THAT CYPHER.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 89, 27 May 1882, Page 163

THAT CYPHER.

That confounded cypher has been at it again. Twelve years ago there was a great State trial about a cypher, and now we hear that another cypher precipitated the recent Ministerial burstup. When Bryce was contemplating his great aoup d'etat in the King Country, his colleague, the Premier, sent a confidential telegram, in cypher, to Mr Whitaker, warning him that " unless the Governor turned over a new leaf he would _ get into trouble." The Attorney-G-eneral had mislaid his cypher key, and in that sweet, guileless innocence which distinguishes everything he does, he sent the message on to his colleagues, Atkinson, Rolleston, and the Native Minister, ■who. were on their way to Matamata to hold a Cabinet meeting on the question of removing the snags which impeded the navigation of the Waiho

by Mr Firth's steamer. Tin passant, it seems that the cypher word " Governor" really meant ■" Bryce," the title having been bestowed on him

as a pet name, in allusion to the neat way in "which he had usurped Sir Arthur G-ordon's prerogatives and functions, during his temporary , absence Jirom the colony, by constituting himself *' Commander-in-Chief in and over her Majesty's Colony of New Zealand, and Vice- Admiral of the same," when he marched on Parihaka. But when *' the G-overnor," i.e., Bryee; perused the telegi*am lie was exceedingly wrath with the Premier, and forthwith sent in his resignation. While all this tvas going on Mr Kous Marten continued to asseverate, until he got black in the face, that there was not the smallest trifle of difference of opinion in the Ministry, that all was harmony, peace, and brotherly love. The same veracious authority, before the Ministerial collapse, used to ■wire almost daily that " the measures to be submitted, to parliament' were fully matured," but the other day he informed us that these measures' were still very incomplete, their preparation having been delayed by the action of the G-overhor in seeking Sir G-eorge Grey's advice. 'We are to find the opinion which we have 'not hesitated to express all along, that Bryce would get into trouble if he did not " turn over a new leaf," endorsed by so high an authority as the late Premier of the Colony.