THE HON. JOHN HALL.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5767, 23 September 1879, Page 3

THE HON. JOHN HALL.

(From the LyVellon Times.) Mr, John Hall is a public man of whom the colony, and especially Canterbury which owns him, has a right to bo proud. Nature has not endowed him with excess in some parts and with deficiency in others, but she lias made him good all round. The lantern in the lighthouse of his mind is not of the flashing order, and it does not revolve. Momentary brightrjess does not suddenly burst forth and as .suddenly disappear, but the light shed is fixed, permanent, and equable. Mr. Hall is one of those men who arc born to public life. In the nursery we can imagine that he preferred statistics to sugar plums, and playing at ministers to playing at marbles. As a school boy he never could have been so happy as with a Hansard, and his holidays must hare been passed in moving for and preparing imaginary returns. He grew up a complete Blue-book in breeches. But Mr. Hall is far more than a mere political encyclopaedia. He is a man fit for any public business, and ho delights in work. He will sit on any number of local boards, and only succumbs to the physical impossibility of sitting in two places at once. He is ever ready in his place in Parliament, and is as much at home in the clerical alteration of a clause in a Municipal Bill as in the midst of a Ministerial crisis. Whatever may be the subject, and however long the sitting, Mr. Hall is never at a loss, and is seldom to be caught tripping. He is not an orator, and is not given to declamation; but he is a good debater, and what he says is not easily answered. He does not dash into a subject and then dash out again,—with great gallantry and greater indiscretion, gaining nothing and losing much. He knows when and where to attack, and how to retreat. His industry is unwearied, and his energy is indomitable. la 1868, when Parliament was in session, Mr. Hall, who was in the Stafford Ministry, and was then In the House of Representatives, undertook, in addition to his own proper share of the work, the duty of the Colonial Treasurer, who was then in England. Part of that duty was to bring in tho Budget, in the face of a strong and violent Opposition led by Sir W. (then Mr.) Fox and Sir (then Mr.) Julius Vogel. Mr. Hall was overworked, and suffering from severe illness. He rose from a sick bed, and ably performed a task which would have taxed the powers of leading statesmen in good health. It was a remarkable instance of mental resolution compensating for bodily weakness. Had it not been for ill-health and for his subsequent retirement from the House of Representatives, Mr. Hall would long ago have been Premier. Although he would not probably have had the grasp of mind and the boldness to create and launch the Public Works policy of 1870, he was in many respects better qualified than Sir Julius Vogel to direct and administer it when launched. At the same time we do not intend to impute to Mr. Hall any unconcern before 2870 in the formation of railways. It is mainly to him, as one of the Canterbury Provincial Executive in 1865, that we owe the commencement of our great South railway. Mr. Hall has been five times a Minister of the Crown. He was in the Fox Ministry of 1856, in the Stafford Ministry of 1866, in the Fox Ministry of 1872, in the Waterhouse Ministry of the same year, and in the Atkinson Ministry of 1875. But ho was in none of these Ministries moro than a few months, except in the Stafford Ministry of 1866, in which he was a member for nearly three years. As he left no Ministry of which he became a member from political disagreement, and as it cannot be said with truth that in joining any Ministry ho sacrificed his principles, bis Ministerial career would show that there was no distinctive policy in those times on either side of the House. There was no doubt one exception in the case of the Stafford native policy of 1869, as compared with that of Mr. Fox. But the events which had taken place between 1869 and 1872 obviated any possible objection on that ground to the accession of Mr. Hall to the Cabinet of Mr. Fox in 1872. A man would have been mad who in that year advocated a return to the war policy. Mr. Hall was less able in departmental thau in parliamentary affairs. He had a remarkable faculty for the despatch of business, for methodical arrangement, and for organisation. His chief attention was devoted to the Postal and Telegraph Departments, and he brought both to a state of great efficiency. The Telegraph Department he created, and in the face of trying difficulties, it soon became eminently creditable to Mr. Hall's administrative ability. Mr. Hall is an excellent judge of character and qualification, and is very successful in the selection of public servants. That is a gift essential to good administration. As a number of the Canterbury Provincial Council, and in the Provincial Executive, Mr. Hall has been zealous, able, and useful. It would be difficult, take him all in all, to find a better type of politician. ________________