The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1879.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1089, 15 October 1879, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1879.

Ttat political situation is becoming somewhat complicated. Mr. Macandrew admitted at one o'clock this morning that hU party was cat-flanked, and beyond all qaeatico the forms of the Boom are ex* trexaely embarrassing. A Ministry confusedly In a minority are able neverth»Jcas to defy the majority, and ward off, for u indefinite period, the vote that will .coasign them once more to the cold shade of ■opposition. All honor to oor member, ..Mr. fiislop, who threatened the Ministry with the extreme measore of resisting ■appiwt, unless they met the no-confidence

treat be will not falter for an instant in his resolution, and, if necessary, erect the " stonewall" of Parliamentary tactics, aniens the "detective" Ministry will at once consent to meet their opponents in*a fair field and a fair fight. The position is one of grave importance, and one almost ■vishout a precedent or parallel in our Parliamentary annals. Bightly to judge of it.we most go back to the motion of the Hon. Mr. Hall—" That the Ministry, as at present constituted, does not possess the confidence of the House." This motion wonld appear to be part of a well laid plot, the onrinator knowing very well that a no-confidence motion per f would have been of no avail. It pointed clearly and nnmistakeably to a reconstruction of the Ministry. It did no: iti the remotest way presage the coming in of a new Ministry, much les3 did it contetnplare the return of the old r-'jinf—the Whitakera, the Rulleatona, the Atkinsons, and a state of things which we arc prone to believe has for ever pasaed away. The position, then, of Ministers is entirely indefensible and unconstitutional. There is no getting away from that. Ministers :»rc simply usurpers, and a3 such are abasing the forms of procedure in the House to prolong their exercise of power. Had an effort been made at reconstruction and resulted in a failure, the constitutional position would have been a choice between the late Government and the return to power of what is virtually a Fox-own-Atkinson administration. What would the verdict of the House upon such an issue thu3 fairly put have been I As between the extremes of the two recognised parties—in the event of no middle course being open to thein, can anyone taking the least interest in politics doubt what the deliberate choice of the House would have been 1 As between Greyism on the one hand—to put the matter plainly—and the policy of which Fox, Whitaker, and Co., are the exponents and the representatives, on the other, can anyone pretend for an instant to doubt the feeling of the country or the opinions of a majority of the House ? Holding, therefore, that tho present Ministry have no constitutional right to occupy the Government benches, we cordially concur in the determined action of our member and those who are on the ' same side to resort to extreme measures, unless they submit themselves to the verdict of the House itself. Such ignominious shirking of the no-confidence question is most cowardly and contemptible. It was plainly and manfully put. There was no insidious conditions to catch unwary and unsophisticated members. It was a no-confidence vote pure and simple. Either, then, Ministers do possess or do not possess the confidence of the House. If the farmer, why burke the question ! Why irritate the country by such evasion and ! cowardice I Why not submit the question to the vote of tha House 1 They are notoriously conscious, that they do not possess the confidence ot a majority of the people's representative ; and tins being so, they have no business on the Treasury Benches. They must be conscious, too, that they cannot retain power for many days longer. What is their pretext for such obstruction I Why such haata totrot out liberal measures with which they h»v« at heart no sympathy whatever ? It is amusing to observe the remnants of a party well nigh obsolete thus galvanised into such spasmodic action. A change has come o'er the spirit of the dream, since the present Treasurer cried like an expiring swan for rest from his labors- " political rest" for the country. Will the country be hoodwinked I We trust there is no fear of that. It ha 3 taken a new departure, from which there cannot and must not be any looking back. Nut even the indecent and demoralising efforts of the sublimely respectable Treasurer— Major Atkinson—to divert the great and real Liberal party from their aJJegiance by fiooes of disclosures to come, viil avail hini anything. He may rummage the pigeon-holes which aforetime told their old tale against himself, and we venture once more to predict that he will fail to discover anything half so sensational as the heritage he himself and the corrupt party of which he was the leader i left behind them. History does indeed ; sometimes repeat itself, but we venture to say there will be only one Piako Swamp job in the history of New Zealand administration, and when those self-constituted detectives have reached another stagw of ignominy, and constituted themselves the c.-mwumi informers of the House, they will have no disclosures to make which will rival lor an j instant the political crimes of that party; of which Major Atkinson was the political head. T' ese complications, perplexing as they are. cau only end one way—a majority must rule. 3lr. Jlislop is right. His institutional position to meet " forms" with " forms" is not only justifiable but laudable under the circumstances, and the courage and_ resolution of our worthy member on this occasion wilt, we are sure, be approved by his constituents, for, like Horatio, •" who tept the bridge in the brave days of old/' he will have performed his duty nobly and done good service to his country.