“TAKEN DOWN.”

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5497, 8 November 1878, Page 2

“TAKEN DOWN.”

The results of tho session cannot bo considered satisfactory to the Government; everything but their seats may be said to have been lost. Under those circumstances there may bo some excuse for tho ill-temper displayed by tho Premier on Wednesday evening ; but there can be none for tho reiteration of scandalous charges against political opponents, the falsehood of which has been demonstrated so often. In this respect Sic George Grey is himself incorrigible, but his extravagance has now worked its own cure;. no . one believes a word of these old tales, or regards them as anything else than the vagaries of a diseased imagination. When a hypochondriac asserts that ho is a teapot and refuses to sit down from fear of being cracked it seems a hopeless task, whilst ho is posed in a plastic, attitude, to argue with him that his arms do not represent the handle and the spout, and that his “lid” cannot have been stolon, as ho appears to believe. This is the state of mind in which the Premier must have been,when he said “it was notorious that the pre- “ sent Governor was hostile to him ; that “ he (Sir George Grey) had no large “ following in this Chamber (the House), “ and had a hostile Upper Legislative “ Chamber.” He thus presented a picture of political destitution _ which would have Justified him in saying, or even singing—if there were any music in his soul, —“ Oh, really, lam an “ unfortunate man.” His manner of accounting for Lord Normanby’s “hostility” is recondite and ingenious. Some years ago, at the Capa of Good Hope, “he had refused to put in a position of “ trust a relative of the Earl of Derby “ under circumstances unjust to the Co- “ lony in which he (Sir George Grey) “ was Governor, unjust to the Civil Ser- “ vice, unjust to tljp inhabitants. lie “ was required to perform an unjust “ action, and because ho declined to do “ so, he gave offence to the Colonial De- “ partment, and had since then become a “ marked man, and anyone who Injured “ him would always stand well with that “department!” It would be useless to suggest to the Premier that two persons at least are required to make a quarrel, and that his Excellency the Governor has never permitted himself, under the many provocations which ho has publicly received, to be drawn into such a quarrel. In tho official encounters which have been forced upon him by the Premier, Lord Norhanby has preserved a perfect temper, has skillfully parried the thrusts of an angry adversary, has foiled him laughingly, and disarmed him with provoking nonchalance and ease. ' Sir George Grey has been beaten by tho Governor at his own favorite weapon the memorandum—and although the wounds inflicted are not deep they are, like the wounds of a feminine vanity, visible and smarting always. We should not be surprised to learn that Lord Normanby had never heard of Lord Derby’s relative or of Sir George Grey’s heroic resistance to the order ’‘to take care of Doub,” and we cannot help thinking that, excepting when the fact of his being on the honorable roll of Imperial Pensioners recals his name to the mind of one of the clerks, the “ Colonial Office ” does not now disturb itself very much about our Premier. If Lord Normanby could permit any personal feeling of enmity to sway him in his official relation with his chief responsible adviser, he might find sufficient excuse in the direct and studied offensiveuess of his servant, without going so far as the Cape to look for it in Governor Grey’s dislike to Lord Derby’s relative.

Upon what ground, looking at the occurrences of the last two days, the Premier can complain of want of support in the House of Representatives, wo are unable to understand. If the true test of the loyalty of party be to support a Minister when be has done wrong, Sir George Grey might point with justifiable pride to the division list on Mr. Fox’s lato motion relative to the Press Agency job,—the moat scandalous “ap“plication of public funds to the benefit' “ of friends” which has been attempted in this Colony—and to the triumphant division of 29 to 13 in favor of Mr. Sixee hay’s motion on Wednesday, after slanderous words had been “taken down.” That kind of support is rare, and wo are glad to believe that it cannot last very fong or bo frequently exhibited. If the Premier has not yet succeeded in fixing a quarrel upon the Legislative Council the fault has certainly not been his. That is a rock upon which he may be wrecked if he does not take care. The Council has protected, the rights and liberties of the people against tho nefarious attempt of the Government to swamp the qualified European electors by bogus votes of unqualified Maoris ; and we may repeat Major Atkinson’s challenge, “ that tho Government should now go to “ tho country on the question whether the “ North Island was to bo governed by the “ Maoris, under Sir George Grey, or “ whether the Constitution was to have “ free play.’’ Wo do not doubt that honorable Legislative Councillors would join the Premier in a petition to tho Governor for a speedy dissolution.