The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY). WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5714, 23 July 1879, Page 2

The New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY). WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1879.

We understand that the Grey party are endeavoring to get up a monster meeting of working men, or something of the sort, in Wellington, to influence the political position, and that the Premier and other so-called Liberal leaders intend to make the usual inflammatory speeches on the occasion, with a view of eliciting such an expression of what they are pleased to call public opinion as may overawe the Legislature and possibly even intimidate the Governor. Now, we are quite prepared to find that there are in that party men reckless and void of decency enough to carry a political struggle, even while still the subject of Parliamentary deliberation, before a mob tribunal. We are quite prepared to believe that there are men with fronts of brass and lungs of leather who would gladly seek from a riotous and unthinking assemblage of irresponsible persons that applause which they cannot obtain in any more dignified. arena. But we refuse absolutely to believe that they will be able to procure a mob tribunal in Wellington, or to get together such an assemblage as would suit their disorderly purposes. They imagine, no doubt, because at various times the people of Wellington have displayed a marked sympathy with genuine Liberal principles, and have recently elected to the highest civic office a person claiming to represent popular views ; that, therefore, the people of Wellington may be made tools of whenever a needy demagogue chooses to harangue them. They could not make a greater mistake. The people of Wellington are not fools or blind. They know perfectly well what is right and proper, and, though they are as susceptible of politicalearnestness as any people in the world, when guided by their own leaders and towards their own objects, they are not for a moment going to be led by the nose [by strangers and charlatans, or hurried into an act of folly which cannot but result injuriously for them. They have yet vividly in their recollection the last trick which Sir George Grey practised upon them, when by a cunning and unscrupulous appeal to their feelings, he induced them practically to disfranchise themselves by electing Mr. Barton f«r their member. “ Once bit—- “ twice shy” is a good old maxim, and they are not at all likely just yet to consent again to be made the catspaw of men who do not care a fig for them, and who have been in a great measure the cause of the depression which now weighs upon them. The position is this ; The Grey Ministry having utterly failed to carry out any of their liberal promises, having broken every pledge they ever made, having wasted enormous sums of public money, and having corrupted and disorganised the administration to an incredible extent, are brought to book by

the Parliament of New Zealand, and required to surrender the power which they have so grossly abused. They are condemned by an overwhelming majority of the representatives of the people, including men of the highest character and ability from all parts of the colony. Instead of bowing to the will of Parliament, and retiring from office in a decorous and constitutional way, they have conceived the idea of fomenting a popular agitation at the seat of Government, and thus terrorising the Legislature and the country into giving them a new lease of power. Trusting to Sir George Grey’s great talents for oratory, and to the unblushing impudence of one or two of his dependents, they hope to delude a miscellaneous gathering of the citizens into passing resolutions and adopting measures which may be represented as a public demonstration on the part of the people of Wellington. Knowing full well that the people of Wellington would never dream of voluntarily entering into any such project, they have during the last day or two employed paid agents to go about agitating and canvassing, and creating a fictitious excitement against the House of Representatives. We are convinced, however, that the efforts of these agents will be so unsuccessful as not to be worth their wages. This is obviously the last place in the colony where such a nefarious scheme is likely to be realised. Wellington was selected for the seat of Government as being the most suitable spot in the colony for the peaceful and undisturbed deliberations of Parliament ; and during the fourteen years that Parliament has sat here, its people have never done anything to betray the trust which was then reposed in them. We feel very sure, therefore, that at a most critical political juncture, when the fortunes of the colony, and particularly of Wellington, are hanging on a thread, they are not going to take a step which might possibly be a serious embarrassment to Parliament, and which would inevitably revive the dead and gone question of the removal of the seat of Government. Believing, as we do most firmly, that so long as the people of Wellington remain true to themselves as colonists and as citizens, that question can never be revived with any hope of success, we do not hesitate to say that if this mass meeting is largely attended, the House would not only be justified in reviving it immediately and deciding it against Wellington, but would be almost compelled to do so. That, for all we know, may be the aim of the Grey party in what they are now doing. They are well known to be Separationists at heart, and it is more than likely that they may see in the present turmoil an opportunity for effecting their cherished object. Their plan probably is to get up such a disturbance in Wellington against the House of Representatives, that the House will be obliged to take some measures for securing freedom of debate and legislative action, which would of course be eagerly seized upon and made the moat of by every town in the colony which grudges Wellington the premier place. That done, they would instantly set up the Separation cry again, and would undoubtedly have a better chance of carrying it than they ever had before. But they cannot do anything of the kind if the public here will only behave reasonably and preserve their self-respect. Let them have nothing to do with these crafty, desperate men. Let them keep away altogether from the meeting if it takes place, and let the whole blame and ridicule of the fiasco fall on Sir George Grey and his friends, and the roughs and pandars who are in then-pay.