South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1880.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2324, 28 August 1880, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1880.

The political signs of the limes are not reassuring. At the end of a short-lived session, instead of a peaceful breaking up of Pai’liaracnt, we find a dispersion, as confusing as if a bombshell had descended among members. Recently we described the House of Representatives as a badly assorted circus, but it has degenerated rapidly since then. Disorder has culminated in positive anarchy, and instead of a circus we

have an unruly Noah's Ark—one of the most extraordinary omnium gathcrums that has over been scraped together under a representative form of government. The State ship is already among the breakers. Discipline there is none ; the crew, but lately so resolute and zealous, have suddenly become mutinous. At the beginning of the session we had a disjointed opposition; now we find an assembly disorganised and demoralised. The state of affairs seems hopeless ; the wreck is complete.

This is only the end that might have have been foreseen. It required no extraordinary exercise of observational power to perceive what the bud navigation of .Ma jor Atkinson and some of bis friends would load to. So long as the ministry confined themselves to purely legislative work they got along fairly. The sailing last session was moderately smooth. The rock upon which they have struck is their financial proposals. Their heroic method of dealing with local bodies lias proved a fatal blunder The Just ministry was blamed for making promises which it failed to keep. The present ministry has abstained from pro-mise-making, but it lias shown an utter disregard for Acts of Parliament. One by one the pledges made under the Abolition Act and Financial Arrangements Act have been pitched overboard as if they were waste cargo. Nothing could excel the charming contempt that lias lately been displayed for the most solemn bonds entered into by tiie Legislature. The sole policy of (be Government lias been one of taxation and repudiation. ingenious arguments have been brought to bear in favor of lids method of getting out of a scrape, but they could not withstand examination. Thu proposal to discontinue the subsidies to local bodies to which the Government and Parliament stood pledged was bail enough, lout the entire confiscation of (he colonial land fund is an act of liigii-bandcd robbery that will arouse a cry of" shame” throughout the colony. The question between Parliament and the local bodies is not one of expediency ; a thief might as well plead that lie found it inexpedient to be honest. Major Atkinson was one of the chief parties to the bargain made when (he provinces were abolished, and in pitching overhoard the various pledges that were then made, he has been throwing away the ballast that lias kept tiio State ship upright. it matters not whether the subsidies, or a participation in the colonial land fund by local bodies arc right in principle or the reverse. The sole question for the consideration of Parliament was whether faith was to be kept or broken. The Ministry decided on the latter alternative, and they arc now realising the consequences.

It is perhaps well that the end should come and come quickly. Members, it is said, are anxious to return to their homes, but the time has arrived when they should be brought face to face with their constituents. Now Zealand is ripe for a terrible weeding, as regards her representatives. The impostures from which the country is suffering arc as glaring as they arc becoming intolerable. The days of the Taranaki incubus arc numbered. Our southern gaols arc becoming stuffed with Maori prisoners beyond their holding capacity } the Maori scarecrow is getting played out, and residents of the South Island arc beginning to consider whether the game is worth the candle, and whether the colony is not paying too much for the confiscated Waiinatc plains. This showering of borrowed capital on Ministerial pocket boroughs cannot be allowed to continue. Politics may be in a state of chaos ; the outlook may be gloomy ; but the country was never more ripe for a dissolution of Parliament than it is at this moment.