremo Court, but has no intention of committing qny breach of the peace.”