WEEKLY BULLETIN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5510, 23 November 1878, Page 2

WEEKLY BULLETIN.

(From the New Zealand Mail.) ■ The “real Governor” of s the Colony, as he dubs himself, Sir George Grey, has gone to Kawau. Importunate constituents and unfulfilled promises pursued him to the last moment. The Thames people were “at” their representative again by telegram about the Valley railway, and the well-understood minute U.B.D. of the wearied Minister appears to have been thus translated for them by his Private Secretary:—“ The “ Premier says he goes to Kawau for rest “ and quiet, and hopes that Mr. Macan- “ drew will attend to your request.” Peace be with him and may his rest be perfect. It will need long and patient labor on the part of the Native Minister, Mr. Sheehan, to undo the mischief which has been done, aud to remove the distrust which, owing to the folly of his chief, now fills the minds of the natives in regard to the purposes and proceedings of the Government. Boastfullness about themselves, and an ungenerous depreciation of the labors of the great man, Sir Donald McLean, who preceeded them, have been punished as they deserved in the mortification of the Ministers. But their actions have unfortunately also affected tho public interests, in that they have made a breach in the bond of mutual confidence which they found established, and in that they have committed themselves rashly to a course of action which must result either in their own political discomfiture—by the exposure of the absurdity of their pretensions to special influence—or in a disturbance of the peaceful relations which for years have existed between the European and the Maori people in this Colony. Mr. Sheehan we believe to be superior to the selfishness which would place merely personal considerations before the higher one of public duty and the common interest, and if he can now be allowed to exercise his judgment untrammelled by the egoism of the Premier, his natural tact aud skill may ‘‘ at last ” prevent the rupture to which the whole action of the Government for the last year has been tending. He will deserve well if that can bo accomplished quietly. “Blowing” will be of no effect in the future ; the bubble has burst. Maoris keep no secrets, and the whole history of the late operations of Kawana Kebbi are perfectly well known to every native in New Zealand; it is now seen that tho official account of the result is about as true as the official account of Rewi’s intention to make tho railway from Waitara to Waikato at his own expense, or as that other graphic description of the assault on the triumphal arch at Now Plymouth, which has had such a happy personal result for the ingenious narrator of it.

There is much curious speculation abroad as to the motives which induced the Premier to drop the Electoral Bill after the Legislative Council had consented to waive all tho amendments made except those relating to the dual Maori vote, which in fact restored the Bill to the precise form in which it was originally introduced by the Attorney-General on behalf of tho Government. There is general concurrence of opinion that the power of controlling the elections by the Maori vote, on the plan invented at the Bay of Islands, was the one good thing which was in tho Bill, and that when it was taken away the rest was, for electioneering purposes, useless. The “Great Charter,” so eloquently described by Sir George Grey, was therefore put in the waste-paper basket. Tho threatening cloud of war still hangs upon tho hills of Affghanistan so ominously—if wo may judge from tho latest European telegrams—as, in the view of influential persons in London, to make a special meeting of the Imperial Parliament desirable. Our Colonial defences are not yet quite complete. The money proposed to bo applied to tho purpose has been taken to make up tjie deficit iti our Dudget caused by tho defeat of tho beer tax. But the Defence Minister has reviewed the army of tho South, and has tallied much but, we are sorry to say, not wisely, about the situation. Golden opinions have not been gathered, nor has confidence in the Government or reliance upon the Defence Department been increased either by the Ministerial tour or by the official utterances of the military chief. _ _ ' , Tho municipal election for the Mayoralty loses nothing of its interest. Both candidates have been enlightening the ratepayers IVJ-r. Hu Juki.son’s work has

been the most difficult. There are old administrative spots that will not wash out. Packed meetings give him votes of confidence, but only the ballot-box can tell how far the confidence is general. The poll is appointed to take place on Wednesday next, and from a correspondence which appeared yesterday we infer that some of the humors of Donnybrook Fair may be expected at the polling booth. The official warning of Messrs. Sievwkight and. Stout, that the poll ■“ may be badly conducted from excessive crowding,” has a familiar ring. There was a time when a Provincial Engineer, somewhere in the North, had a number of friends who took great interest in local elections, and were knows as “ Charley’s Lambs.” Rounded up before a polling booth these “ playful critters ”, gambolled and butted in such a fashion as' made it very difficult for any animal, not properly branded or ear marked, to get a sight of the returning officer at all much less to get into the booth, which was generally u crowded ;” thus the expression of the popular will was not always so complete or reliable as impartial people might desire. It may bo that lambs of that flock, or the shepherd himself, are here, and in that case we should naturally expect some fun; but as the fun might bo carried too far it would be well that the authorities, being warned, should look to it.