THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5720, 30 July 1879, Page 3

THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION.

(From the Canterbury Press.)

The Opposition have been fortunate in their choice of a leader. Sir W. Fox has opened the campaign against the Government with a tact and decision which not only looks well for the chances of his speody victory, but gives high promise of his quality as a leader when he succeeds himself to tho post about to be vacated. We are well aware that there are other gentlemen of approved ability to whom the Opposition might, with great propriety, have confided tho leadership. It may be said, however,"that the choice of Sir William Fox was free from some objections of accident to which, undoubtedly, other selections might have been open. Major Atkinson’s claims upon a portion of the present party are beyond all question, and it reflects not a little to the honorable gentleman's credit that the claims have not been suffered to interfere for a moment with the necessity of organising the future Ministerial combination upon a new and broader basis.

The name of the Honorable Joha Hall will also at once strike our readers as that of one calculated in an eminent degree to conciliate the adhesion of a party. His prolonged and varied experience, 1-L unwearied faculty for work, his high orh-r °f ability, and above all his nnblemi-hed character, form a union of qualities to be especially desired in a party chief, and had Mr. Hail not been in the Upper House, it is conceivable that there might have been more difficulty than there has been in adjusting the relative claims to leadership. Other gentlemen, too, there were who would probably not have found it difficult to range a formidable party under their banners. But the rapidity with which the Opposition has organised itself under Sir William Fox, and wrested from the Government the control of the House, is sufficient proof that they have made choice of the right man.