A SECRET REASON.

Patea Mail, 21 June 1881, Page 2

A SECRET REASON.

Once more Mr Bryce has astonished his friends. He now divulges the fact that there was a secret reason for his retirement from the Ministry. He does not say what the reason is, but only that there was a compact to the effect that all the Ministers should keep secret the real reason for his resignation. Is that quite fair to the public ? Has the public confidence t not been trifled with ? First there was an official reason put forth to explain Mr Bryce’s retirement, that reason being communicated to the prfess, and endorsed by Mr Bryce and by Major Atkinson, who in later speeches said the reason so given was substantially correct. Major Atkinson also said there was nothing to add to it. Mr Bryce said the same thing by repeating the reason as first published, and then confirming it by a historical narrative of circumstances. That reason from first to last was that the Ministry as a whole would not consent to his proposed invasion of Parihaka, ostensibly to arrest Hiroki as a murderer, and to arrest Te Whiti if he resisted, but really invading Parihaka to break the spell of Maori fanaticism by showing that Te Whiti’s prophecies could not keep the pakcha back. The public accepted the reason set forth by so many authorities, and the matter of Mr Bryce’s resignation was thought to be done with. At Friday’s sitting of the House, however, Mr Bryce complained that the Governor had misrepresented the factsin a Home dispatch, and told the House that the real reason had not yet been divulged. The Premier disclaimed responsibility for the despatch, but said nothing about the “ real reason.” The public are left to draw inferences. There is a real reason which Ministers are keeping secret, and which Mr Bryce will not divulge even now. If Mr Bryce had not stated at Waverley that he joined in authorising the Governor’s letter to Te Whiti, it might be thought, and had been thought, that Mr Bryce resigned because that letter was sent without consulting him as Native Minister. There must be another cause of rupture, a

secret cause. Probably it was this. The Governor wanted to £o to Parihaka even after Te Whiti iiad refused his written overture. Against that Mr Bryce may have made a stand, as he certainly ought to have done; and probably he put the Ministry in this dilemma: “If the Governor goes to Parihaka, after Te Whiti’s refusal of that letter, I will resign.” The Governor probably insisted that no such promise ought to be exacted from him ; that a Governor is not the servant of a Ministry to be ordered by them. The Ministry may have said : “ We have no control over the Governor.” Upon that Mr Bryce may have washed his hands by resigning. If this be not the “ real reason,” what is ?