The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1884.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4934, 1 November 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1884.

The present Ministry bas done fairly well since its accession to office, and it has been a cheerful duty to us to applaud many of its efforts, but we fear that too much success bas been attending its short career, and a boldness born of no worthy feeling is likely to prove dangerous to its usefulness. In several trials of strength the Stout-Vogel combination has managed to secure victories, but it must not foolishly run away with the idea that the support it has received is likely to be of a lasting nature, unless it shows by its actions that that support is still deserved. The Government has been, in one or two very trying cases of emergency, very substantially assisted by Northern members, and without at all proposing to prostitute one of our estates—we may say the most important of them, —it might be suggested that some slight recognition of Northern wants might be made by the House of Representatives without making any particular amount of fuss about it. The neglect of the North Island in the past, whioh we need not point out has been patiently borne, would have almost aroused to arms the sturdy Southerners, and doubtless had it not been for the patience and good nature displayed by Northerners in the face of it all, positive action would have been sooner taken with a view to placing matters on a proper basis, at any rate as regards representation. It is perfectly absurd for the Ministry to now cry out about the North Island obtaining undue advantages this session; the North Island has been a waiting and long-suffering portion of the colony. While colonial favors have been showered hard and fast upon the South, the North has had to shift for itself, and had it not been for its natural wealth, its power of endurance and sustaining qualities, we have no doubt it would long ago have made as much noise as the South does if some paltry public work be lost sight of for a few weeks. The gigantic fact that the Northern Main Triink Bail way has been once more promised must not entirely carry away the good people in this Island, nor should the matter of fixing the route of it put #rej!ri mentally hors Oe combat. So grateful haye the much neglepted Northerners been for th& small mercies carefully filtered out to them, that oven a railway promised seems to &c »g » !»»•

bow in their lives, the hues of which gladdened for the moment, but after a glance only existe as a recollection. It would appear to be the height of absurdity for the Premier, the Colonial Treasurer, and other members of the Ministry to rent absurd twaddle to the effect that, legislation this session has been tinged with unfairness to the Southern Island. We ask : in all conscience, where have Go- ! Ternmental favors gone ? Where in the colony has revenue principally been distributed ? Where has money been expended in the North Island to equal a tithe of the cost of the railway line now running fromlnvereargilltoChristchurch ? Can anyone point out where—-in the North Island—similar expenditure has been made by Government in harbor matters as has been done in the South ? Lives there a man who can produce evidence that as much substantial encouragement has been given to mining in the North Island as has been given in the South ? We imagine we will have to pause for some time ere we obtain an affirmative answer to any one of those questions. The present Ministry should not, even in all the plenitude of its power, attempt to put an extinguisher on Northern ideas. It has frequently derived sweet sustenance during division time from Northern support, and it savors somewhat of—we'll say—forgetfulness to now throw out a sort of hint that all the •practical government of the session tends in the direction of fostering Northern interests. Emphatic denial is almost too poor in this case, as no special Northern work of any magnitude—which was not long ago decided upon—has been introduced this year. Taking all these tilings into consideration we would recommend the Ministry to not only endeavor to remember the favors conferred on them by Northern supporters, but to avoid being carried away by the notion —unjust as it is erroneous—that the North has in the past received at the hands of Parliament anything approaching a recognition of its merits.