The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5196, 16 November 1877, Page 4

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1877.

M» Sheehan out of office, andMrSHEBHAN in office with the prefix “ Honorable " to his name, are totally different persons, as different indeed as is his Premier from the little lamb to which Sir George Grey is so fond of comparing himself. The Hon. Mr. Sheehan made a statement on native affairs and things in general in the House last night, and that statement will he found fully reported elsewhere, Xt is chiefly noticeable for the remarkable proof it affords that if its tenor, matter, and tone be correct, then Mr. Sheehan’s politics have been all wrong until he became a member of the Ministry. We are not disinclined to think that this is exactly the state of the case, for we have never entertained any doubt as to the pernicious effects Mr. Sheehan has had upon native matters in the past, and wo quite agree with his admissions last night that

Sir Donald McLean’s policy was perfectly right. It is, however, a great pity that t)ie present Native Minister did not during the lifetime of the late Sir Donald McLean make the candid admission he put forward last night, instead of waiting until that gentleman was dead. Whilst Sir Donald was with us he had no more persistent opponent in his policy than the gentleman who is now Native Minister, and yet Mr. Sheehan had the audacity last night to admit that to Sir Donald’s policy the country owed its peace and its improved relations with the Maoris since 1869. It is gratifying now to be assured that there is not the slightest chance of a native outbreak whilst there are absolutely lingering in our ears the threats of such an outbreak which Mr. Sheehan was constant, in season and out of season, in dinning into our ears, inside the House and outside the House. And yet Mr. Sheehan, in a frenzy of patriotic virtue, solemnly deprecates the spreading of rumors that the Maoris are not peacefully inclined, and points very properly to the ill effect such rumors have on our national credit in other colonies and countries. Why the pages of “Hansard” prove that Mr. Sheehan up to thirty or forty days ago never lost an opportunity of pointing to the imminence of a native war. A more refreshing instance of studied or innocent oblivion of the whole of one’s recent career wo have seldom come across than that afforded last night by the Hon. the Minister for Native Affairs. In fact, his whole speech simply proved that the policy of his predecessor was an excellent one, and was only prevented from being carried to the utmost pitch of efficiency by the continued opposition and the factious attacks of gentlemen of the Sheehan type.