WEEKLY BULLETIN.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5586, 22 February 1879, Page 2

WEEKLY BULLETIN.

(From the New Zealand Mail.) The event of the week Ims been the departure of the Governor. It is satisfactory to think that Lord Nokmanby carries away with him the assurance that the loyalty of the people of Now Zealand to the Crown, and their love and attachment to the old land which they fondly call “home,” are still undiminishod and unimpaired. National renegades are in a very small minority, and when they show their sores and wounds, as Sir George Grey persists in doing, and call upon the people of New Zealand for help, as he does, in avenging imaginary alights to a morbid personal vanity by separating themselves from the parent stock, they are met with cold contempt for their disloyalty, which may be at any moment warmed into fierce indignation, We coirmend to our readers an attentive study of the speech which the retiring Governor of this Colony made to an enthusiastic assemblage of the people of Dunedin on Thursday last, a telegraphic report of which will be found in another column. All that could bo done by the personal action of Ministers, and by their “special wire,” to burk the free and loyal expression of popular sentiment on this occasion, has been done, and all has failed, as we are glad to bo able to record, most signally. It is intimated, somewhat darkly, in the Ministers’ newspaper, that their campaign of opposition to the new Governor may be opened by a demand to be allowed to appoint men of their own to be Private Secretary and Aide-de-Oamp to Sir Hercules Robinson, the ground being that information of an inconvenient character for truthfulness leaks occasionally out of Government House and into Conservative newspapers. The fact of a “leakage” may be readily admitted, although there must be disagreement as to the locus in quo. There is said, indeed, to be a little bird in the Cabinet itself not always discreet in its twittering when out of the cage, and not under the eye of the trainer. The remedy proposed, however, may be found to be worse than the disease ; experience of the result of the “Venetian” spy system in Rewi’s case cannot be regarded as satisfactory, and we think it probable on the whole that Sir Hercules Robinson may object to be taken care of in that fashion by Sir George Grey or by Mr. Sheehan, or by both. Although his Excellency may be too old to bo scared by a “painted tiger,” it is not the less unfortunate for the interests of peaceful administration in this Colony that such insolent threats should have been uttered through an official medium. We note with great satisfaction that the Premier will not desist from the Thames Valley Railway 7 job. In the Grahanistowu telegraphic summary for Thursday last, it is announced that “Mr. Sooter’s “ tender at £7500 has been accepted for “ the first section of the railway between “ the two wharves.” This is “ thorough,” and we like it ou that account. By the Railways Construction Act the Colony is pledged and committed to the expenditure of six and a half millions of money upon certain new works distinctly specified. Whether or not the money to carry on and complete these authorised works can be obtained is now more than doubtful; we see deputations every day vainly urging the Minister for Public Works to commence upon some of the lines already authorised to be constructed and for which money has been appropriated, and we have the spectacle at the same time, at Grahamstown, of a railway work which was not authorised by Parliament, for which no money has been voted, actually put in hand by the Premier who represents the district, whilst other lines, like the Hutt-Waikanae, the Nelson and Foxhill, and the continuation of the main line from Amberley,are still “underconsi-

deration. ” The Tapanui j ob of Mr Bastings and Mr. Maoandrew was sufficiently scandalous, bnt the Grahamstown job of Sir George Grey transcends that one in open lawlessness and utter and wilful disregard of the authority of Parliament. As all the public funds available, orlikelyto be, have been appropriated in advance, it would appear that some other work or district must be robbed to find money for this illegal expenditure on a political line amongst the constituents of the honorable member for ttie Thames. Attention has been called to the fact that the period when claims to be placed on the electoral roll of a district can be received, will expire at the end of the next month, March. The imposture of the “stump” in regard to the franchise has long ago been exposed, and it has been demonstrated that the number of persons now on the electoral roll, or otherwise qualified to vote at the election of members of the House of Representatives, is, in proportion to the population, equal to that which is found in Victoria, the most democratic community now existing, and where manhood suffrage has been long established ; yet as there may be persons who have not been caught in the rate collector’s net, and who have the modest necessary qualification as freeholder, leaseholder, householder, or lodger, we would urge them not to lose the present opportunity of obtaining the right to vote. If there should bo no election immediately, the numbers of registered voters in a locality may form an element in the determination of the question of redistribution of representation which must be considered and settled in the next session of Parliament.

The tender regard for the “ poor man ” which imbues the soul of the Premier, has found appropriate, if weak, expression with all the emphasis which italics are capable of giving, in the Minister’s paper on Friday. The French settlement of Akaroa is the Ministerial ideal of perfection. This is what Ministers say : —“All we “ will say at present is, that if the English “ settlements in New Zealand had been “ formed on the same principles as the “ French settlement of Akaroa, we would “not at this period require the wisdom, “energy, disinterestedness, experience, “ and talents of Sir George Grey to pre- “ rent this country from going over the “precipice, to the edge of which former “ Governments have pushed it. Had the “ French settlement continued, each set- ‘ ‘ Her would have had a portion of the bes t “ of the land as his right. ” The italics are the Ministers’, not ours. We will not discuss the “principles” upon which the Nanto-Bordelaine Company sought to found their settlement at Banks Peninsula. They were commercial purely. The company were interested in whaling adventures, and the business of the new settlers was to be the growing of vegetables for the sailors. They had each a garden, for which they were to pay a largo price, and they vegetated at Akaroa for many years, as a poor, simple, contented, and unprogressive little community, shut out from contact with the world, and whose aspirations werebounded by their garden hedges. This, then, is the latest Ministerial idea of what the poor man should bo. No aristocrats or employers. Every man a cottier, with legumes, the poi-au-feu, and belief in Grey. Happy people! Blooming Arcadia of poverty and faith ! Let the peer man think of it. It may be upon these “ principles ” that Mr. Larnach has just floated his Agricultural Company in London, to “ burst up ” certain large estates which otherwise might have “gone off” in a different way.