POLITICAL PORTRAIT.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2868, 3 June 1882, Page 2

POLITICAL PORTRAIT.

A contemporary says : —“ Mr M. Green, the lion member for Dunedin East, has not been in the House before, and is a gentleman whoso name has never been connected with politics. Until ho “ fell ’’ —that is to say, until he deserted things spiritual for things political—he j-was regarded by a large circle of personal friends as an able and intellectual man. But a man who has been in the habit of addressing largo congregations on tho Sabbath and associations of Christian young men on off

days, has undergone a bad training for Parliament. In his church his audience is a silent one, with .no right of reply, and Christian young men would not bo Christian young men if they— to use a vulgar phrase—“ rounded ” on their shepherd. A man seldom possesses that rare qualification, common sense, until

it has been knocked into him. He wants to serve an apprenticeship to the world, and get “ the corners rubbed off,’ as four American friends say. During the greater part of his lifetime, Mr M. W. Green has been talking to persons who were obliged to listen to him, and nothing but this training could have induced him to speak for an hour and three-quarters on the Address in Reply. He spoke well, no doubt. Words poured smoothly from his mouth as oil would run from an inexhaustible bottle and Ministers were almost smothered under an avalanche of advice from a man whom they had seen for the first time. Finance, land administration, Customs duties, Native affairs, were all problems that had been solved by Mr M. W. Green, and his mission appeared to be to put Ministers and the House generally on the right track. Throughout his whole address there was a simplicity born of unconscious egotism —and, after all the only sufferer is the Government printer. He has to put the “ Hansard ” reports into type, and on Saturday was running round town to borrow capital Ds.”