The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5407, 26 July 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) FRIDAY, JULY 26, 1878.

The session of Parliament which is to open this day, commences under the auspices of a new Government, hence much speculation is abroad as to their policy. It is evident that, the doctrines preached by Sir George Grey through the length and breadth of'the land are to be abandoned, but is is .somewhat difficult to guess what the rest of the Ministers intend to do with their chief if they treat his solemn declarations in such cavalier fashion. Mr. Ballanck and Mr. Stout by no means agree with each other as members of a Cabinet should agree before they venture to address the public on leading questions of policy; but their relation to .each other is as that of the Siamese twins compared to the relation of either of them to their chief. And yet those poor electors who have not been awakened by the great “ political revival” do not find it easy to dissociate the Premier from the rest of the Cabinet. According to all the principles of Constitutional Government hitherto respected among English people, the first Minister of the Crown is par excellence the mouthpiece of the Cabinet. If colleagues differ from him in essential questions they retire ; if he cannot secure the co-operation of colleagues who are prepared to endorse the views promulgated -by him he resigns, and his Government disappears with him. But wo have changed all this. Principle and precedent have been set aside, and the new political dis-pensation-has been ushered in with a flourish of trumpets. One of the peculiarities of the new dispensation is that no one knows what its doctrines are ; another peculiarity is that it is deemed, sinful to inquire about them. It is but a few months ago that a profession of Greyism was the shibboleth by which the faithful were known. : Blit now that his colleagues have thrown their Premier overboard how are we to know a Government supporter! Nay, how is he to know himself ! It is really hard on the poor follows who now troop into Wellington to obey orders and receive what they can get, not to let them have a policy to talk about—something that they may produce to their friends when hard pressed to explain what they must vote for. . After all, there is much time'wasted in these inquiries as to the Government policy. The. very discrepant utterances of different Ministers have set people searching vainly for a vain thing. The question for the public really is whether the Government have got a policy at all. The conclusion come to by most unprejudiced .people, after reading the various Ministerial utterances, is that they have none. "But it would not do for the disciples of the new dispensation to admit this. They have committed themselves to the Grey cry,—they know that among their friends and allies it is the sign of an unregenerate nature not to believe in a Grey policy; and they think that uuregenerate people will not get any of the loaves and Ashes. In Hans Andersen's story every one was afraid to say that they did not see and admire the Emperor’s new clothes. The courtiers found new beauties in the imaginary garments every day while the men whom he designates as the two rogues calling themselves weavers wore supposed to be making them. The Emperor marched in procession- with nothing bn, under the impression that ha had grand new clothes, until at last a child cried out, “Why, the Emperor has nothing at all on! ” And what the child said was whispered from one to the other, until at last every one took courage to speak out. . Can it be ■that the would-be President of Now Zealand has been “ processing” through the country in a stale of shameless nudity, and that ho has no policy at all ! I The whisper has grown into a widespread belief that this is the case, and the President’s official friends substantiate the growing rumor. Hans Andersen tells us that the Emperor was vexed when the people all cried out that he had nothing at all on, for he knew that. the people were right ; but he thought “ the procession must go on now.” And the lords of the bedchamber took greater pains than ever to appeartobeholdingupatrain, although in reality there was no train to hold.