THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OOTOBEE 18, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3377, 18 October 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, OOTOBEE 18, 1879.

During the debate in the late Parliament on the No-confidence motion, Dr. Hodgkinson, the gentleman who will be remembered for having refused to accept the whole of his honorarium, very forceably spoke of the motives which appeared to actuate the legislators of New Zealand. He quoted the foliowing extract from a epeech by the famous Dr. Franklin, and said tlia House was a complete exemplification of the picture drawn by the great American statesman and patriot:— " There are two passions which have a powerful influence on the affairs of men. These aro ambition and avarice. Placbefore the eyes of men a post of honor-r----that shall be at the same time a place of profit —and many will more heaven and earth to obtain it. The vast number of such places it is^ikat renders the British Government so tempestuous. The struggles for them are the true source of all those factions which are perpetually dividing that nation, distracting its councils, hurrying it sometimes into fruitless and mischevious wars, and often compelling a submission to dishonorable terms of pes.ee. And of what kind ate the men who will statfre for this profitable To-c-Bimence through. 01 -the bustle of cabal, *-ke heat of contention, iho infrmto mutual abuse .of P**i»s tearing to pieces the besfc of oharac^" ' Ifc wIJI not ho the wise and moderate, the U?*™ °f P ea<3° and good order, the men fittest for c 1 trnst. It will be the bold and the violent, the men of strong passions and indefatigable sctivity in their selfish pursuits. These will thrust themselves into yonr Government and he your rulers ; and they, too, will be mistaken ia the reputed happiness of their situation; for their vanquished competitors, of the same spirit;

and from tho same molivrs. will be perpetua'-iy e»de»vvourins: to distress their administration, thwtfrfc their measures, and render them odious l<> tho people." The honest doctor's' rotnurka meet tho present circumstances in the House, and go to prove that thn change of Ministry maltofl very liltle diilcfouce in the teuor of tho debate's, for tho samo stock arguments are ever used vrheu a fight for position and power takes place. If such an unsatisfactory condition arises from accepting the principal cr party Government, with parties well defined, which so many of our rulers desire to sco in Now Zealand, how much more confusion may be anticipated when tho question at issue ia not one of measures, or a line of policy, but one of men—who. of the eighty-six members of tho House, shall introduce and administer measures which all unite in believing are urgently required in the present circumstances of this colony? The present deadlock is not creditable to either side of the House, and certainly has not the effect of increasing that admiration for representative institutions which ii free people, living under such, should be solicitous to cultivate, or that the earnest lovers of that which is good, and for the best interests of all. desire should result from such a system of Government. Another extract, read by Dr. Hodgkinson, from a satirical writer exactly nieces the present confused, excited, and unsatisfactory state of tho Parliament of New Zealand, and is as follows:—"In Nevelundregenstein it was the happiness and privilege of the country to be divided into two parties equailj eloquent in debate. When one party said black the other cried white; and if one party contended that two and two made five, nothing could equal the energy of the other in proving that they made only three. Naturally the public good was much advanced by this method of doing things, which, in the language of the country, was called discussing a question impartially; but the truly admirable feature of Nevelundregensteiner politics was that, instead of being each trammeled by a set of fixed opinions—(which surely is as degrading a predicament for a party as can well be conceived) —either political section adopted the other's convictions with remarkable candour, according as they were in office or out of it. This prevented the country at large from being quite so clear on the subject of party distinctions as they might otherwise have beeu, aud led to the general belief that a politician was a biped variety of the chameleon."