The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Aug. 26. THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 22, 26 August 1893, Page 8

The Southern Cross. PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Aug. 26. THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

The Hon. Richard Seddon, Premier of the colony, doubtless has his faults—he would scarcely be human otherwise—but want of courage is certainly not one of them. He made his way to the front as a private member against odds that would have daunted men with less grit; and since he has won his way to the Treasury Benches he has displayed no lack of fightingpower. And certainly he and his colleagues have had need of it. Their troubles really began with the election of Sir Robert Stout for Inangahua, and since then they have been “ snowballing,” to use the simile of |;a well-known writer, at a rajfid rate. Sir Robert, some people fondly believe, was elected to help the Government. They have since been thoroughly disillusionised. In one sense, it is true, he has proved a helper. He has helped the Govern-

ment to lose its big, solid, and reliable majority ; be has been the means of causing Mr Earnsbaw, one of the best of the Labor representatives, to desert the Premier ; and he has made their chances at the coining election a shade less bright than they were before the opening of Parliament. Sir Robert Stout was not long in the House before he showed his hand. Divining, with the instinct of an old Parliamentary hand, that a Direct Veto Bill would have a short shrift, he tabled a measure of a modified character. This was too much for the Ministry. They could stand without serious hurt the rhetorical fireworks of the orator of Mount Ida, or the vitriolic touguetry of Mr Geo. Fisher, of Wellington, who, although he loves not Sir Robert, cares still less for the Government. But the challenge of the Knight, for such it really was, was a different matter. It was promptly taken up by Mr Seddon, who with more boldness than diplomacy, declared that he would bring in a bill that would be fair and reasonable, and acceptable to all parties. Rash mortal ! He is, it is true, forcing the measure through the House, but Sir Robert Stout is demanding a division at every important stage. His object in doing so is thus stated by the correspondent of an exchange : “ There was, I think, a method in his seeming madness. He knew and felt his chance was hopeless in the House, and he, by sjaeech and division, appealed net to the assembly before him, but to the country behind it — to the constituents, when the time comes he will say, ‘ I asked the last Parliament to trust the people, and they refused. How these are the men in these division lists who so refused and broke their pledges to the country.’ ” So far, too, from proving acceptable to all parties, the licensed victuallers are up in arms against the measure, and it was lately reported in Wellington that an organised effort will be made by the brewing’ interest of the colony to defeat the Premier at the general election. It is possible, therefore, that the Premier’s bold endeavour to “ pluck the flower safety from the nettle danger” may result disastrously to himself and party.