The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3850, 3 May 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUESDAY, MAY 3, 1881.

♦" One point to vfhicb. Sir George Qtej made particular reference at his meeting on Saturday was the manner in which the business of the Government Life Insurance department is conducted. Sir George is too cautious a man to ma&e such sweeping accusations and inuendoos unless he has good and sufficient grounds. He asserts, in the first place, that to his personal knowledge very bad lives have been taken, insuring large sumsof money. If this is true it 5s a very serious affair, as the colony is daily becoming responsible for what will soon be "a very considerable aiaowut, and

which it ia certain to lose. We shall not be surprised to hear of an investigatibkof this sweeping charge drdered by Parliament soon after it assembles. The embarkation of the colony into a \ monetary speculation like Life Insurance has always appeared to us to be a matter of questionable propriety—it not being exactly fair that the whole people ot the colony shoald become responsible for the payment of large snms of money ioj;he^lati^aof.the few. who insure their lives. Much more so is the! system reprehensible when as Sir j Gjorge... Grey U .M&&- -W...»Jives are J taken/ Sir George, likewise hinted J thkt the Governmentof day made* use of the insurance lecturetffe to ' expound ministerial; jviews, acting indeed the roles of political agents o in everything -but name. This is riot; as it should be, and we pity the unfortunate lecturer or lecturers, as Ihe case may be, when the matter is referred to in Parliament. One of the .jnftst powerful bits of the address was the reference to the payment of £1600, Property Tax by a gentleman at Home, who though he drew large wealth from the colony, was not legally entitled to pay*'the impost. Hansard shows that Sir George, pointed out to the Colonial Treasurer that the Property Tax would not come at the rich New Zealanders at Home. When the Hon. Mr Tollemache paid the £1600, from conscientious scruples presumably, the noble disingenuous Atkinson, ashamed at the injustice the colony had snffered through him and his colleagues, said there was a slight inaccuracy in the bill. - The colony has had enough of time-serving, unscrupulous politicians, and c'en though we be ruled by fools, 'twere better than by persons coming under a more questionable denomination. Sir G. Grey is at one with us on the Chinese question. We have frequently utilised these columns to advocate the repression of Mongolian emigration, consequently our readers are pretty well up in the main arguments against the wholesale acclimatization of emigrants from the Flowery Land. Sir George introduced two very powerful arguments against the Chinese—their immorality and their proneness to the disease of leprosy—and we think that pur readers ■will' agree with us that two more cogent arguments could not .be brought to bear on the question. Passing over Sir George's lengthened remarks on the land question, we come to the very advanced views he entertains concerning the Upper House. His ultra-Liberalism | stands out prominently when he says that the maintenance of the Legislature is a useless and expensive burden on the taxpayers of the colony, and should he swept away—-or words to that effect. Giving Sir George Grey all credit for honesty of conviction, and professing to be a Liberal organ, we can scarcely go so far as the hdn. gentleman.' When the Parliamentary wheels are going too fast, the Upper House acts as a break, and gives the colony breathing time to think over current legislation. All the questions put to our member were of trifling importance, with the exception of one—namely, " Are you in favor of the Bible being read in the public schools, and will you vote for its introduction." Sir George's answer was to the point, and characteristic. " A truly national system of education cannot .exists if; the Bible is read in (lie schools.. As an advocate for education and a statesman, I am iv favor of such a system that no member of the community would object to send ms children td the schools. If the Bible was introduced and read that could not be so. As a private individual I go further, and state that I object to its introduction." In those few words Sir George sums up the. dogmas of the' secular education party, and should an attempt be- made by the denominationalists during the coming session to upset the existing order of things, the secularists will find a doughty champion in Sir George Grey.