The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1878.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5412, 1 August 1878, Page 2

The New Zealand Times (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1878.

The usual addresses in reply to the Governor’s speech have been agreed to in both Houses of the Legislature without amendment, but not, as was generally, anticipated, without discussion. In tho House of Representatives Ministers received an eloquent warning from one of their friends of last session, Dr. Wallis, that the abandonment of the principles upon which the Premier obtained his office would not be condoned by some at least, of those who had then enrolled themselves amongst the number of his followers or .supporters, and who have some regard for political consistency and for the rules of the game of Party Government. The criticism of the honorable member for Auckland City West upon the discrepancy between Ministerial promises and Ministerial performances was sharp- and biting, and appeared to sting the’objects of his lively and just, yet not ill-natured strictures. But the point upon which, in both Houses, censure was especially hung was that portion of the Governor’s speech in which his Excellency was advised to congratulate the Assembly on the fact “ that peaceful “relations had at last been established “ with the Waikato and Ngatimaniapoto “ tribes.” On this point there is a 1 very general accord that ah impudent attempt has been made by the Premier to.appropriate to himself the honor and credit that were due to the long labor of another and a better man, tho late Sir Donald McLean. There is a want of generosity in this procedure, and an exhibition of selfishness, which has shocked all right feeling, and has had on every hand an effect exactly contrary to that which the vanity and egoism of the Premier expected to obtain from it. Even Mr. Sheehan himself, who is not easily embarrassed, showed his consciousness of the blunder that had been committed by his chief in every sentence which he uttered in his attempt to excuse what he coi Id not venture to defend. There is no evidence whateverasyetbefore the public that any beniicial change has been suddenly effected in our relations with the Ring’s people and the Ngatimaniapotos. Papers have been promised which shall contain the required evidence, but like other promises they have not yet been fulfilled; and they cannot bo fulfilled for the very best of all possible reasons that no-such evidence exists or can bo produced. We give tho Premier and the Native Minister credit for a sincere desire to put an end to the native difficulty; we are, ready to admit that at his time of life and in his state of health the act of facing the toil and discomfort of such a meeting as that lately held at Waitara was even heroic on the part of Sir George Grey;, but until there is better proof than has yet , been presented ;to show that any exceptionally favorable results, due to the personal influence of the Premier, have been obtained at that meeting, we must continue to hold the opinion which we have already expressed—that the result was negative, and that if Sir George Grey could have been content to stay at home, and leave the transaction of native negotiations tb the Minister who is appointed to conduct them, and who is responsible for them to Parliament, the result might have been more, satisfactory than it has proved to be in a public point of view. Upon the personal aspect of the question as it now stands “ Hansnvd ” will be eloquent. There is an aphorism in a letter from Junius to Wilkes which sticks persistently in the cullender of our brain, which we are never tired of repeating,.and which should, we think, be set up in illuminated letters upon the wall of every Cabinet-room, and that is, that “In a great business there is “ nothing so fatal as cunning manage- “ ment.”