The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1879.

Patea Mail, Volume V, Issue 414, 5 April 1879, Page 2

The Patea Mail. (Published Wednesdays and Saturdays.) SATURDAY, APRIL 5, 1879.

It is understood that Parliament will meet in July. Till then the Grey Government had better eat, drink, and be merry. They had better magnify their office and taste the sweets of authority. They will do well to make what pleasure trips they wish in the Hinemoa, or other steamers that they may choose to have delayed for them. If they wish to try the effect upon the system of travelling post haste for a few' hundred miles, now is the time. If there are any Governor’s to bo insulted, or any newspapers to be bought, now or never is the word. Much may be done in three or four months. Friends may be made with the mammon of unvightcousiness. Unheard of villainies, on the part of the late Government, may be unearthed. Fresh schedules for the land tax business may bo devised. Fresh schemes for the equality of men may be watched. The mob may be excited to clamour after one status for fool and philosopher, for spendthrift, loafer, and thrifty citizen ; or, it may be convinced that it is not consistent with dignity to allow tiie Imperial Government to nominate its representative among us. Something may be done towards delivering ns from the degradation of being a part of the British Empire, and towards erecting ns into a free and happy State, blest with an elective head, who would v j to bills and dissolve Parliaments, at the desire of his first Minister. Further contempt for Europeans may be engendered in the native mind by weak indecision, or by mobilising armies of tens and twenties. There are yet great possibilities before this moribund Ministry; bat it may yet disappoint its enemies, as it bas so often disappointed its friends. It may be afraid to die as it lived. It may come to a deathbed repentance, and really do something before it shuffles off this mortal coil. A good stroke of policy on the Waimate might be accepted by the country as such a repentance, and though it would not secure a new lease of life, it would secure a peaceful and honorable death. We do not predict such an end for the Grey Government; far from it. It has been so inconstant as to make ns think all things possible, and nothing probable, except failure. We simply follow the spirit of the old saying, “ While there is life, there is hope.” We do not know what the programme fqr the session will bo; only a few detached items having come to light. It is confidently believed that, should an opportunity occur before the “no confidence ” motion is carried, Mr Fox will rise in his place, and ask whether Winiata has been brought to justice, and whether the Government have hoard of a Maori named Hiroki. He will be told that there are reasons of State for not making public all that is done anti known with respect to these gentlemen. Mr Fox will remark that had the Permissive Bill been passed there would have been no more murders. Mr Swanson has a few pointed remarks ready on several subjects. T)r Wallis is determined to make the House shake its sides now and then. Mr Stout will embrace all possible pretexts for hearing himself speak. Major Atkinson will enquire when the Financial Statement will be ready, and if it is intended to appropriate the remaining five per cent, of the Patea County Land Fund, for the purpose of defraying the travelling expenses of the Native Minister. The expression - “ stumping the country ” being out of copyright, is to become common property, and any member may use it if he likes, but, by so doing, be will incur a frown from Mr Rolleston. Mr Wakefield will make a good speech, and will also write some personal articles for the Timaru Herald. These are the chief items of public business that will occupy the House for the first five or six months of the session. After this, a day or two will be devoted to passing a few bills relating to loans, native lands, mining regulations, railways, and the land-tax.