South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1881.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2565, 10 June 1881, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JUNE 10, 1881.

As hiifAcipated, ,iiUe.- t .Governor’s/ speech< turned out to bo a resume, of what Mr Hall s&id at Lecston. It has been 'skillfully drawn -’tip,.'* and that is' fedognised, to be th« chief merit, in Slich addresses. In the actions. to. : which "Ministers have, pledged themselves., there is little to which their strongest opponents, cad '.object,; ,A trifle too much credit is taken for the settlement of the Native difficulty on the West Coast. ■ There is' just the slightest hint as to the illegal means by which. the peace was maintained. I Many fKioplc are of opinion- that those •menus almost precipitated a Native' 'rebellion, and that'more credit is due to r j?e Whiti than to the Government of Mr Hall. It is gratifying to learn that His Excellency's responsible advisers do not apprehend that it will be. necessary again to have recourse to extraordinary for the preservation of peace and good order in the .district. That part of the speech no doubt met with the entire .concurrence of Sir Arthur Gordon. ■ There will be a fast and furious fight over the proposals wijicm wul come under the consideration of Parliament “ for giving assistance to companies prepared to construct or continue mam lines of railway.'’ In the above there is the appropriate ambiguity oi a Governor’s speech. Read by the light of the pressure which has been brought to bear on the Ministry by Wellington and Christchurch, the

promise of the Government is significant enough. Each place has a,_W’est r - Coast railway to construct,; find - ' they ask'-Government aid in thaxshfjpe of grants of large tragts. -There is -no £jmesf refeffed to being Constructed ©fit'of* many a year •private enterprise 7 is lik<93£? to}; 2 filidertake the strong at’temptfs being made to dra,\y.,indir,ectly bn the Colonial the LandFund has become colonialized, other parts of the country will clqifrf an important say in* the -matter ; or- what will bo worse, Parliament may be flooded with similar claims. There is much.ta i b& ; saidja l favor-of i connecting the East and West Coasts of both Islands. A great deal less could be urged in favor of other railway schemes on a similar basis which would most probably come before the Legislature.; Ministers are about to make a, most dangerous Parliamentary experiment. The days of log-rolling arc not yet gone by. If the subject of land grants in aid of railway construction jsjmade a question on which the Ministry will stand or fall, then Mr Hall and his colleagues will be placed in a very shaky position. However, .the?fr, is little fear of that. * The chief amongst Ministerial virtues is a knowledge when to retreat* from an untenable position. ■ Mr Vincent Pyke and the Central Land League of Otago tire ahoutr to have the wind taken out of their sails. The “ hedging ” powers of, the Government are truly wonderful./ £ Tlie termination of existing Teases of land in the Middle Island, held for pastoral purposes, afford an opportunity which has. ‘not been overlooked by my advisors for rendering the lands more generally useful to the State.” The Government is silent as to the means to he adopted for carrying out the above end. But then the speech was framed by a Ministry whose opinions are as accommodating as they are undecided. Civil servants will not read with pleasure that the “ Estimates and receipts and expenditure for the current year have been prepared with 'strict regard to the most rigid economy.” The direction which further; reductions are to take are not indicated. It is to he hoped that the futurs retrenchment policy of the Government will not he of the indiscriniating character of the last, and that Ministers will have the boldness to retrench where retrenchment will inflict the minimum amount of hardship on the individual with the maximum amount of benefit to the country. There arc a number of highly paid officials whose services might readily be dispensed with withoutany injury to the public ! service. There are few who would blame the Ministry for the exercise of the most rigid economy, so long as it is carried out in a fair spirit; but there was no fairness in the 10 per cent reduction being applied to a man with £l5O a year and a man with £GOO a year being dealt with in the same ratio. It must be admitted that the Ministry had an irksome and unpleasant duty to perform. It seems that they really acted under the advice of the' heads of departments—wellpaid, gentlemen who were keenly alive iou‘their own interests. The sliding scale is the only fair way cf adjusting salaries. That is an aspect of the question which lias been often urged, but it cannot he kept too steadily in view.

We will now come to a matter which. • concerns no loss a person thas Sir Arthur Ggrdon. It will be. remembered that when the High Commissioner of the South Seas replaced Sir Hercules Robinson, it was predicted that he would carry things with a- high hand. His Excellency took the first opportunity of disabusing colonists’ minds of that impression. At a banquet in Christchurch he told his hearers that he would he guided by the spirit of the Constitution Act, In the..speech from the .Throne,” he had repeated the assurance. These words may be taken to be his own :—“ In discharge of the notions com-, mitted to it -will always be my view to manifest the same scrupulous and loyal regard to constitutional practice and usage not only hi the letter, but in the spirit which has ever distinguished' the Sovereign whom I represent among you.” ; New Zealand is not a Crown Colony like the Fijis. Sir-tArthair-Gordon fully recognises ffn thei interests of humanity ,he was forced to rule with a firm bant the latelyacquired dependency of Hof Majesty.He effectually put clown “ black.birding,” a system of slavery which was atsjjain on the civilization of our race. That the Governor will endeavor to by all constitutional means to protect dhe weaker party anyone acquainted with his previous history can have no doubt. Had he been Governor of the,, colony at the time of the West Coast* trouble, his influence would probably have prevented the lengthened incarceration of some hundreds of natives in defiance of all recognised principles of English law. t : •• No reference is made in the speech ; to local government. The question is a vast one, and the Ministry may be excused for letting it alone. The present expensive, complicated,, v aud cumbersome system will work its oVri cure. Public opinion is yet too scattered to effect a radical change.