SIP GEORGE GREY’S CHARGES AGAINST MAJOR ATKINSON.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5491, 1 November 1878, Page 2

SIP GEORGE GREY’S CHARGES AGAINST MAJOR ATKINSON.

TO THE ED1T0I! OF THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES. Sin. —That part of yesterday’s discussion on the Appropriation Bill in the House of Representatives relating to Sir George Grey’s charges against Major Atkinson and his colleagues resquires some interpretation or explanation to put it in its true light. To a superficial observer it would appear that the Premier deliberately charges his predecessor with what actually amounts to a malversation of the public funds—in fact with high treason to the State, and in these charges he is •sustained by the vote of the representatives of the people. iNoiv, sir, let me ask you, is this the true interpretation of what took place ? Has the collective wisdom of this colony endorsed such a verdict against the Ministry to which, in a groat degree, the present high state of prosperity of Hew Zealand is owing ? No, sir, I venture to assert that, whatever the faults of the late Ministry may have been, such a repudiation of all the obligations which New Zealand is under to the Vogel Ministry can ■over have been meant. What, I would respectfully ask of those honorable members who voted with Sir George Grey on this question, is, did they not in so doing moan to affirm as a “ solatium” to Major Atkinson, that the Premier’s charges wore too utterly vague, trumpery, unfounded, and without the slightest shadow of justification, to be worth the negative which would have given him further opportunity for the exercise of his stump oratory against the wrongs received at his hands from the Governor, the Legislative Council, and now the House of Representatives. The very circumstances of the attack itself should go to prove the correctness of my supposition. Here, at the end of the session, the present Premier lays charges against the late Premier, which he asserts he is “ able to wove.” If such is the case, surely when he ms had the whole session at his command to iiave proved these accusations, and when, with a small and uncertain majority at his back, he has had the utmost need to have substantiated my one of these charges of falsity against his predecessors, to have damaged their cause and improved his own, he would long ere this have taken advantage of any such damning proofs. An attack, sir, therefore, of this cowardly nature could never have receive I the sanction —or apparent sanction—of the body of gentlemen (Englishmen) who represent the people of X r ew Z -aland, except as a piece of most exquisite irony. As to the vain-glorious threat held out against the Legislative Council “ that they had givou the House a handle to take hold of with reference to themselves,” I am certain that neither the Legislative Council will feel alarmed, knowing as they do that they have carried out the real wishes of the people ; nor, that when the dissolution—“ which oanno' be refused”—come* next year, the people will, -ay “ Go on and get all our rights” to Si George Grey. Those to whom they say that will be those who are determined to guard our rights ; not to that Government —which we will hope may he of short-lived notoriety—which wpuld have handed our rights to a Uaorl democracy, aud from which we have only been protected by one of the ” component parts of the constitution,” (viz, a firm and honest Legislative Council), talked of in such grandiloquent style by the man who was then trying to destroy that constitution.—T am, &0., J. Kesteven. Wellington, October 31.