PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1881.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume IX, Issue 964, 27 July 1881, Page 2

PUBLISHED EVERY WEDNESDAY & SATURDAY. WEDNESDAY, JULY 27, 1881.

The question that is presently most agitating the public mind, and which, probably, at the time we write is in hot debate in the people’s Legislative Hall is the motion tabled by Mr. Ormond, and which has been declared on both sides, as involving the unseating or the stabilily of the Ministry. We are glad to find we are not alone in our opinion of what the result of Mr. Ormond’s success would be. Mr. Wakefield dealt the following telling blows during the debate last week:—

Despite the attempt made by Mr. Ormond to gloss over the fait, the amendment meant a vote of no-confidence, and Government must either resign or else go to the count y. If it were carried, Mr. Ormond took that step with the knowledge that a redistribution of seats was anxiously desired by the country, and that redistribution could not take place in time for the election that would then be rendered imm nent. They must assume that if beaten the Government would resign. In that case Mr Ormond would have to form a Ministry out of a party with whom he had never worked, and wit ■ whom be was at daggers drawn. Tn that case they would have Mr. Ormond at the bead of the Government; Mr. Sheehan, Native Minister; Mr. Ballance, Treasurer; and in all probability Mr. Speight would have

a portfolio. A more brilliant Government could not be imagined I What kind of policy would such a combination produce ? What kind of local government would they get from such a Government ? The whole thing would mean thatrthey would a have change of Ministry, but no change of local administration. It may be regretted that the Government raised Mr. Ormond’s defection to the prominence of a No Confidence Vote ; but we do not see what other honorable course they could follow 7 . The worst of it is that in the one instance all codes of manly and political dignity and rectitude are set at naught, while in the other, the persons more directly injured, are helplessly bound by them. Mr. Ormond may turn round and act disloyally to his party, but they cannot retaliate, being bound by Parliamentary usage. But it is assuring to find that few, if any, but the malcontents and rodents will follow Mr. Ormond, and they only for what they can get. Again, we find Mr. Wakefield championing his party, and is reported to have recently declared in the House, amidst great cheering, that neither he nor those of the Government knew anything of Mr. Ormond’s purpose, but, on the contrary, denounced the motion before the House as “an un- “ worthy intrigue of the member for “ Clive.” It is said that Mr. Stevens, member for Christchurch, knew of Mr. Ormond’s design, and endeavored to dissuade him from putting it into execution, and appealed to him “ for “ the sake of every consideration that “ could affect a noble mind to aban- “ don it.” Poor Mr. Stevens ! He might have saved himself the trouble, if he thought that, by appealing to the ‘'nobility” of Mr. Ormond’s mind he could turn him from his fixed resolve. But, fortunately, the cards with which Mr Ormond thought to euchre his mates, are exposed. It is useless for Mr. Ormond to express surprise at the Ministry accepting his friendly action in any other light than that of the greatest hostility, and accompanied with the blackest ingratitude. What does he say in reply to Mr. Wakefield ? He said that

He had not been, as stated, on terms of intimacy with the Government party this session. He had had communications, but not of the nature attempted to be set up by the last speaker. He had been carefully reticent with the party. The Government quite understood his feelings towards them, and he had not by word or otherwise given the Government to understand that he continued a member of the party on a confidential footing with them. In addressing his constituents months ago he had clearly defined his position.

If that be the case; if he was, which we doubt not, “ carefully reticent ” with his party —scanning well their policy, under the garb of a pretended friendliness, which made them count on his support —so much the more necessity for him to fight fairly, and on the square, and not wait until the Government are off their guard, and hit them below the belt.

It is well to dissect Ihe question. Who are the men most likely to turn out the Government ? The men who “ ratted” from the Grey party to put them in, of which Mr. Reader Wood is one of the most prominent; and, therefore, on that score the Ministerialists find little sympathy. In fact the question seems to be quite diverted from its original spring. In that Mr. Ormond lias achieved one portion of his aim. But are not the weapons he called from their sheaths, turned more against himself to thwart his nefarious project, than towards the Government to keep them in their places? And another question: What are we to expect of a Government of which the member for Clive is a leading spirit ? He will repeal the Property tax ; borrow- more money to spend on his Hawke’s Bay dependents ; fall back on the effete flunkyism of Superintendents and Provincial legislatures ; play into the hands of the large landholders, and make sale of the Colonial railways for the profit of friends. The repeal of the Property tax may not be a very great calamity to the Colony ; but—as it has been known to be the l>ete noir that has troubled Mr. Ormond’s very soul, and, as a contemporary puts it, “ which “ was shaking the very coins in his “ breeches pocket ’’—the public spirit he evinces, in over-reaching himself to get possession of power, not for the good of the peonle, but for his own selfish ends,, will powerfully aid in shortening his arm. We know that Mr. Ormond’s heart w as terribly crushed when the peacock feathers of Superintendentalism were plucked from his tail. But it must be remembered that he was a member of the Ministry when the abolition of the Provinces was accomplished. If we recollect rightly he was a warm advo-

cate for the present County system; and now 7 he returns, as canine quadrupeds are said to do, x to re-eat his supper, and seeks to destroy the images he helped to set, up. Had Mr. Ormond turned round boldly, and told his friends he and they must part company. That he had no faith in their proposals, and, While exposing the faultiness of their local Government, had given an outline of what he proposed, these might have been taken either as a friendly hint, or, at least, as a fair and honorable way of showing fight ; but there is no security in the past history of this' ambitious, cunning schemer, that, should he reach the summit of his ambition, and sit amongst the spurious “ Knights ” of the land, he will not attempt to undo all that he is now straining every nerve to accomplish.