THE STANDARD. SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1873.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume I, Issue 33, 8 March 1873, Page 2

THE STANDARD.

SATURDAY, MARCH 8, 1873.

“ We shall sell to no man justice or right: We shall deny to no man justice or right : We shall defer to no man justice or right.”

The coitfirmation of a change in the Ministry, to hand by the Paterson, is nothing more than might have been expected. Striking, as it does, at the very root of an unreliable patriotism— A disinterestedness too Utopian 'in these latitudes —we rather looked for this termination of the political experiment of unpaid responsibility, and should have been somewhat out in our estimate of the influences which generally act upon men, if it had been otherwise. But we form our opinion as to what those influences were, from an opposite point of view to those given by Southern journals. We never did have any faith in the stability of the men (at any rate in the field of colonial politics) who, except in cases of sheer necessity, •take such huge leaps into the unknown •depths of a so-called patriotism, as Mr. Waterhouse did when he accepted the position of Premier without either portfolio or pay. The laborer is worthy of his hire. The colony, possibly, can as well afford to pay the salary as most men can to forego its receipt; and there was no question of colonial impecuniosity under the ■consideration of the House, to render a personal sacrifice, in .the interests .of the people, either juecessary or desirable.

We do not for a moment contend that if Mr. Watebhouse bad been a salaried minister, he would not have acted exactly as he has done. We attribute to no man such sordid motives; and care not to believe that any member of the Ministry would so far forget the honorable obligation of his oath, as to be capable of moulding* his opinions in a crucible fashioned from the public ■coffers of the country. But we do believe that Mr. Waterhouse is no freer than other men from the influence of autocratic power. AntCatar, aut nullut is the hey note to his whole creed. The temporary sacrifice made in one direction is planned out to reward its victim in another: the money loss is made up by increase of political capital. Hence we believe that Mr. Watebhouse’b patriotism was unreal, because the particular circumstances of the situation, called for no such display, the whole effect of which has been that it caused men to wonder; while it gave to the exhibitor a temporary triumph in having introduced a new element of reform into the Councils of the Colony. A man who voluntarily seeks for, and obtains, unnecessary prominence by making himself a sacrificial martyr to his own caprice, furnishes himself with a weapon which he uses, albeit unconsciously, in defence of the principle he has established ; and he is apt to entertain the belief that the admiration of the few will gather around him the public support of the many, in the day of his tribulation. He carries his iron-bound will in all purposes of life ; he exacts, to the uttermost, that homage which he considers is due to greatness; and when that fails, he gauges the extent of the force at his command, by the amount of destruction he can commit—not the good he can achieve. We ask, is that patriotism? Mr. Waterhouse, although having many causes of complaint against his colleagues, is as susceptible as other mA of the power he wields, and the possible tyranny he inay inflict upon the country, under circumstances which are not improved by its exercise. The position he occupies of self-elected patriot, naturally biases him to the belief that the public will, because he thinks it should, be at one with him, oh all matters of even constitutional extremity and severity, solely in view of a very doubtful advantage of moneysaving secured to them by that election. He sinks the major in the minor; and considers the aggrandisement of his political reputation more than the S eaceful solution of a difficulty. We o not blame him for the step he has taken, but for the time selected, and the method of carrying an arbitrary whim into eflect. The Premier must have known what the whole colony knew; indeed it is notorious that he has contradicted reports charging him with being privy to Mr. Hall’s retirement from the Council; and we cannot conceive of a better illustration of our argument than that, in the face of that fact, he delays his ulterior* action until a moment eminently inconvenient, and fights with a Czarish imperiousness, admitting of no quarter. It savors of petulance, not at all consonant with the exalted motives ascribed to him on the formation of the present Ministry, to tarry in the improvement of a position, which his apologists say was “ no longer tenable,” until the eve of the Governor’s departure, and then to beard him by threatening to detain the Luna. Had a true patriotism guided the Premier’s action in this matter, he would have accepted so excellent an opportunity for its exercise; had a generous loyalty to the Constitution been his care, instead of a paltry glorification of himself, he would have let the country repose in quiet until the Cabinet assembled. The good offices of Mr. Fox will tell in his favor; he is more of the Cincinnatus stamp of the two; he is the PATRIOT the country will applaud. The Parliament, perforce, must soon be called together; a resignation of the Ministry is all but inevitable, to be followed by the possibility a general election; and if so, we predict that Mr. Fox’s sacrifice will be remembered when Mr. Waterhouse’s patriotism is forgotten.