The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7, 1880.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1162, 7 January 1880, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. WEDNESDAY JANUARY 7, 1880.

5Jt SwASScnt, in a speech delivered at a banquet given .to him by bis admirers at New{da,' the district which he represents, defended his action doting the late session. Tim speech-was not a good one, and not ueailyap to the standard of Mr. Swan•on's previous oratorical deliverances. It lue iecn ti«» habit'to speak on the spar of « the moment, oat of the fulness of his j speeches have not been so mocA noted for their polished eloquence n {of the unie truths they contamed, rendered piquant by the naturalnees oCthe 1 language in which they were ntterecL- -.Bat then he was "Honest Willie, 1 * and had nothing to hide from his constituents. Fresh from Wellington, bm bosom swollen with pride at the un<..«•»of his ho'neaty—at having mother season of temptation in fluariHmu* wi'hoat a single shaft of the enemj having.peneirated his invulnerable armor—He ' wonld give a plain nnvarkfabed account of his stewardship, tm'.btnera wonld, filled with adliiiritwßj exclaim, " There is one honest «mi« in" Parliament, and he is Willie «—&■* "Bat "Honest Willie" went to Welfington once too often. The last ■n—if too much for him, and he retarntdto iaekbnd,At its close, burdened with promifes of gold for Auckland, but eased of bispolHical-virtue. We can easily that, under the circumstances, he would fed feme compunction in meeting his constituents asof yore. The old speeches, which had become engraven on the tablet of his memory, were inapplicable tmw. 1 He appeared in quite a new chamber, ,that of a political renegade and a schemer, and his speech would have to be tlot of a special pleader. He could not trust himself to extempore speaking. The position was fo him as novel as it as "delicate, and ho mnst have voluminous netuitt guide him through all the ntcc intricacies <«f ft defence. The notes were prepared—perhaps somebody else had s hand in their preparation and lie appeared before bis constituents armed wHktbem. But, no—» plunge Into every wAt .{n la» wiaiMti disclosed the he had lost them. He audience, all —lii—tifisfili silly Word that fell from Mi Hff on so jpyiiMirtis occasion. He

was more forlorn and helpless than he was when he made liis maiden speech. But he mast speak, although he trembled for the issue. Before* he had finished, we venture to say that his audience as heartily regretted as he did that he had mislaid his notes. ' His utterances were feeble and rambling. ■ Some ofthem were untruthful, and.' none of --them possessed the excellence of clearness. JElis reason for deserting his. party was puerile l in the extreme. He said that he/" felt that the; Governor woiild not ' grant a dissolution 'so, soon after the .general election.." " MrlSwanson knew that nodiublution would have been necessary had he and his- three* colleagues adhered to the party they had helped to lead into the position they, occupied when the session opened. At least, they were responsible for the disintegration of a wholesome Opposition,, which might have acted as a check upon unjust administration. " Politics inWellington," he said, " had become a contest for office ; there were only five or six offices to fill, and there were a dozen men anxious to fill them." This is nothing new. It has always been so, and may continue to be so to the end of the chapter. Such hunting after office is no valid excuse for desertion of party and principles, the secession of the Aucklanders only tended to aggravate the evil by introducing two other candidates for official positions into the field, whilst it produced a worse result in the misappropriation of public moneys. Mr. Swanson was shocked that contractors should have to ask twice for the money that was due them. But Mr. Swanson should have known that that was one of the ill effects of the universal depression that had existed for twelve months in the Colony, and was ' not attributable to misgovernment. The Government that had just been ousted, like many cf the people of the Colony, had more than they could do to make both ends meet, and their successors would have been similarly, situated had it not been for the floating of the loan. . He stated that when he represented these" matters to Major Atkinson he received the reply, " How can ;you, Swanson, expect, me to pay when you do your best to prevent the Government getting any money to pay it with." Mr. Swanson, as an old politician, ought not to have been caught in such a snare. • This is the catch cry of Governments that are in extremis. There were no grounds, whatever, for the insinuation that the Government had been prevented from carrying on the business of the country by an obstructive Opposition. Anyone who has read the accounts of the doings of Parliament last session will feel regretful that the Opposition did not assert itself more strenuously and frequently. He did not, he says, quite approve of Sir George Grey being left out in the cold. We should think not. A more grievous political blunder was never committed than his deposition s head: of his party. But what has that to do with his desertion? Did some extraordinary foresight lead him to anticipate that by reducing the party by four strong members, might more effectually be resuscitated and Sir George Grey reinstated at its head? Nothing of the kind. He only knew that Auckland was clamoring for that which it. would not get from the Grey Government, and that the present Government had offered to grant it in order to strengthen their position. He and his colleagues wanted the misappropriation in the north of two or three hundred thousand pounds of public money, and not the reinstatement of Sir George Grey. They regretted, of course, that he and honesty had to be sacrificed, but they resolved to level everything that opposed them, that they might make sure of such a good slice of the new loan. This was the real object of the deflection of the four Aucklanders from a party in a political sense the antithesis of that they joined. Mr. Swanson, without his notes to guide him, yawed through one of the mo3t unpleasant hours he had ever spent in his life, and, forgetting that he had given other and more honorable reasons for his action, concluded by saying, " I want the work of my electoral district done, and whoever does it will have my support." Theintention wasnothonestjbut this would have been an honest avowal, if it had not been made by a man who was off his guard.