MINISTERS ON THEIR “PLANKS.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5401, 19 July 1878, Page 4

MINISTERS ON THEIR “PLANKS.”

TO THE EDITOR OP THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin, —One of the questions that is now being more or less ardently discussed by that portion of the public who take a special interest in colonial politics and parties I find to be, — What are the prospects of the present Ministry continuing to hold office through the forthcoming session ? Judging from the utterances of Ministerial touts, who compose a large portion of the colonial Press, whose palms are oiled by Government patronage and pens guided by self-interest, there would appear to be but little doubt but that they would not only succeed in directing the State ship safely through the forthcoming session, but that their term of office promised to be .long and prosperous—their majority in the present House, according to those authorities, being quite sufficient to bear down all opposition and carry through the business of the session in perfect harmony with their own conceptions. But in marking carefully the very guarded manner in which a large number of members have declared themselves, there appears "to me ample room for doubts as to whether or, not the majority of the members of the present House have very much confidence in the present administration, and I deem it quite within the range of possibility that Ministers and their worshippers may be doomed to some little disappointment on that head. It may, however, be stated that whatever may prove to be the disposition of the present House, Ministers have the country with them, an appeal to which would bring them back to power with an overwhelming majority. On that point also I am inclined to think they are rather too sanguine. When I take into account the grounds on which their present popularity is based, there appear to me the gravest reasons for doubt as to how they might be received on an appeal to the ballot-box, as it must bo' remembered that the present Ministry have not gained the confidence, respect, and popularity of the public by any" demonstration of their patriotism, or benefits they have in any way conferred on the people or country, but by tbe wealth of promises made by the Premier daring his late stumping tour, which will have cost *the colony little if anything less than ten thousand pound. These promises, if half re-, deemed, will involve us in many millions of increased indebtedness. With such an increase to our already heavy burden of taxation, from which the most thoughtless apd foolhardy may _ well shrink, these promises, on. which his popularity as head of the Government now stands,-must therefore necessarily.be broken, which will carry disappointment, discontent, and a general distrust in the honesty and sincerity of the great ministerial chief into the minds of the people in every part of the ' colony, thereby not improbably producing a reaction as sudden, and much more extensive and complete than his mushroom popularity. Already Ministers positively laugh at the very . idea of fulfilling their chiefs promises, and

treat the applicants ia a manner indicative o! their pitying their simplicity in expecting such a tiling. As to their political platform, there is in.it not only nothing . new or original, but it has been snatched np by them after having been laid before the House and the country by others, and accepted by Ministers, the House, and the people at large. It ia certainly rather amusing to observe with what confidence and self-possession they appear in the political arena dressed in the political garbs procured for them by .the hard brain-work of others. Hence,the fall of the present Ministry would in no way prevent the questions of the franchise, representation, and the adjustments of taxation from being dealt with, and dealt with, beyond doubt, in .a. far more comprehensive and satisfactory manner than anything we are at all likely to have brought forward and supported by the present Ministry, judging from the uncertain and faltering character of their utterances. In all their speeches on the question of their so-called great policy they appear to the most cursory observer to be what they really afe, viz., in possession of principles which they have snatched from others, and are now at a loss how to apply them. —I am, &c., Observer. Wellington, July 18. -