MINISTERIAL UNITY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5406, 25 July 1878, Page 2

MINISTERIAL UNITY.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin, —Children having to walk or move about in the dark, in the greatest state of trepidation, are well known to frequently adopt the practice of whistling as a means of keeping up their courage, and .thereby preserving a bifid front. Taking, this course of conduct on the part of children .as an illustration and example, the Ministerial tout, in the New'Zealander of Friday morning last, exhibits a state of the most terrible' fear for the success and safety of his patrons.- The article referred to is a most audacious attempt to display before the outside public a confidence and boldness on the part of Ministers which can have no existence save in the disordered brain of the writer. He does this by presenting Ministers and their supporters as a combined and formidable phalanx, amongst-whom, the greatest unity of sentiment exists. In point of fact, we have the Premier advocating the most rabid democratic principles as the only means of salvation to the country. Then we have the Colonial Secretary of all men in both Houses of Parliament the greatest stickler for the development of a colonial autocracy. Wo have the Premier j preaching from the housetop manhood suffrage in the very broadest sense, by.whioh every man jack is to roll up and record his vote at elections, with no other qualification or claim to the franchise than that ha ds 21 years of age. In Messrs. Ballanoe’s and Stout’s speeches we have the franchise fenced round with rational and wholesome guards. The expressed views of Ministers oii the question of representation and the incidence of taxation are about equally diverse. This variety of sentiment- amongst Ministers on these most important questions is strictly characteristic of the unity and cohesion of the sentiments of their so-called followers, as is clearly observable from their various utterances before their constituents. Yet out of this great diversity of existing opinions, extending from the Premier down through the- rank and file, this Ministerial champion would fain gull the public into the belief that there is an unprecedented concord in the opinions and sympathies of present Ministers and their followers, coupled with an amount of Ministerial ability which may well put to the blush alb predecessors in office. PrOm thoir combined inner consciousness there is to be evolved during the present session a series of measures stamped with great ability and unity of design to which' .the Hew Zealand Legislature are as yet strangers. Perhaps within the whole range of the history of Constitutional Government there has never been issued from any Cabinet such a divergence ot opinion as from the present Ministry of New Zealand since they have been in office. Ministers’ views often appear as opposite as tho Poles. However, time proves all things. I for one shall hail with the greatest pleasure these wonderful productions with which the colony is to be blesse’ch If the present Ministry meet the House with a series of well digested measures of their own, which they as a Ministry are prepared to honestly-

aid heartify support, X shall then turn my attention afresh to the study of the laws of evolution, fully convinced that my past observations in that direction have been .most misleading, as it would be order springing out of chaos with a suddenness which to me is unknown under the ordinary action of law. It is, however, rather too rich when the writer gays The Ministers govern the country themselves, instead of leaving the task to under-secretaries, —when it is most notorious that the administration of almost every department has, during nearly the whole of the * recess, . earned on entirely by the under-secretaries, most of the Ministers having been absent for mouths together, while others have as yet scarcely seen the inside of their offices since the prorogation of Parliament. Taking this article altogether, I can with the utmost confidence recommend it for the perusal of readers as a masterpiece of toadyism and bunkum. It is, indeed, a case of whistling to keep up his patron’s courage with a vengeance.—l am, &c., Observes,