THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1879.

Thames Star, Volume X, Issue 3430, 19 December 1879, Page 2

THE Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR O'CLOCK P.M. Resurrexi. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1879.

Thk Grey administration held tbo reins of power for two years, and during that period several times the Opposition cry of " political jobbery " was raised. There was the " Tapauui job," the " Thames Valley Eailway job" and other equally crooked piece 3of administration —at least so said the members of the then Opposition. A few months has elapsed since tho maladministration of Sir George Grey and his colleagues was denounced fiercely by such mirrors of political rirtue as Wakefield, Oliver, Studholme, and Atkinson, and now the denouncers occupy the places of the'denounced. Alas, for the frailty of human nature ! No sooner do we find these men handling the golden ribbons of power, than as gross a piece of political jobbery as was ever attempted in New Zealand is proved against them— of a far deeper dye than the most; blatant amongst them dared scurrilously to accuse the members of the late administration of. We refer, of course, to the Public Works Bill, providing for the purchase of certain district railways in the South Island by the Government for the moderate sum of £400,000. It would appear that several of these lines (if not all) run, through large blocks of unimproved inferior land, the construction, of course, having been undertaken by the owners of the land, the better to enable them to dispose of their otherwise unprofitable estates. The railways are comequeatly constructed—or partly constructed —and the unsophisticated promoters, with child-like simplicity, ask the Government to step iv and purchase the lines at, perhaps, a trifle over cost price. Amongst the names in a list of owners benefited by these lines, we find several prominent supporters of the present Ministry, notably: TJie genial Patrick McCaughan, who holds 30,000 acres, and the Hon. liobt. Campbell, M.L.C., who is reputed to be the wealthiest man in New Zealand. Well, to please these gentlemen, the Ministry introduced tho measure referred to, at a late period of the parliamentary session, whoa a high-handed measure would have a belter chance of becoming law than at any other time, and all was going on swimmingly. Fortunately, however, the little game is seen through by Mr DeLautour, and after raising his voice against it, Sir George Grey takes up the cudgels, but finding himself unable to utterly kill the monstrous fraud about to be perpetrated, he proposes the amendment given in our yesterday's issue. Of course the Ministry get excited, and say they will take it as a direct want of confidence motion, and, on the whole, feel very uncomfortable. Of course Sir George Grey's amendmebtis lost, but telegrams to-day announce ih&t the Ministry have discovered their mistake, and propose a considerable modification of the Bill—that is, to reduce the swindle frbm one of gigantic size to an affair of more moderate proportions, and so the matter rests. We have no hesitation in laying that if this Bill had come on earlieivm tho session there would have been a Ministerial flitting, as bo Miniitry could iiave stood the adverse current of publicr opinion which lias been raised against them, and which would have been intensified if they had pressed the measure in its original form.