The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1877.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 5218, 12 December 1877, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1877.

The session has ended at last, —has died of sheer weariness we may almost say,— and it is one on which neither the members of tile House of Representatives nor those who elected them can look back with satisfaction. When it began we had a Ministry in power honestly anxious to work out the destinies of the colony under the altered condition of affairs induced by the abolition of provincialism. With the close of the session we have a Ministry in undisputed possession of the government of the colony for at least six mouths, who have already shown capabilities for political mischief unparalleled and indisputable. The session itself has been the simple record of the most audacious seizure of power and the most impudent retention of the same by a small party as yet recorded in the history of constitutional government. • Parliament had not sat a week before it became evident that Sir GeoegeGeby and: his rabid henchmen had determined that, as there was a decided majority in Parliament against them as a party, no business or legislation should be proceeded with so long as they could obstruct, annoy, or confuse. To every measure brought down by the Atkinson Ministry they offered obstructive and factious opposition ; they delayed discussion, hindered the business of the country, and conducted their party attacks on the late Ministry regardless alike of principle or of patriotism. At last, owing to the existence in Parliament of gentlemen of the Rolleston, Teaveus, and Gisboene stamp, who could be tempted by a promise of office, they succeeded in getting a vote of want of confidence in the Atkinson Administration carried on the motion of a mere outsider. Then they insolently assumed the reins of Government, threw overboard these who had helped them,to expel their opponents, 'and having' by dodging escaped one vote of want of confidence, were assisted by the con-, venient ruling of the Speaker to evade another. Finally they , came down with a policy of which they had hitherto been the great enemies. , They proposed the colonisation of the land, and accomplished the actual spoliation (jf Otago and Canterbury; and, by ignorance we must charitably presume, they contrived to give a ring of monopolists and speculators an opportunity of buying up the waste lands of the Crown in large quantities, and robbing the people of their right. All this political rectitude was interspersed by efforts on the part of the Premier to entrap the Governor into pitfalls, the sole object of that gentleman’s re-entry into public life in New Zealand being the opportunities ho might obtain for

quarrelling with his Excellency or snub-, bing a colonial Governor. The only legislation worthy of the name which has been accomplished is the work of , the Atkinson Ministry, .and may be summed up in the Education Bill and the Land . Bill. Both are excellent measures ; the first, as, having at'last grappled with an all - important question, reflects the highest credit on its author, Mr. Bowen ; , the second, as- a codification of existing laws, is a monument to the patient skill of Mr.. Reid.. Indeed, these two Bills show the.difference.between the Grey Ministry and: their predecessors. They are the outcome of care and thought, and were a portion of the complete legislation and proposal which the Atkinson Ministry had ready, down to the,minutest detail, at the opening of the session. We may venture to predict that, with Sir George.'" Grey and his henchmen in power, the opening of next session will,, in comparison with the past, show that chaos has come again. However, there is one consolation to be derived from all this, and that is that next session will show the countryso clearly the incapacity of Sir George 1 and his party for legislation that we may expect to see proper Ministers in power before it will have lasted very long.