The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5386, 2 July 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) TUESDAY, JULY 2, 1878.

Leading statesmen, wo repeat, are popularly supposed to have principles ; and they are wont to asseverate that their sole object in seeking Ministerial office is that they may be in a position to give effect, by means of legislation in Parliament, to those principles recognition of and action upon which are necessary in their opinion to the progress of the nation, and to the welfare and happiness of the people. When they do succeed in getting into office, and have the power to carry out their declared policy, their supporters, not unreasonably, expect that their promises will be fulfilled, or that at least a loyal attempt will bo made to prove the sincerity of their expressed opinions. This is the common, but unwritten law of Constitutional Government by party. On any other condition party warfare ceases to be a struggle for the assertion and triumph of principles, and degenerates into an unprincipled scramble for office and for the emoluments and advantages of place. Now, our present Premier is the exponent and representative of great principles, if he is anything at all; his aspirations are, if we Credit him, not alone to be of service to the small fraction of the globe comprised within the islands of New Zealand, but to confer benefits upon the whole human race, for all time. It was for the assertion and propagation of his principles, he has told us, that he left the army in his youth, and devoted himself to seeking out new countries where the air was free and the land unencumbered by capitalists, and where, under favoring circumstances, a new race inspired by him might work out their destiny, and found and build up “nations such as have never been seen.” It has been Sir George Grey’s misfortune, however, to have been made the slave of circumstances, and instead of being the Avatar of freedom to have been the representative and the instrument, in South Australia and in New Zealand, of a grinding and irresponsible despotism, “such as has “never been seen,” and which here, as many can still testify, had neatly driven the people to rebellion and open resistance to lawful authority. That was, of course, the fault of the Colonial Office, whose servant he was ; and during all the period that he so ruled, we are invited to believe that he was doing violence to his cherished convictions, and wasting the time which he would otherwise have devoted to the grander and higher enterprise of elevating and improving mankind. It is but fair to admit that : during al! the time when he was before the world in his character of an autocratic Governor in these Crown colonies, he was able with great art to conceal the liberal tendencies which we are now informed are inherent with him, and that his acting of the part of the despotic ruler was perfect in its naturalness. We shall be able on a future occasion to reproduce remarkable testimonials of tho public appreciation of his performances in that character, testimonials which emanated, not from Wellington alone, but from every centre of population and from every class of persons in this colony. Being now no longer the unwilling instrument of Mr. Mother-country, and of the tyrants of Downing-street, but being tho elected representative of a very democratic community at the Thames, and the self-constituted champion of popular rights, Prime Minister of New Zealand under a free Constitution, and chief of a Cabinet of his own selection—-he has an opportunity such as he never could have imagined in his former days of painful official servitude, of giving free scope to his generous impulses in favor of perfect freedom, of universal happiness and love, and of the general elevation of the human race for all time. Not one of the men who are now his colleagues, with possibly, one exception, could at present have got into office under other circumstances than by his will and by his support. Ho has stumped the country with his friends and followers, at the public expense; Ills exposition of the Ministerial policy of “ himself and his colleagues” has, ho asserts,. everywhere evoked the most extraordinary enthusiasm. “ Greyism” has become a popular faith as well as a party platform. He directs the electors of Hokitika to return his nephew to Parliament, and they humbly comply. On every hustings candidates appear to believe that the necessity is imposed upon them of making equivocal promises of support to the present Government. Surely now, if ever, tho longcherished aspirations of the noble soul may lind their free scope, and the longrepressed energies work straight to their great end. We were promised retrenchment of expenditure, - beginning with tho salaries of Ministers themselves ; we were to have rigid economy in administration; we were to have a free breakfast, table ; a change in the incidence of taxation, so as to relieve the “ poor man” from taxes on his tea and sugar, and to “ burst up” tho large landed proprietors by a levy upon his acres: and, greatest of all, — the lever by means of which all present and future good was to be attained, —we were to have manhood suffrage, with one vote and only one for each individual, equal electoral districts, with representation in proportion to population, and government by the popular will. Alas for the vanity of human wishes. Not one of these expectations has been realised or will even be attempted to be realised. Ministers’ salaries have not been reduced : tho Premier draws the same salary which he reproached Major Atkinson for having drawn. His colleagues,—under protest of course, and most reluctantly,—receive : exactly tho same “screw” as their predecessors in office. About the general economy we shall know more when Parliament meets; there are no outward signs of it at present, but there are signs, and there will be evidence of something very different. There will be no change in the taxation on tea and sugar; the large proprietors, the owners of counties, and the shepherd kings, have been reassured and are perfectly satisfied; tho manhood suffrage, with one vote only, and the equal electoral districts, are abandoned, and the Opposition have been deliberately challenged to propose the institution of manhood suffrage themselves, as an amendment to the Ministerial programme, if they dare, and if they believe in that panacea for all our ills. Yesterday; in guarded but very intelligible terras, all this ' was communicated to their friends •and subscribers by the Ministers through the Cabinet newspaper. At the same time, as an excuse for aecrosy when perfect openness and universal publication were promised, they are'informed that Ministers are not going to show their hand, and will not hold themselves accountable to their enemies, but only to their friends, and that if their friends trust the Government they must rest satisfied. Un-

doubtedly the enemies of the Government, whoever they are, may be satisfied too, for it is impossible to imagine a more complete abandonment of all professed principles, or a more shameless acknowledgement of the fact than that to which we now refer. Wo have been accused of gibbeting Sir Georoe Grey ; but it is his own colleagues who gibbet him now, by their ostentatious abandonment of every principle of that policy upon which he and they were carried into office, and which their chief has not even yet ceased to declare to be necessary for the present salvation and future progress of this colony. Tnis is, perhaps, “ Greyistn but it is a new form of that kind of Government which goes by the name of Constitutional. The feeling of the Cabinet is no doubt more rational than the policy which was declared to be the policy of himself and his colleagues by the Premier, and for this we have occasion to be thankful. The only complaint that need be made is, that office has been gained by party trick and by false pretences, and that, as we have said, the common law of Constitutional Government has been thus transgressed.