The Southland Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1873.

Southland Times, Issue 1734, 29 April 1873, Page 2

The Southland Times. TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1873.

Fhe task of an oppositionist, aa compared with that of a worker, is at all times easy, and its points of advantage ire many. The most successful politician will inevitably now and then make a mistake, and furnish his opponent with material to hand, to use to the best or worst advantage as the case may be. The position of Mr Donald Eeid, in reference to his Mosgiel utterance, is exactly that of one of the late speakers at an after-dinner political meeting, having all the capital of previous speakers to make use of and disposed to use it. This much may be learned from the opening remarks of Mr Keid's address, in which he admits the advantage afforded by his late appearance before his constituents in the opportunity thereby given him (Mr Reid) " to compare notes with some who had preceded him." "We scarcely think the idea usually conveyed by the term " compare notes," is exactly that which the report of Mr Reed's speech conveys to its readers, or which the speech itself conveyed to the minds of the listeners. A very large portion of the address (as may be seen) consists of lengthy quotations from the speeches of other members of the House, and compilation from the oft-repeated story of the Eailway Contracts — correspondence between the Government and Dr Ffathebston, the Maori votes, and the " delicate question of the confiscated lands." The salt with which Mr Beid seasons the compound is but limited in quantity, and is moreover somewhat deficient in savor. The political virtue on which Mr Keid has been and is most frequently complimented by his admirers, is that of honesty, and it really is unfortunate for himself that upon his own showing he has not only had in opposition to contend with parties whose tactics savored of everything but honesty, but in his association with those from whom he might have expected better things, he had very much to complain of on this score. One thing is apparent throughout Mr Beid's address, being his evident satisfaction with himself, and the utterance in spirit upon himself of the encomium, " Among the faithless faithful only he." Censure is dealt out upon Messrs Stafford and Yogel, Messrs Gisboene and M'Lean, and the fortunate Maori Minister of the Crown, with an unsparing if not a " discriminating" hand, but not a word enunciating a policy of his own. The sly sarcasm conveyed by the apparent compliment on Sir F. Dillon Bell's faculty of observation, while insinuating a dosbt of his integrity, prepares the way for the intimation that, after all, the j.i. _/> r^oiiv/ -nroruß HClieme IS mainly due to Mr Eeid, and that in all probability the Colonial Government committed "an act of piracy or petty larceny in taking credit for this policy." "We suppose that if Mr Donald Beid's constituents are satisfied, we ought to be so, yet we must record our conviction that he has not made th« best possible use of the material ready to his hand. In the present political situation of the country, some foreshadowing of the future, with some warning note, or direction as to the course advisable to be taken, may reasonably be expected from a politician of note with the aspirations of Mr Beid. We fail, howtver, to see throughout Mr Beid's address anything beyond a personal sensitiveness of an extreme character. In men fitted by nature and habit for high political posts, at least a wholesome indifference to public opinion is essential, and the nearer this indifference approaches to absolutism the better. In the bidding for popular favor (of which political atrocity Mr Beid is somewhat liberal in bis accusation) principle is in danger of being sacrificed, and we confess that the anxiety appearing to underlie all his allusions to himself, as to the light in which he may be viewed from the outside, convinces us that Mr Beid is wanting in the decision of character, firmness of purpose, and insensibility to obloquy or reproach which invariably characterise the true statesman. Modesty is, however, frequently found associated with great men, and this may be assumed the reason Mr Beid takes but " little credit" to himself for the (implied) initiation of the Public Works scheme in the resolutions embodied in the message of the Superintendent of Otago to the Provincial Council in 1870, and which have been so shamelessly pirated by the General Government. This message was submitted on May 26th, 1870, and, Mr Beid says, "on July 7th, 1 870, the Colonial Treasurer submitted his proposals. There wai a great similarity between the two proposals, but ao far as prudent considerations were concerned, he thought those by the Provincial Government were the best. There was no scramble for the money ; they fixed the works upon which the loan was to be spent." "He did not say the Colonial Treasurer looked at their resolutions ; they were beneath his notice." Whether beneath this modest disclaimer there did not really lurk the wish to be regarded as the " master mind" originating the Bcheme, to prevent the successful carrying out of which Mr Beid is now with singular inconsistency exerting himself, none but Mr Beid knows absolutely. In the avowal which Mr Beid has made as to the effect of a debate which "brought out some peculiarities in regard to the way in which some men's minds ' bursted' with patriotism," "that his faith was exceedingly much shaken in the great patriotism of our public men," we may possibly be allowed to condole with him, and to express the

hope that his sensitiveness has not experienced irreparable mischief. The I perusal of Mr Eeid's address to his con- s stituents at Mosgiel has certainly in no i wise " shaken" our faith, but has materially confirmed it in the incapacity of , Mr Eeid for a legislator and a statesman, and especially for the position of a Mm- j ister of the Crown.