The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5238, 7 January 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 1878.

Wb suppose it is now definitely settled that the member for Rangitikei is to join the Ministry. Rumor has been busy with his name since the Grey Ministry assumed office ; but scarcely had one report regarding him been circulated, than it was contradicted, and gave place to another. However, we think the last will be found to be correct, and that Mr. Ballancb has definitely decided to join the Ministry, of which he was one of the ablest supporters during the few weeks it occupied office during the past session. When we say that Mr. Ballancb was one of the ablest of the Grey supporters, circumstances connected with the rise of that Ministry, and its continuance in power, will qualify immensely any general praise which could be accorded to Mr. Ballancb. Wo cannot help thinking, howeyer, that it would have been more consistent had Mr,; Ballancb joined the Ministry during the session, and given to his party his services at a time when those services might have been valuable. , It is true that he is an untried man as an administrator, but he is by ,no means wanting in comprehension, and there is no doubt that he would have been capable of mastering the details in any department of government which might have been allotted to him. It was a total ignorance of details which made the Grey Ministry the laughingstocki of the intelligent portion of the House and country. To compare small things .with great. The Premier is the very opposite of Napoleon the First. No men were ever so dissimilar, though they resembled each other in so far that they were both soldiers and statesmen; but with Napoleon the soldier took first place and the statesman second, while with Sir George Grey his martial qualities lie hid under the brilliancy of his statesmanship. The ex-Governor in his time has made no small pretensions to military knowledge, as several Imperial Generals to their cost can testify. But here the resemblance to the great regenerator of France ends. Napoleon was a perfect master of detail ; he looked upon such knowledge as highly essential to success in big things. Sir George hangs up detail, and goes in for principles. He predicts a perfect Arcadia for colonists in the future if he has his way, but at the same time he is absolutely unable to make one practical suggestion as to how that Arcadia is to be reached. The details, of the measures are not given by which he purposes bridging over the vast chasm which separates the degraded, benighted, enslaved, and impoverished people of- New Zealand from that dreamland of his where every man shall be a Socrates or a Burke in wisdom and political knowledge, while at the same time he shall be as free as his remote and savage ancestors who roamed through the forests, guiltless of the knowledge of a Custom House or a policeman, and where, if each colonist is not a Rothschild in wealth he will at least be as rich as any of his neighbors. A change in the incidence of taxation, by relieving the poor man and his family to the extent of a penny a day—the greatest financier in the world could not relievo him to a greater extent—Sir Georoe must feel himself, will not bring about the desired state of things. And that is the only tangible thing which he has yet presented to the public as a part of his policy. The Premier has made such a feature of this plank of his political platform, that it would not surprise us to hear him advocate the abolition of taxation altogether. That civilised government cannot be carried on without some means of raising the wind would be but a small stumbling-block to Sir George Grey. People of all climes and in all ages have kicked against taxation in any shape or form, and we very much doubt that even in the most democratic community that has over existed any scheme of taxation has been devised which pleased the majority of the people, or which they thought fair and equitable. Sir George Grey has not entirely overlooked this lesson from past and current history, and hence the prominence he has given the subject. That he has not gone in for the total abolition of taxation may be accounted for by the fact that ho may entertain doubts as to the gullibility of the people of the colony. Pie regards himself as the Hercules that is to lift the financial burdens off a groaning people ; as witness what he stated in a late speech, that he might not be able to carry his measures for the revision of taxation next session. What will the large majority of the House of Representatives, who pledged themselves to support a change in the incidence of taxation, think of this last utterance of the Premier’s ? Sir George is of opinion they cannot be trusted, and that he will most probably have to appeal to the country. Like all autocrats, he keeps in view the mob to terrify the Legislature ; and the members of the House of Representatives pocket the affront. It is a bad day for constitutional government when the Premier talks to the mob over the heads of the representatives of the people, and that is what Sir George Grey has: persistently done since he assumed office. The growth of the power and privileges of Parliament has been the growth of, the liberties of the British people. Parliament alike protects ' ua from king and mob. , The man who would bring outside pressure to bear upon Parliament is either completely devoid of a true conception of what constitutes British liberty, or else is plotting mischief against the true liberties of the people, and using them for his own private ends. At present Sir George Grey is the whole Ministry: the other members of the Cabinet are mere puppets in his ■ hands.. The Land Fund could be generalised; but it would be an utter impossibility to

generalise Mr. Macandrew. He will remain local to the end of his days. The province of Otago is gone, and the Land Fund is gone, and we are not aware that Mr. Macandrew was ever possessed of an idea on anything disconnected with these two subjects. The Native Minister Sir G. Grey could wipe out of political existence with a breath. Poor Mr. Larnach! Surely he will never - again face Parliament as Colonial Treasurer after his exploits of last session. Mr. Fisher does not trouble himself much about the policy of the Government. The railways are under his charge, and it will take all his faculties to acquire a knowledge of that department alone. He would be utterly lost in discussing broad lines of policy. But the new Minister, Mr. Ballancb, is a man of a different stamp. He has got ideas and a tolerable amount of combativeness, and Sir George may find it a hard job to have it all his own way with him. Mr. Ballance will also be the most colonial in his views of any man in the Ministry, and we believe he has diligently studied the condition of the colony, and has not been confined in his studies to any particular district or province. Therefore he may be expected to aid largely in rendering the measures which may be brought down by the present Government practical and intelligible. He was the only supporter of the Ministry who last session gave anything like a true statement of the finances of the colony. It is true that his statement was founded on Major Atkinson’s figures. So also was Mr. Larnach’s Financial Statement. But there was this difference—Mr. Baliance understood what he was dealing with, while the Colonial Treasurer accepted the figures of his predecessor in office without any idea of how to apply them practically, or present them in an intelligible form. With Mr. Bax,lance in the Ministry—untried man as he is—people may expect to get some idea as to the nature of the measures which the Government intend bringing down to relieve the human race in New Zealand of the terrible evils which Sir George Grey says colonists labor under.