South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1881,

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2554, 28 May 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, SATURDAY, MAY 28, 1881,

Mr Harr addressed bis constituents at Leeston on Thursday evening. The greater portion of his speech was, as might be expected, devoted to the defence of the policy and actions of the Ministry. Mr Hall has the advantage of the last word. He hungback from delivering an address till the leader of the Opposition had spoken. It will be remembered that when Sir George Grey addressed the electors of the Thames a few weeks back, he spoke very strongly on the advances of public money which had been made to the district represented by Major Atkinson. He related an anecdote about the Major advising the Chairman of the Patea Harbor Board in the following words ;—“ You go to Sir George Grey and tell him you are going to contest the seat against me, and you will no doubt get the money.”' The Patea Chairman had been on a begging expedition to Wellington afc the time. The member for the Thames expressed great indignation that it should be even hinted that he would buy political support in such an open and barefaced manner. However, the sting of Sir George’s remarks lay in the deductions which he drew from the ad- | vice given by the Colonial Treasurer. He said : “I firmly believe that sums of money have been applied to promote the views of members of the Ministry and their friends, and I cannot bring myself to think that this is the first of the kind which has taken place.” So far the affair does net reflect creditably on the gentleman who gave the advice, but the end of the matter was that the Patea Harbor Board got the amount asked for, and that its Chairman (Mr Sherwood) did oppose Major Atkinson at the next general election. A remarkable feature in connection with the transaction was that Mr Sherwood at first only asked for £2500 ; but after an interview with Sir George Grey, raised the request to £IO,OOO, and got the latter amount. Here is what Mr Hall deduces from the affair : Now, gentlemen, can we believe that the remarkable success of the Chairman of the Patea Harbor Board in obtaining this money was entirely unconnected with the fact that he was to be a candidate for the district in support of the Grey Government; known as we do the ra'e at which Government communications are generally answered ; knowing as we do that he was opposing Major Atkinson ; knowing as we do that it was of very great importance to his canvass of the district that he should go back to Patea with the promise of £IO,OOO ; and seeing that the £IO,OOO was granted him with the most unusual rapidity can we believe that all these circumstances were a mere innocent coincidence ? I say that if they were a coincidence it was almost miraculous. To my mind, gentlemen, the transaction is not creditable to the Government of the day. Mr Hall goes on to say that it migb be expected that Sir George Grey after so vigorously denouncing the system under which such transactions are possible would,during the twoyears he held office, have done something to abolish the system. He could hare done so

with a stroke of his pen ; but he left the improper system in full swing. Most people will agree with Mr Hall that the Grey-Macandrew Administration had accomplished very little in abolishing the system of . buying political support with grants of public money. They inherited the policy from previous Governments, and they were not strong enough to drop it. Sir Julius Yogel had reduced the system to a science. As long as there was no limit to the borrowing powers of the colony, no Ministry could have successfully turned a deaf ear to the shameless lot of beggars who kept prowling round the Treasury. At the same time, the Ministry of Sir George Grey lost a grand opportunity. They failed to read the signs of the future. The period of financial depression awoke people to the unpleasant fact that the colony was at the end of its financial tether, and that retrenchment must be the order of the day. But neither Sir George Grey nor Mr Macandrew was equal to the occasion. The Hall Ministry came into power and accepted the inevitable, and were supported in their retrenchment policy by both sides of the House. The fact of the matter is, that the late Ministry were unaware of the temper of Parliament or the country. Had they been allowed a few more months in office, who knows but that the Grey Administration might have earned for itself the name of the Retrenchment Ministry. This much is perfectly certain that the cutting down policy might easily hare been carried out in a more effective manner than it has been, without entailing a tithe of the amount of individual hardship.

Mr Hall draws attention to one remark which fell from Sir George Grey at Coromandel. It is to the effect : “No Government could rise superior to the temptation of according its patronage to friends. The best way of effecting a cure would be to adopt the American system, which gave each Government a right of turning out presumedly hostile officials, and filling their places with men more friendly disposed when in office.”

We have always been under the impression that the most enlightened and patriotic Americans arc opposed to the system which replaces Republicans by Democrats, and vice versa, ns each party manages to elect a President. In fact, so strong has been the current of opinion in the States against the practice that daring the past two Presidental elections, the successful Republican candidates have striven to put an end to it. We are surprised that a gentleman of the peculiar experience of Sir George Grey should have advocated such a demoralising system. Sir George had served the Crown faithfully and well, and received the promotion to which he was entitled by his eminent services. If, after securing the peace of the Cape of of Good Hope, he had been the victim of a change of Ministry, and had been succeeded by some waiter on political providence, what would Sir George’s feelings have been ? The Civil servants of New Zealand are, as a rule, poorly paid. Insecurity of tenure would be an additional burden too hard to bear.